Economics of Gas Fracking Is Called Into Question

The U.S. natural gas industry and its critics may be starting to wonder who that masked man is. Sunday's New York Times led with a major investigative article by Ian Urbina raising questions about whether the natural gas industry has overhyped the economic promise of gas fracking, with one source even calling the business a kind of Ponzi scheme and another comparing the conduct of individual companies to Enron's.

A follow-up in today's Times raises questions about the extent to which the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration and other agencies have relied on the gas industry for information about itself.

Earlier in the year, Urbina wrote another high-impact investigative article about gas fracking in which he raised important issues about water management, especially the regulation of fracking fluid disposal in Pennsylvania.