ETHICS BY NOW MOST OF US HAVE A BASIC GRASP of the way fracking works: Pumps shoot a high-pressure cocktail of water, silt, and chemicals hundreds of feet underground, shattering ancient rock and releasing pockets of natural gas, a whole lot of money, and a brew of toxic byproducts. What we don’t know is exactly how much of which toxins are collecting in the soil, seeping into groundwater, or wafting into nearby communities. Fossil fuel companies have kept it that way, with help from governors, congressmen, senators, and, increasingly, state attorneys general.
The energy industry is exempt from portions of many of our major environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. And yet, according to a coalition of…
