Fracking Forum at Kent State Informative

A recent forum at Kent State University, Fracking: Promise or Peril?, offered area residents a chance to hear about the potential benefits and concerns related to the oil and gas drilling method hydraulic fracturing.

Paul Haridakis, the director of the School of Communication Studies at Kent State, said the forum offered a wider perspective on fracking than just what's happening in the Midwest, KentWired reported.

"We shouldn't just think about how fracking effects us in Ohio, but around the world," Haridakis said.

Panelists included: Dimiter Kenarov, a Pulitzer Center journalist; Bob Downing, environmental reporter for Ohio.com; Donald Palmer, Ph.D. emeritus professor of Geology at Kent State; and Yoram Eckstein, Ph.D., a professor of Geology and Hydrogeology at Kent State.

All the panelists agreed the process of fracking is "mostly safe," Recordpub.com reported.

The panel was held this week on the same day Patch broke the news Kent State administrators, who have authority to permit or deny fracking on university land, have no immediate plans to allow fracking on Kent State campuses.