College campuses no place for fracking - Hannah Feig, University of Southern Florida Oracle

A law passed last week will allow state colleges and universities in Pennsylvania to drill for natural gas on their properties using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The benefits for Pennsylvania’s 14 state schools — whose state budget was cut by 18 percent last year, according to NPR — seems like a good deal. The school allowing the fracking would get 50 percent of profits, another 35 percent would be distributed among the Penn. State University System (SUS) and 15 percent would go to offset student tuition costs. Despite these benefits, schools should look beyond money when deciding whether or not to allow fracking on campus, and think back to a university’s primary foci — innovation. The health hazards of fracking have not been fully studied, and according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, most states do not require full disclosure of chemicals used in fracking processes. http://www.usforacle.com/college-campuses-no-place-for-fracking-1.2778378