Michigan Radio recently co-hosted a town hall meeting with the University of Michigan's School of Engineering on the future of horizontal hydraulic fracturing in Michigan.
We also live-tweeted the event on hashtag #fracktopia. Here's one of the more revelatory facts that came out of that discussion:
MDEQ's Bill Mitchell says there are 25 people who inspect the wells in Michigan. There are 12,000 wells in the state. #fracktopia
— Michigan Radio (@MichiganRadio) April 17, 2013
Those are gas wells. Not necessarily horizontally fractured wells. Horizontal fracturing is still in the experimental stage in Michigan. One industry representative at the meeting said "the jury is still out" on whether horizontal hydraulic fracturing in Michigan would be a good investment.
The town hall discussion featured a screening of Fracktopia, a short film about the latest techniques to recover natural gas and oil and their potential consequences. Michigan Radio's Lester Graham then led a discussion and Q-and-A session with the following panelists:
- Professor Brian Ellis, Michigan Engineering Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Bill Stelzer, Stelzer Consulting
- Hugh McDiarmid Jr., Michigan Environmental Council
- Bill Mitchell, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
You can watch the town hall meeting in full on the U-M School of Engineering's website.
Just click on the "View On-Demand" link.
