Today the EPA released a report that says fracking does not harm drinking water. This will be a disappointment for whacko environmentalists and the St. Tammany Parish anti-fracking mob. This will take away their strongest talking point in advocating bans on the practice.

Here’s what the EPA itself says about hydraulic fracturing:

From our assessment, we conclude there are above and below ground mechanisms by which hydraulic fracturing activities have the potential to impact drinking water resources. These mechanisms include water withdrawals in times of, or in areas with, low water availability; spills of hydraulic fracturing fluids and produced water; fracturing directly into underground drinking water resources; below ground migration of liquids and gases; and inadequate treatment and discharge of wastewater.

We did not find evidence that these mechanisms have led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States. Of the potential mechanisms identified in this report, we found specific instances where one or more mechanisms led to impacts on drinking water resources, including contamination of drinking water wells. The number of identified cases, however, was small compared to the number of hydraulically fractured wells.

This finding could reflect a rarity of effects on drinking water resources, but may also be due to other limiting factors. These factors include: insufficient pre- and post-fracturing data on the quality of drinking water resources; the paucity of long-term systematic studies; the presence of other sources of contamination precluding a definitive link between hydraulic fracturing activities and an impact; and the inaccessibility of some information on hydraulic fracturing activities and potential impacts.

From here on out, there are no scientific justifications for any fracking bans. It does not poison drinking water or any other nonsense these guys have been arguing.

Here’s a statement from House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) on the EPA’s report:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.) released the following statement today regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) report on the drinking water effects of hydraulic fracturing.

“Today is a good day for American energy and the over 60,000 hard-working taxpayers in Louisiana’s oil and gas industry,” Rep Scalise said. “President Obama’s EPA has finally acknowledged what experts have been saying for years, and I am pleased that the Administration, through this study, has finally confirmed that hydraulic fracturing does not harm drinking water as radical environmentalists have falsely claimed.”

Even though this study proves that fracking is not a threat to the water supply, we can expect the Obama administration to continue its war on traditional energy sources. That war has nothing to do with the environment, but instead is an ideological crusade.