The second installment of the House Energy & Commerce Committee Jobs and Innovation Forum was convened to discuss the “natural gas revolution.”

The mostly Republican US Congressional Representatives truck a broadly enthusiastic tone about the economic potential of shale gas, with an emphasis from some speakers on safe operations and regulated drill operations. Six energy expert guests were invited to the discussion and mostly agreed that “fracking” has become a bumper sticker for natural gas opponents that does not actually relate to the risks and benefits of shale gas.

“This really does count as the biggest energy innovation in its scale,” Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates and author of recently-released The Quest, told the panel.

“It’s a question of believing. It took a lot of dedication and promise to make it happen.”

“We need clear regulation so people can keep making investments with a clear sense of what the future will be,” Yergin said.

“It’s unparalleled in my career what the opportunites are right now,” Steven Holditch, professor of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A & M University told the forum.

Larry Nichols, executive chairman and co-founder of Devon Energy was the first guest expert to speak. After explaining the mechanics of a horizontal well and hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) system, he passed around a small chunk of black shale rock.

Water In The Clear

In response to a question on well safety, Nichols explained that there was no way gas could escape through the rock into water reserves, as it had been trapped for millennia under the shale formations. He said the only possible source of contamination was above the surface of the well.

But that type of contamination could happen if the gas was extracted in a traditional method without the fracking, he said.

Director of the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission David Neslin noted that while Colorado has reaped substantial economic benefits from both oil and gas drilling, the state is famous for its natural beauty and both resident and tourists don’t want to see the landscape ruined.

He said his commission is responsible for collecting water samples before, during and after a well is built. The state has tight regulations and has consistent data and, he said, has yet to find statistically significant contamination in any of its oil, gas and coal bed methane formation developments.

Shale gas is real. Hydraulic fracturing is just a slogan. It has nothing to do with the issues involved.

A lone Democrat in the room, Representative Mike Doyle (D-14th District, PA) said residents in his region were concerned about waste water management and possible contamination from flowback fluids.

But those concerns were quickly dismissed by others in the room, among them David Neslin, who said Colorado has not had a problem with wastewater management.

“About a third is reused another third is reinjected into the ground, 20% is evaporated and 20% are reinjected to water wells,” Neslin said. He suggested to Doyle that his state formulate regulations like the ones in Colorado to mange the problems.

Regulators Or Jobs Killers

Yergin and Holdith, who co-wrote the 90-day report on shale gas production that was requested several months ago by Obama as part of the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board, along with two other authors, said regulation would be beneficial to the industry. They presented their in early October to to the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Echoing what he said at that time, Yergin told the forum on Monday that shale was so extremely promising that it was worth developing safely and responsibly.

Development “has to go ahead with a sense of public trust and in an environmentally sound way,” Yergin said.

But Holditch added, “shale gas is real. Hydraulic fracturing is just a slogan. It has nothing to do with the issues involved.”

Joe Barton (R-TX) said he would support drilling wherever there was oil, even if it was right in the middle of the city. He said wells already existed in downtown Arlington, Texas, in the middle of the University of Texas, Arlington Campus and at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

But Doyle was more hesitant about natural gas development in his state, a significant portion which sits over the Marcellus Shale. He cited the need for clean hunting and farm grounds and said the industry was wrong for calling careful politicians “job killers.”

“Regulations are there to protect the public and once you establish that, then you create a framework, then everyone knows what the rules are,” Doyle said.

Photo Caption: (Left-Right) Daniel Yergin, Chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associate; Representative Bob Latta (R- Bowling Green, OH), and Cal Dolley, President and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, at the Jobs and Innovation Forum: The Natural Gas Revolution in Washington DC on Monday.