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Researchers at Duke University recently released a study that looks at the consumption of water from 2009 to 2012 in Pennsylvania as shale development increased and the state was just beginning to transition to more natural gas-fired power generation. The study argues that “during the early stages of Pennsylvania’s coal-to-gas transition, production and generation of coal and natural gas contributed to a yearly 2.6–8.4% increase in the state’s water consumption.”

But that argument doesn’t exactly hold water. Before we get into the reasons why, it’s worth noting that the authors of the report took the time to acknowledge assistance from John Rogers of the anti-fossil fuel group, Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS):

“The authors thank John Rogers of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) for useful conversations and suggestions in the early phases of this project and for providing access to the UCS database on cooling technologies in U.S. power plants.”

UCS is the same organization that praised New York’s decision to ban fracking as “a great example of science trumping politics” and has a number of fracking “toolkits” that are littered with misinformation on its website. That the researchers consulted UCS data is troubling to say the least.

Against that backdrop here are the top four facts to know:

Fact #1: Fracking has led to significant water use reductions because natural gas requires far less water for electricity generation

Several recent studies have shown that as natural gas production has increased, water use overall has plummeted, because electricity from natural gas generation requires so much less water than other energy sources.

Researchers at the View Full Article