A worker adjusts hoses during a hydraulic fracturing operation at an Encana Corp. gas well, near Mead, Colo. The first experimental use of hydraulic fracturing was in 1947, and more than 1 million U.S. oil and gas wells have been fracked since, according to the American Petroleum Institute. The National Petroleum Council estimates that up to 80 percent of natural gas wells drilled in the next decade will require hydraulic fracturing.
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