We should be watching Texas and learning

Texas has much to teach us.

Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, commonly known as “fracking”, is being promoted as an energy saviour to Australia.

Fracking - if it looks risky,
 it probably is.

Many Americans saw in the same light and welcomed it with warm embrace, but the reality and the promise are quite different.

People in the small Texan community of Barnhart are on the sharp end of the reality with the town now effectively out of water.

An enduring drought initially made water reserves critical and now fracking has completely exhausted those resources – Barnhart is out of water.

The YouTube clip: “Drought and fracking chokes Texas towns”, gives an insight into how the townspeople feel when a finite fossil fuel is given priority over the welfare of people.

Australians should be watching, and learning from the Texan experience.