This morning, Marketplace and American Public Media (APM) published what was meant to be a hit piece entitled, “EPA’s late changes to fracking study downplay risk of drinking water pollution,” but in reality, the article has the distinction of being the most ridiculous attempt yet to manufacture controversy over the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) draft groundwater report.

Before we get into why, it’s worth pointing out that APM has received tens of thousands of dollars from the anti-fracking Park Foundation and APM and Marketplace were awarded millions in grants by the anti-fracking Tides Foundation, specifically to create a program on “global sustainability and the economy.” From that press release:

The grant will primarily support the creation of a new desk for American Public Media’s Marketplace business programs, including Marketplace^™, Marketplace Morning Report^™, and Marketplace Money^™, a personal finance program.

Neither Marketplace nor APM disclose where their  funding comes from for this article.

The article tries to argue that EPA made “critical changes” to its Executive Summary by including a “late” addition of the phrase, no “widespread, systemic impacts” to groundwater resources. The authors show that exact phrase does not appear in the draft Executive Summary that was circulated on April 24, 2015. APM/Marketplace would like readers to think there’s something fishy there, except for the minor fact that the April 24, 2015 draft Executive Summary clearly states: “Despite these risks, the number of documented impacts is quite low.” So how is that any different from saying the impacts aren’t widespread or systemic?

View Full Article