Natural, that is.
I know people are aware of the damage that mountaintop removal does in pursuit of cheap coal, but, show of hands, who ever thought about where that stuff comes from that maybe heats your house, or cooks your food?
It also comes from the ground. Here's how it works. Energy companies drill a hole into the earth and fracture (frac) the ground around it to loosen up the tight sands of the gas-bearing strata by pumping a "proprietary mix" of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene,xylene and hydrocarbon methanol phosphate (all very ugly toxic chemicals which have been proven to cause cancer), at high pressure to loosen the sands which hold the gas. This gas would then flow to the surface, being under pressure. They then supposedly pump the frac'ing fluid back out and dispose of it.
This is not the only impact to the environment that gas drilling has. The drilling rig needs at least 5 acres of land to place a pad on - plus the road to the pad. Then there's the pipeline, to take the gas to market, the collection tanks, the exhaust fan buildings, the pits for waste - it goes on and on. Not to mention the Volatile Organic Chemicals which pollute the air with ozone and have recently laid a haze over our beautiful mountains. (Goodbye, hobby photography!)
I live in an area that was known for a while as Ground Zero for gas drilling, and it got pretty bad for a while. A lot of people moved away from what used to be paradise, because the smell, the noise, the rude subcontractors and the loss of our beautiful landscape, became too much for them.
Don't get me wrong, I love cooking with gas and we heat our home with it. I don't want to give it up and I think we need it as an alternative to foreign oil. But we are not going to be a sacrifice zone here in Western Colorado (or Eastern Colorado or Pennsylvania or South Dakota etc. etc. etc.). It can be done right and with a minimum of pollution, but of course the industry insists it can't be. They will only change when forced, just like any other large, polluting company.
I miss my friends who have moved. I worry that it will be a big problem later when all this frac'ing fluid migrates around the different formations in the earth and starts polluting our water supplies, the Colorado River, and just causes nothing but nightmares, because we've already had seeps, fouled wells and springs, and just plain-ass spills which were not cleaned up and seeped into the water supply. This stuff is exempt from the Clean Water Act, thanks to Congress in 2004.
So what can be done? Make sure there are rules in place to protect our water, ground and air. Make sure they are enforced. Be aware of how you get your energy, they all carry a price. Every kind of energy has a price, some are just higher than others. BTW, we insulated our old house this winter and are discussing the solar panels we'll eventually be able to afford to put up for our electricity needs (more efficient than for heating a home). So we're doing what we can.
P.S. I'm a newbie on posting, be gentle! Add tags as necessary, you have my permission - LOL.