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Heartland’s Donald Kendal, and Isaac Orr are joined by Jim Lakely in episode #185 of the In The Tank Podcast. Today’s episode features work from the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Center of the American Experiment and the Cato Institute.

Lesson: Cookies induce happiness

Does fracking make people sick? In this edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, Dr. Ted Them and research fellow Isaac Orr discuss the scientific research that has attempted to determine if there are health impacts due to hydraulic fracturing. Dr. Them debunks the claims of Dr. Howard Zucker, the Commissioner of the New York Department of Health who’s recommendation to the Governor resulted in New York banning hydraulic fracturing.

In this edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, research fellow Isaac Orr and Roberta Walls, the point person for industrial sand mining at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, discuss a new document produced by the DNR to educate the general public and decision makers about the environmental, economic, and social impacts of industrial sand mining in the state.

Does fracking cause housing prices to fall? The answer to that question is more difficult that it might seem. Many anti-fracking activists have claimed oil and natural gas development has led to substantial decreases in property values in areas where drilling occurs, but other places, such as North Dakota, saw property values skyrocket during the boom in oil production.

A new study published in Environment International indicates hydraulic fracturing, commonly called “fracking,” and the heavy truck traffic that is associated with it would have a negligible impact on air quality if fracking were to be used extensively in the United Kingdom. Interestingly, the authors of the study appear to be a little disappointed with their findings, which may be why they decided to emphasize maximum exposure in a shorter timeframe in their study, rather than exposures over more realistic scenarios.

Anti-fracking activists have pointed the finger at fracking for the dramatic rise in earthquakes in Oklahoma over the last several years, however a new video featuring Dr. Mark Zoback, a professor of geophysics at Stanford University, explains fracking is not to blame for the quakes.

John Nothdurft returns to the podcast, joining Donny Kendal for episode #29 of the In The Tank Podcast. This weekly podcast features (as always) interviews, debates, roundtable discussions, stories, and light-hearted segments on a variety of topics on the latest news. The show is available for download as part of the Heartland Daily Podcast every Friday. Today’s podcast features work from R Street, the Cascade Policy Institute, and the James Madison Institute.

In today’s edition of the Heartland Daily Podcast, Isaac Orr, Heartland Research Fellow for energy policy, joins H. Sterling Burnett to talk about his newly released study on the impact of frac sand mining – Social Impacts of Industrial Silica Sand (Frac Sand) Mining: Land Use and Value.

As the number of frac sand facilities in Wisconsin has rapidly expanded over the past five years, residents and local government officials in areas near sand mining operations have understandably wanted to know what impact these facilities could have on air quality. Unfortunately, a new study titled “PM2.5 Airborne Particulates Near Frac Sand Operations,” conducted by students and Dr. Crispin Pierce from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Environmental Public Health (ENPH) program, is so poorly designed it has no value for furthering our understanding of the impact of frac sand facilities on air quality. In fact, it reflects poorly on the university.

The good news continues for people living near industrial sand facilities, with the release of the second in a pair of studies examining the impact of industrial sand mining on air quality. The researchers found concentrations of the small particles of silica dust that can lead to health problems if present in high concentrations are far below the levels considered harmful.

A recently released study claiming to have found a statistical association between hydraulic fracturing and hospitalization rates in Pennsylvania has been popular in the news. However, just about every aspect of this study is problematic, rendering it to the realm of speculation, not science.

Government ought to rely on unbiased scientific findings when making policy decisions regarding important issues. But unfortunately, many government agencies undermine the scientific process by using it for their own purposes rather than to discover the truth, a reality President Dwight Eisenhower pointed out in his farewell address more than a half-century ago. The situation has only become worse since then, with government funding of tobacco studies providing a vivid example.