Fossil Fuel Co. CEO: Fracking Now, Fracking Tomorrow…

Despite reports of a “shale bubble” as well as climate, public health and water consumption concerns associated with fracking, Ryan Lance, CEO and chairman of energy giant ConocoPhillips, foresees a long future ahead for the country’s shale revolution.

Lance made the comments Friday at the “The Geopolitics of Natural Gas” conference in Houston, where he was a keynote speaker.

“What we’re learning is we’ve only scratched the surface of what technology can do to improve the outlook over the years,” the Houston Chronicle reports Lance as saying. “This is the layer that can last for quite some time.”

Dismissing reports of a looming shale gas bubble, Lance said the shale boom was only in its “first inning of a nine inning game,” and that reports of it ending within 10 or 20 years were “unfounded.”

Two reports published last year paint a different picture.

Steve Horn reported for DeSmogBlog that the reports from the Post Carbon Institute (PCI) and the Energy Policy Forum (EPF)

ConocoPhillips also maintains that fracking can be done “responsibly,” pointing to its record in the Eagle Ford shale in Texas.

Yet a new investigation revealed that residents living near the Eagle Ford Shale, who were promised prosperity when the industry came to their region, have instead been dealt fracking wells that release unchecked toxic emissions.

Meanwhile, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson has added his name to an anti-fracking lawsuit to block construction of a water tower near his ranch over concerns that it might lower his property value.

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