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The Pennsylvanian small town rig rapidly drilled the underground shale rock and injected massive amounts of pressurized fracking fluids to obtain natural gas. Mark Schlosberg, who opposes fracking, gave his thoughts about this new system saying, “we want to protect our water, we want to protect our air, and we want to safeguard our climate future by getting off dirty fossil fuels and saying no to fracking. We need to invest in a renewable energy future.” Little does Mark know that fracking actually has many benefits including generating over a hundred thousand jobs, increasing global energy supply, and replacing outdated energy production methods. Critics like Schlosberg argue that practicing hydraulic fracturing causes risks to groundwater, air quality, and surface contamination; whereas current evidence states that fracking does not contaminate groundwater and poses little risk to the environment.
Hydraulic fracturing undoubtedly benefits our economy. According to Energytomorrow.org the natural gas industry provides jobs to 9.2 million men and women across the United States. Hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus and Barnett shale has generated royalty payments to property owners, tax revenues to the government, and also has created high paying American jobs. Hydraulic fracturing has created many engineering, hospitality, equipment manufacturing, surveying, construction, and environmental permitting jobs. In Pennsylvania fracking added $389 million to state and local revenue, more than $1 billion to federal tax revenue, and almost $4 billion to the state’s economy. Fracking opponents only consider researching about the consequences that fracking may cause. By doing so, they overlook the advantages fracking actually has. If New York allows fracking, economists predict that it will create $11.4 billion in economic stimulus and up to 18,000 new jobs by 2020. That is just a single state. Imagine all the jobs that would be lost, or not even created if we were to discontinue fracking due to the unproven societal claims against fracking. Fracking has caused natural gas prices to plummet and remain low. Wells drilled through fracking in the last 3.5 years have produced nearly half the gas being consumed today. Through fracking and our natural gas production industry, America’s dependence on foreign oil will decrease substantially.
Clean-burning natural gas and new oil supplies from fracking have increased our country’s energy security, and improved our ability to generate electricity. Due to this increase in the natural gas supply, because of fracking, our economy depends much less on oil. Now ask yourself if you are against global warming and against fracking. Facts can actually show that these two ideas do not correlate. Lawrence Cathles, a Cornell University professor, found in a study that replacing coal with natural gas would cut about 40% of carbon emissions linked to global warming. Fracking plays a huge role in this replacement from coal to natural gas. Cathles stated in the “From Coal To Gas: The Potential Risks and Rewards” article, “When you burn natural gas it’s a cleaner burning fuel. Natural gas can generate electricity with almost twice the efficiency in terms of conversion of energy content of fuel.” This shows how fracking benefits our environment rather than hurting it. By using natural gas rather than coal, we actually remove a very harmful energy source. Fracking clearly escalates energy supply and replaces outdated energy production methods. This shows how fracking benefits society and removes a harmful energy source instead of harming the environment itself.
Many critics of hydraulic fracturing believe that it is associated with risks to groundwater, air quality, and surface contamination. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) there has been no evidence found showing that hydraulic fracturing contaminates ground water. People that live nearby drilling rigs (areas where fracking takes place) have complained that their drinking water has been contaminated because of fracking. Some argue that methane is found in their drinking water, but according to ProPublica.org, an online scientific journal, methane can be harmless to drink. It is highly unlikely that your water contains methane due to fracking, and that it somehow catches fire, because that would be the only way that kind of water would be dangerous. Another study done by Duke University found no confirmed cases of an underground source of drinking water contaminated as a result of a hydraulic fracturing operation. Roy Bigham claimed in his “Fracking Misunderstanding” article that a study done by the EPA showed that few problems of contamination that were verified had been caused by poor practices above the ground, such as spillage, not fracking. Other studies even confirm that some areas have already had infected water before building drilling rigs. Fracking actually improves air quality because it replaces the use of other fossil fuels that pollute more such as coal (as stated in the previous paragraph). Fracking does not damage the surface because the whole process takes place underground. The only possible damage it can do is the damage done to the land when drilling rigs are built, but land is constantly being destroyed in the world either way (through building homes, hospitals, industries, power plants, etc). Overall people who fear fracking seem to over-exaggerate harmful effects.
Hydraulic fracturing undoubtedly benefits our economy. According to Energytomorrow.org the natural gas industry provides jobs to 9.2 million men and women across the United States. Hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus and Barnett shale has generated royalty payments to property owners, tax revenues to the government, and also has created high paying American jobs. Hydraulic fracturing has created many engineering, hospitality, equipment manufacturing, surveying, construction, and environmental permitting jobs. In Pennsylvania fracking added $389 million to state and local revenue, more than $1 billion to federal tax revenue, and almost $4 billion to the state’s economy. Fracking opponents only consider researching about the consequences that fracking may cause. By doing so, they overlook the advantages fracking actually has. If New York allows fracking, economists predict that it will create $11.4 billion in economic stimulus and up to 18,000 new jobs by 2020. That is just a single state. Imagine all the jobs that would be lost, or not even created if we were to discontinue fracking due to the unproven societal claims against fracking. Fracking has caused natural gas prices to plummet and remain low. Wells drilled through fracking in the last 3.5 years have produced nearly half the gas being consumed today. Through fracking and our natural gas production industry, America’s dependence on foreign oil will decrease substantially.
Clean-burning natural gas and new oil supplies from fracking have increased our country’s energy security, and improved our ability to generate electricity. Due to this increase in the natural gas supply, because of fracking, our economy depends much less on oil. Now ask yourself if you are against global warming and against fracking. Facts can actually show that these two ideas do not correlate. Lawrence Cathles, a Cornell University professor, found in a study that replacing coal with natural gas would cut about 40% of carbon emissions linked to global warming. Fracking plays a huge role in this replacement from coal to natural gas. Cathles stated in the “From Coal To Gas: The Potential Risks and Rewards” article, “When you burn natural gas it’s a cleaner burning fuel. Natural gas can generate electricity with almost twice the efficiency in terms of conversion of energy content of fuel.” This shows how fracking benefits our environment rather than hurting it. By using natural gas rather than coal, we actually remove a very harmful energy source. Fracking clearly escalates energy supply and replaces outdated energy production methods. This shows how fracking benefits society and removes a harmful energy source instead of harming the environment itself.
Many critics of hydraulic fracturing believe that it is associated with risks to groundwater, air quality, and surface contamination. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) there has been no evidence found showing that hydraulic fracturing contaminates ground water. People that live nearby drilling rigs (areas where fracking takes place) have complained that their drinking water has been contaminated because of fracking. Some argue that methane is found in their drinking water, but according to ProPublica.org, an online scientific journal, methane can be harmless to drink. It is highly unlikely that your water contains methane due to fracking, and that it somehow catches fire, because that would be the only way that kind of water would be dangerous. Another study done by Duke University found no confirmed cases of an underground source of drinking water contaminated as a result of a hydraulic fracturing operation. Roy Bigham claimed in his “Fracking Misunderstanding” article that a study done by the EPA showed that few problems of contamination that were verified had been caused by poor practices above the ground, such as spillage, not fracking. Other studies even confirm that some areas have already had infected water before building drilling rigs. Fracking actually improves air quality because it replaces the use of other fossil fuels that pollute more such as coal (as stated in the previous paragraph). Fracking does not damage the surface because the whole process takes place underground. The only possible damage it can do is the damage done to the land when drilling rigs are built, but land is constantly being destroyed in the world either way (through building homes, hospitals, industries, power plants, etc). Overall people who fear fracking seem to over-exaggerate harmful effects.
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Hydraulic fracturing benefits our economy in multiple ways such as increasing available jobs and the amount of money that is in circulation. Fracking increases our energy supply, and replaces the use of coal and other harmful sources of energy that were previously used. Fracking is not proven to pollute groundwater, and current evidence can clearly back up all of these positive attributes associated with fracking.
http://www.propublica.org/article/scientific-study-links-flammable-drinking-water-to-fracking
http://www.what-is-fracking.com
http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_21612903/protest-against-fracking-goes-global
http://energytomorrow.org/energy/hydraulic-fracturing/#/type/all
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/15/156814490/from-coal-to-gas-the-potential-risks-and-rewards
Bigham, Roy. "UNC Chapel Hill Libraries: E-Journal List." Fracking Misunderstanding. Pollution Engineering, 1 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 Sept. 2012. <http://vb3lk7eb4t.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004>.
"Hydraulic fracturing--is it safe? Leading energy research group says it can be." National Driller July 2011: 42+. General OneFile. Web. 15 Sept. 2012.
Peltier, Robert. "Fracking Problems." Power 155.8 (2011): 6. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Sept. 2012.
-Kush Shah-
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