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Adding to the already massive devastation from torrential rains and flooding over the past week in Colorado are highly toxic chemicals which have spilled from countless fracking operations in the area into the flood waters.

Damaged holding tanks, ruptured pipelines and tens of thousands of flooded wells have been the ironic outcome of flooding which has stemmed in part from climate change brought on by the fossil fuel industry.

Now a new study put out jointly by the University of Texas at Austin and the Environmental Defense Fund or EDF to examine methane emissions from hydraulic fracking operations is coming under scrutiny.

The study, which was authored and funded by pro-fracking industry players, looked at methane emissions from fracking well sites and found that they were 2% to 4% lower than a previous study done in 2011. Critics are questioning the reliability of the data which was clearly guided by industry interests.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the report is the participation of university professors who are often funded by the fracking industry in what critics call ‘frackademia’. Professors and universities are routinely provided with money to engage in research which supports the oil and gas industries corporate interests.

GUEST: Steve Horn, freelance investigative journalist, Research Fellow for DeSmogBlog, a thinktank that says it “clears the PR pollution that clouds climate science”

Visit www.desmogblog.com for more information.

Click here to read Steve Horn’s article about “Frackademia.”