Industry calls hydraulic fracturing a proven technology that has dramatically increased oil and gas reserves on the continent by allowing industry to access previously uneconomic resources.

But independent scientists and industry insiders contend that 60-year-old assumptions about the technology initially used for vertical wells no longer hold true.

When combined with horizontal drilling, which can stretch a mile long underground, hydraulic fracturing can open different kinds of reservoirs, "challenging the fundamental assumptions upon which our existing candidate selection and design methodology are built."

(Full Disclosure: Andrew Nikiforuk is an Alberta landowner but not a member of the ASRG.)