The University of Tennessee and a state panel have agreed to allow a private company to drill for natural gas on a forest controlled by the university.
The company will use hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking,” to extract gas in the Cumberland Forest in eastern Tennessee. The decision comes despite protests from some about potentially harmful environmental impacts to the land.
According to a statement on the university’s Institute of Agriculture website, the drilling will allow researchers to study fracking and help develop best practices, “including in forestry management and the most environmentally responsible methods of gas and oil extraction.”
