Hydrofracking

Natural gas is the cleanest of all the fossil fuels, as evidenced in the Environmental Protection Agency’s data comparisons in the chart below, which is still current as of 2010. Composed primarily of methane, the main products of the combustion of natural gas are carbon dioxide and water vapor, the same compounds we exhale when we breathe. Coal and oil are composed of much more complex molecules, with a higher carbon ratio and higher nitrogen and sulfur contents. This means that when combusted, coal and oil release higher levels of harmful emissions, including a higher ratio of carbon emissions, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Coal and fuel oil also release ash particles into the environment, substances that do not burn but instead are carried into the atmosphere and contribute to pollution. The combustion of natural gas, on the other hand, releases very small amounts of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, virtually no ash or particulate matter, and lower levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other reactive hydrocarbons.

Opposing Point of View

Beneath rolling hills lies a scene of gas rich rock shell, but the shell gas is far from easily accessible.   the process itself is that you drill down a few thousand feet into a layer of very dense shell, turn the well horizontally, go out and perform some other operations so eventually you set off charges that blow holes on the pipe and then you fill up the pipe with a liquid and the intend is basically is to get sand back in the cracks of the rock to hold it apart so the gas will flow.  At first shell drilling might sound like a good idea, but for communities that live around this huge industrial facilities, there are also negative side effects.  Some people are worried about their own state regulations, that allow gas well drilling 150 feet from any source of natural water, like rivers or lakes that feed the rivers,  which in many cases is the water source of the village or community in that area.  Once the chemicals are injected and the fracturing process is complete, a large percentage of that fluid comes back up so we have purposely polluted large quantities of fresh water with chemicals that do not belong in the human environment. and now we have the responsibility, the industry and the land owners, have the responsibility to dispose of them properly, but we are talking about enormous quantities.  Polluted water shows a high concentration of led, the industry has recommended not to drink it or bath in it.  Chemicals are not the only worrying component in frack waste water, critics argue that it could contain far more dangerous substances.  These shell deposits are rich in radium, radium 226, the level of radium- the average level is 267 times the safe disposal amount, meaning that it will kill a human being.  The main argument is that oil and gas are not interchangeable.  Petroleum is largely used for transportation, natural gas is largely used for heating and industrial activity, so there is no actual “energy plan” to transform the transportation industry in the US to one that uses natural gas, the argument is not well sustained. Natural is cleaner than any other fossil fuel, but it is not cleaner in its life cycle.

Work Cited
http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&biw=1085&bih=608&tbm=isch&tbnid=MGLe6_wOQMRTQM:&imgrefurl=http://www.treehugger.com

http://www.vonwentzel.net/HVAC/FuelChoices/index.html
http://www.naturalgas.org/environment/naturalgas.asp