In 1906, Upton Sinclair’s The Junglearoused a massive public uprising over the unsanitary conditions inherent to the US’s meatpacking industry. This style of journalism was known as “muckraking” and was common from 1890 through the 1930s, a period that mirrored what is now referred to as the Progressive Era. Sinclair’s book and the subsequent public outcry resulted in the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 (Food and Drug Administration in 1930). Although the Progressive Era has ended in a historical sense, it continues to thrive (or at least makes constant attempts to maintain relevancy).

In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, government and environmental lobbyists are making strong moves to let no tragedy go to waste. The full ramification of the recent spill on offshore drilling will not be realized for quite some time, at least from a legislative point of view. More immediately, small independents, drilling contractors, and their employees languish under nearly three months of extremely limited or no activity.

Onshore in the US, the natural gas market is booming. Unconventional shales are drawing record amounts of rig activity in plays like Eagle Ford, Bakken, and Marcellus. However, in the shadow of the Gulf of Mexico spill, environmental groups are leading the charge to focus on hydraulic fracturing – a key enabler to unconventional gas – as the next level of environmental havoc.

According to a recent report filed by MIT’s Energy Initiative, titled “The Future of Natural Gas,” the current mean projection of remaining recoverable resources is 16,200 Tcf worldwide – 150 times current annual global gas consumption. The report stated, “The current mean projection of the recoverable shale gas resource is approximately 650 Tcf, with low and high projections of 420 Tcf and 870 Tcf, respectively.”

The bottom line: Natural gas will continue to play a vital role in the world’s energy supply for years to come. Currently, natural gas delivers heat and power to more than 60 million homes in the US alone. In addition, natural gas is a primary feedstock for manufacturing items such as clothing, carpets, sports equipment, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, computers, and auto parts. On top of this, natural gas also will continue to expand as a viable, clean-burning transportation fuel.

The MIT report predicts natural gas to double its share of the energy market, from 20% to 40% by 2050. Meanwhile, a number of environmental groups are campaigning to tighten legislation around current hydraulic fracturing methods. Arguments against this game-changing technology include the use of chemicals, hazards to water supply, and surface disruptions of drilling operations.

Last week, Range Resources announced its move to provide more transparency by disclosing the additives it uses to frac a typical Marcellus well. Not unlike most household chemicals, these additives become harmless when diluted. In general, most frac operations use 99.5% water and selected proppants, with chemical additives comprising 0.5% of the solution. In addition, a number of companies are developing closed-loop fracturing technologies using 100% flowback of frac fluids, surface treatments, and reuse of original fluids on multiple wells.

It would help if the number of journalists and documentarians writing against hydraulic fracturing understood that the best perspective on the upstream industry is one that looks forward, especially where unconventional shales are concerned. Methods of production are constantly evolving; understanding hydraulic fracturing technology means one has to see where it is today rather than where it was five or 10 years ago.

Sinclair’s exposé on the meatpacking industry was effective because, where food supply was concerned, there were a number of viable alternatives for consumers to pursue. Muckraking worked to institute positive change. Unlike Sinclair’s attack on conditions in the meatpacking industry, the media attack against hydraulic fracturing and unconventional shale gas production will not result in positive change. Energy production is a fairly limited endeavor. Natural gas is one of our major pathways to the much-lauded low-carbon future. If the goal is to develop an alternative energy infrastructure for the future, then natural gas will be the fuel to help build it. Muckraking current technological developments in this field (with a limited knowledge of technology) will fall short of the intended goal. In addition to impeding future developments, abrupt changes to the upstream natural gas market also destroys jobs, slows technology growth, and decreases state and local revenues in the regions where drilling activity often is welcomed.

There is no doubt that safe development of unconventional gas presents environmental challenges that will have to be managed, but these problems are best dealt with through innovation and technology rather than litigation and legislation.

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