Stephen Colbert perplexed former Homeland Security chief turned natural gas lobbyist Tom Ridge Thursday night, grilling him about whether the controversial drilling practice known as “fracking” had caused dangerous chemicals to seep into local water supplies.
“How many of those can I feed my toddler?,” Colbert said after reading a list of the numerous chemicals used in fracking. “Because it’s perfectly safe, right?”
In particular, Colbert pointed to footage of people who live near natural gas wells igniting their tap water, a sign, opponents of fracking say, that the process is polluting nearby drinking water.
“I say its a plus,” Colbert said “You can wash your vegetables and grill them at the same time.”
Ridge responded that while dangerous gasses have infiltrated some water supplies, it was a natural occurrence completely unrelated to the natural gas wells.
“Yes it is happening to some water supplies, and it has absolutely nothing to do with hydraulic fracking,” Ridge said.
“Methane gas is naturally occurring. They’ve had methane gas in some of our water wells in Pennsylvania long before any wells — fracked wells — were located next to them,” he added.
Colbert continued to press him, though Ridge kept with his claim that natural gas drilling was not responsible for the flammable water. As for whether or not fracking would piss off the Mole Men who live in the Earth, Ridge couldn’t say for sure.
Watch the video below:
