The U.S. government and energy companies have been fiddling with ways to get at gas trapped inside rock underground for decades. Now, using highly pressurized toxic liquid to extract the petro-bubbly is becoming standard practice, even as evidence mounts that it poisons drinking water. ProPublica charts government and industry’s decades-long regulatory dance.
A congressional investigative committee interrogated government officials Wednesday about why they supported giving a $535 million loan package to the recently failed California solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.