Fracking is a method used to extract natural gas from deep into the earth. First, a well is drilled, and then a high-pressure mixture of water, sand, and various chemicals is expelled from a hose, causing gas and oil underneath shale to be released into the well where it can be gathered for consumption. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, allows us to access fossil fuels underneath our own soil, making the U.S. less dependent on other countries for energy sources. In fact, because of fracking, it has been estimated that the U.S. has enough oil and natural gas to be secure for just under one hundred years, something President Obama announced in his 2012 State of the Union.
Despite the optimism in the U.S. government and among big oil companies, fracking is not necessarily as bountiful and harmless as once believed. Recent data shows there may not be as much shale as once thought, meaning there are fewer places where fracking will successfully lead to harvesting natural gas and oil. Accurate data is difficult to gather, even in the U.S., where we have more shale gas wells providing data than any other country. Other countries are considering following the U.S.’s lead on natural gas, but data will be even more difficult for countries such as the U.K. and Poland where there is much less shale.
There are more problems than just inaccurate data about the amount of shale. The environmental concerns about fracking are vast and varied. Fracking causes small tremors in the earth, too small to be felt, usually, but they could potentially add up over time and contribute to unsafe land. Environmentalists also suggest that dependence on natural gas and oils found through fracking is distracting us from more environmentally friendly energy sources (solar, wind, etc). Lots of water is used in fracking; water that, for example, might have been used to help the citizens of California in the bad drought they’ve been experiencing recently. My biggest concern about fracking was brought to light when a high school teacher showed the film Gasland during class: fracking frequently pollutes the water supply in the surrounding area. One part of the film was devoted to people who lived near fracking sites, and in one scene, residents showed the camera crew that when they turned on the faucet and held a lighter near it, they were able to set the stream of water on fire. That cannot possible be safe drinking water. Animals in the area were having health problems as well as humans, forcing many people to move from the houses they had once been comfortable and safe living in. I cannot forget that film and the impact that fracking had on those lives. It is clear to me that the cons heavily outweigh the pros, but oil executives are much more concerned with the cheap cost of this gas than the health of the citizens of the country whose land they are ruining.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14432401
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/fracking/
http://www.nature.com/news/natural-gas-the-fracking-fallacy-1.16430