The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) put out a press release yesterday claiming it has been confirmed by a study released by the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) that fracking and other oil extraction techniques emit dangerous air pollution and threaten to contaminate California’s drinking water supplies. The press release goes on to state:

The troubling findings come a week after Gov. Jerry Brown’s oil officials finalized new fracking regulations that do little to address such public health and water pollution risks.

“This disturbing study exposes fatal flaws in Gov. Brown’s weak fracking rules,” said Hollin Kretzmann of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Oil companies are fouling the air we breathe and using toxic chemicals that endanger our dwindling drinking water. The millions of people near these polluting wells need an immediate halt to fracking and other dangerous oil company practices.”

It sounds ominous enough. The narrative goes California Governor Jerry Brown has pushed for weak fracking rules on a drilling method that pollutes the air we breathe and the water we drink. Because of this it warrants action being taken to further regulate or outright ban the procedure, right? Not exactly. Upon further review of stories about the CCST study, The Daily Breeze reports what the manuscript actually said:

The study found that while there is little evidence of widespread negative health and environmental effects directly related to fracking, there are huge gaps in record-keeping and data necessary to understand whether the practice is causing small earthquakes, contaminating future drinking water supplies and injuring nearby residents.

Oil producers, it says, should not be allowed unlimited use of hazardous chemicals because there are hundreds of harmful substances being injected underground without study.

What’s more, the federal government is allowing oil producers to discharge fracking and other well-stimulation discharge into the ocean and isn’t keeping accurate records on those discharges. The first federal study on well-stimulation methods, released last month, found that the practices are largely safe but that there is insufficient data to truly know whether damage to the environment and human health is taking place.

Dr. Jane Long, who is a lead scientist on the CCST fracking research is quoted as saying:

“We should be looking for the direct impacts and preventing them with precautionary measures,” Long said. “All chemicals should be revealed. We should know the toxicity and environmental profiles for all of them and work corroboratively with the industry on how to reduce them.”
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And:

“A series of data gaps made our analysis difficult,” Long said. “We need better data on actual locations of fracturing and the quality of groundwater throughout the state. We identified a series of research questions (that we) recommend a standing advisory board (investigate).”<br /.

The Center for Biological Diversity is hyping a scientific study in order to match its narrative that not only fracking is bad for the environment but human activity overall is. The CBD is intentionally misrepresenting the facts about this and, I am sure, many other issues they champion. Environmentalists take their logic from the Grecian philosopher Plato who came up with the idea of The Noble Lie which is described in his book The Republic.

In his book, Plato expressed the belief that people in general lacked the intelligence and capacity to act in the best interests of society. Therefore, he posited, telling religious myths and transmitting false propaganda was warranted in order to maintain societal order. This idea fits perfectly in with environmentalist’s logic that lying is not wrong or untrue as long as it furthers the cause or fits their narrative. In the case of the CBD it is to twist or (dare I say) lie about the results of a scientific study whose conclusions are at best lacking in hopes of the press picking up on their release in order to get exposure.