Denise Robbins '12 calls for an end to misleading discourse from the natural gas industry on hydrofracking.

In cases like the hydrofracking debate — where science, politics and industry are entwined in conflicting interests — a free press has the democratizing power to put information in people’s hands and let them decide for themselves.

Karim Lakhani '14 takes discourse about fracking to the level of journalistic ethics. 

In cases like the hydrofracking debate — where science, politics and industry are entwined in conflicting interests — a free press has the democratizing power to put information in people’s hands and let them decide for themselves.

In response to Ian Urbina's Kops Freedom of the Press lecture Tuesday, Dr. Gilbert Ross '68 disputes the dangers of hydraulic fracturing.

Julia Fiore '13 of KyotoNOW! lauds New York Times reporter Ian Urbina, who spoke at Cornell Tuesday, for his influential reporting on hydraulic facturing. 

The controversy surrounding the recent revelation that the fundraising apparatus of Binghamton University entered into a $1.4 million lease deal with a large natural gas company illustrates the importance of sensitivity when dealing with the highly-charged issue of hydraulic fracturing.

Although Cornell has placed a moratorium on discussion of leasing its land for natural gas drilling, international corporations still have their eyes on the resource-filled property surrounding the University’s.

Peter Meinig, chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees and former associate of a large natural gas company, is at the center of many competing interests, and should not participate in any decisions the University makes regarding leasing land for natural gas drilling. For the moment, the University has placed a moratorium on all decisions related to drilling for natural gas, or “hydrofracking.” But those decisions will inevitably be made, and to ensure an ethical process that leads to a resolution made solely in the best interest of the University, Meinig must not play any role in the affair.

For much of last semester, student and local environmental activists spoke out against gas drilling in upstate New York. Local and campus groups decried the possibility that companies would harvest natural gas located under the Marcellus Shale through the controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking.