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It doesn't sit in boardrooms, on academic panels or under the glare of television news cameras.

Canada's most-recent national energy debate is fueled by a substance buried deep underground, trapped within thick beds of drab-coloured sedimentary rock.

Shale gas has, however, commanded the attention of oil prospectors in Western Canada, prompted an environmental review in Quebec and drawn the ire of concerned residents in New Brunswick.

It has been dubbed an unconventional gas because it was once seen as more expensive and difficult to produce than gas extracted from other underground sources. But in recent years, petroleum companies say they've discovered a commercially-viable way to drill for the gas.

Those drilling innovations have triggered an explosion of interest in North American shale gas exploration.

While shale gas has been praised as a cleaner fossil fuel and a way to reduce dependency on foreign oil, it remains a polarizing topic. Questions still swirl around the regulation and long-term environmental effects of extraction.

If shale gas is a transition fuel, then it appears to lead unknown territory in the Canadian energy industry.

The National Energy Board estimates that Canada is sitting on 1,000 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale gas, which many say has the power to fuel day-to-day tasks like heating homes and cooking food across the nation.

Large shale formations in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and New Brunswick have been singled out as hotspots for drilling.

But as an economist at a public policy think tank points out, each deposit has its own set of challenges.

"Geology is different from province to province and the materials that are brought up will vary," said Gerry Angevine, senior economist at the Fraser Institute.

There are different types of shale, depending on its location. Those geographic differences have made it difficult to regulate the fledgling industry, which environmental groups say suffers from a lack of oversight.

Beyond the shale

Maxime Daigle says he has seen first-hand how labour-intensive and under-regulated shale gas exploration can be. He took up work with the energy industry after leaving the armed forces.

The 33-year-old New Brunswick resident spent seven years drilling for several companies. His work brought him to fields in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Texas, Kansas and Louisiana.

But after a few years in the industry, Daigle said he grew more skeptical of his employers.

Extracting shale gas is harder, takes longer and the process uses far more water and chemicals than conventional drilling, he says.

Disillusionment led Daigle to quit the drilling industry and go back to school to study renewable energy. Now, he uses that knowledge as a full-time activist against shale gas exploration.

"My goal is to educate regular people about the energy industry," he said. "Most of these oil and gas PR people are just bookworms; they don't know what it's like to be out there drilling."

However, Angevine says that most petroleum companies appear to be both socially and environmentally cautious.

"The industry certainly wants to believe that development is responsible; I think it will be an on-going process," said Angevine.

That process appears to be in its early stages. Environment Canada and the National Energy Board have yet to aggressively scrutinize the pace of shale gas extraction in Canada or its impact on water resources, according to a 2010 report by the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs.

Those concerns prompted shale-gas wary residents in New Brunswick to protest the industry in early July. About 150 people rallied outside a hotel in downtown Fredericton, where a summit for shale gas stakeholders was taking place.

A similar outcry occurred in Quebec last March, which resulted in the government agreeing to temporarily halt shale gas development in the province pending a thorough environmental review — a decision that is not without its consequences.

Global petroleum companies have already taken note of Quebec's disdain for shale gas exploration. The province is now viewed as one of the worst locations in Canada for investing in oil and natural gas development, according to a recent survey released by the Fraser Institute.

The tug of war between financial gain and environmental concern has been a persistent debate for Canadians interested in shale gas development.

"People seem to be in agreement that there are net benefits to shale gas exploration," said Angevine.

Angevine, former president of the Canadian Energy Research Association, said he believes that much of the opposition in Quebec and New Brunswick is coming from people who aren't well-informed.

"As long as certain safeguards are put in place people should want to reap the economic benefits of shale gas," he said.

"If people in Quebec and New Brunswick don't want it, companies will just go elsewhere."

The drive to drill

Geologists have known about shale gas for decades, but the drilling technology needed to efficiently extract the fuel was developed only a few years ago. Now, it's drawing the attention of oil companies and clean-energy activists across North America.

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as hydrofracking, and horizontal drilling has allowed companies to exploit deposits of natural gas locked up inside North America's densely-packed shale formations.

During the procedure, drills are sent down and out into the rock bed. A high-pressure cocktail of water, sand and chemicals are then injected into the shale, blasting the rock open and freeing the gas within.

Environmental watchdogs have the following concerns about fracking:

• Groundwater - Many people, including Green Party leader Elizabeth May, say they worry that natural gas will seep into fresh groundwater during the extraction process.
• Storage - There isn't much that can be done with the high-pressure water used to extract shale gas because it has been treated with chemical agents, so the water is typically pumped back underground, said University of Toronto geology professor Andrew Miall.
• Emissions - Though the Obama administration has praised shale gas as a material that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a study by Cornell University professor Robert Howarth found that natural gas extraction could do more to aggravate climate change than burning coal.

These points, among other concerns, convinced Dale Marshall that shale gas exploration is a problematic industry, he says.

Marshall, a policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation, says natural gas is merely a stepping stone on the path to renewable energy.

"A world where we have more natural gas is inconsistent with a world where we're dealing with climate change," he said in a phone interview from Ottawa.

Marshall points out that most oil and gas wells in Canada don't have to adhere to certain provincial environmental procedures.

For instance, he said, oil and gas well operators are not required to disclose the chemicals used in hydrofracking. The cloak-and-dagger approach leaves communities wondering what type of pollutants shale gas exploration might expose them to, he said.

A recent report from the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute urges Canada to consider natural gas a "bridging" fuel on the way to zero-emission solutions like wind and solar power.

But even renewable energy sources have their fair share of resistance. Several communities across Canada have protested wind turbines.

Andrew Miall concedes that any industry that could affect the environment will likely have opposition. However, the University of Toronto geology professor said he believes that right, now natural gas is Canada's most realistic alternative to conventional "dirty" fuel.

"We have a potentially large domestic supply and we already have pipelines and infrastructure in place," he said. "I think the industry could be managed if it's regulated properly and responsibly."

Though there is much left to learn about the potential impact shale gas development would have on the environment, different stakeholders in the industry are already working to brand the gas as a friendly fuel.

In early June, the International Energy Agency released a report heralding a "golden age" for natural gas, projecting a scenario where natural gas would overtake coal by 2030.

As Canada's conventional gas supply dwindles, Miall said he sees natural gas as the nation's most practical solution.

"One can look at it this way: no one has come up with a solution for fossil fuels on a large scale," he said, adding that renewable energy sources haven't been able to keep up with demand.

"Hopefully shale gas will prove to be as productive as the industry thinks it is, because at this point, it looks like we don't have any choice."