Debating The Pros And Cons Of Increased Domestic Drilling

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

July 13, 2012 | 3:00 PM

Looking for a good Oxford-style debate? NPR has the audio from a discussion on the pros and cons of the Shale-fueled domestic natural gas boom:

Some argue that the benefits of the natural gas boom outweigh the risks, but others say no fracking way. A group of experts took on that dispute in the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. debate, held at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. They faced off two against two in an Oxford-style debate on the motion: “The Natural Gas Boom Is Doing More Harm Than Good.”
Before the debate, 38 percent of the audience supported that motion and 38 percent opposed it, with 24 percent undecided. Afterward, 53 percent agreed that “The Natural Gas Boom Is Doing More Harm Than Good” and 42 percent disagreed — making those arguing for the motion the winners.