The University of Tennessee is expected to face vocal opposition today when it seeks approval for a plan to allow natural gas drilling on more than 8,000 acres of public land in East Tennessee’s Morgan and Scott counties.
The university’s Institute of Agriculture, which manages the land known as the Cumberland Forest, wants permission to seek bids from energy companies to lease the oil and gas rights.
In return, the university would partner with the company and use the revenue to fund research into how hydraulic fracturing — a controversial gas extraction method — affects the environment.
“We feel like, based on the news that everyone has been receiving relative to natural gas use and natural gas extraction, that there are a lot of unanswered questions out there,” said Bill Brown, dean of UT AgResearch. “We feel like the University of Tennessee is in a position to be able to provide answers.”
But environmental groups, residents and even some UT professors are concerned about the proposal, which goes before the State Building Commission’s executive subcommittee at 2 p.m. A noon protest is planned at Legislative Plaza, where the commission meets.
From The Tennessean: https://www.tennessean.com/article/20130315/NEWS11/303150060/UT-s-fracking-plan-faces-opposition