Assessing the Risks and Benefits of Unconventional Oil and Gas Development

Over the last decade, we have witnessed a remarkable transformation in the outlook for U.S. domestic gas and oil exploration and production. The combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. “fracking”) has opened up new resources that have increased supply and lowered the price of natural gas, providing less expensive and cleaner alternatives to power generation from coal. Nevertheless, environmental concerns involving groundwater, surface water and air pollution associated with fracking are being raised with increasing fervor. 

In this presentation, Lawrence D. Lemke, associate professor of geology and director of the Wayne State Environmental Science Program, will review the basics of conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources, analyze the benefits and risks of hydraulic fracturing and examine fracking in the context of local and global environmental issues.

When

Friday, March 1, 2013 at 7 p.m.

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WSU students on a field trip to an oil and gas field in West Texas