The chief executive of oil giant Chevron Corp. says that oil and gas producers must regulate themselves more tightly over hydraulic fracturing to address "legitimate concerns" that the practice is unsafe and harmful to the environment.
At an event for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, John Watson said the energy industry must work harder to police itself as the public learns more about so-called fracking, the controversial technique that involves injecting large volumes of chemically laced water and sand deep into the ground to release oil or gas.
"There are some risks out there. Some are overstated. But we have to engage them either way," said Watson, according to Bloomberg. "Public expectations are very high, and there is no reason they shouldn't be high."
Watson brought up the 2010 BP oil spill, which gushed millions of barrels of oil before it was finally capped after 87 days, the report said. And with fracking getting at previously unrecoverable oil and gas, more people are pondering the risks and possibilities of the technology.