Hydraulic Fracking Process

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, may be the new technology used to get natural gas but is it worth it? Hydraulic fracturing is something that is dangerous and risky towards people’s health. We would us hydraulic fracturing to get natural gas from deep underground. What some people don’t realize is that toxic compounds and pollutants can be released from the natural gas wells that will be used in hydraulic fracturing. Maybe using this isn’t such a good idea.

Fracking is considered by many business oriented people as the way to enhance our fossil fuel reserves that currently are needed within the United States. While there are many people that take either side of this heated debate, the scientific data is just beginning to come in and the perils that are culminating from using this form of extraction are becoming a problem for many throughout the Kentucky and the U.S.

Have you ever thought about what it took to get the goods you own from the manufacturer home? It may seem hard to believe, but “96% of the manufactured goods we use every day contain products that were made possible with natural gas feedstock” (energyfromshale.org). Aside from my third period global teacher lecturing for a living, he makes great amount of money fracking. At first glance the word may be misread or even start a few chuckles here or there. Fracking has huge potential in the United States with the major basins containing trillions of cubic feet of shale gas. The production of fracking has vastly increased over the years and the United States has started to rely on our own resources rather than our own. This industry has brought up new companies and jobs around the country. To understand the controversy behind hydraulic fracturing, the process and history should be made clear.

There is wide agreement among most experts and the public that the current energy sources we use in the United States are in need of a replacement. Reliance on the fossil fuels of coal and oil are problematic for at least two reasons: their negative impact on the environment (both in extraction and their use) and the reliance on supplies of these from other countries, which has created problems on the geopolitical front. Nuclear fission remains a controversial alternative, considering the risks involved in a catastrophic meltdown and the lack of a long-term waste storage solution. The successful development of horizontal drilling by the energy industry coupled with the existing technology of

The fracking industry has been a highly lucrative venture for the United States. Through the use of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, vast amounts of natural gas and oil, once inaccessible, have become attainable. When the gas prices sky rocked in the United States, it was the use of this fracking technique that effectively drove prices down keeping this precious commodity affordable for American consumers. Despite the benefits to be reaped, moratoriums have been created to hinder the usage of hydraulic fracturing

Natural gas has taken the energy market by storm as a result of the eight years of democratic influence this country has seen. America in the past six years has begun moving away from coal and converting to natural gas. Instead of harvesting coal in the Appalachian Mountain region, new energy companies have moved out west in an effort to harvest the abundance of natural gas located beneath the surface; they do so by a process known as hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is a drilling method where high volumes of chemicals mixed with water are injected into the naturally occurring surface cracks. This is done all in an effort to release the small pockets of natural gas trapped within these surface cracks. In recent years, throughout the Midwest, hydraulic fracturing has been linked to the contamination of many farmers and homeowner’s wells. There have been reports of triggered earthquakes as a result of hydraulic fracturing. These cases have all come to find that hydraulic fracturing techniques played a role in these incidents; energy companies have failed to acknowledge or compensate individuals affected. Hydraulic fracturing is destroying our natural environmental stability in the Midwest and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and federal government have done nothing to stop it.

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is a method of oil and gas recovery where water and additives are injected into a target reservoir generating one or more fractures that enable oil and gas to flow to the borehole. Touted as a way to boost the economy through the creation of jobs and a means of energy independence for the United States, is it really all it’s “fracked” up to be?

Safe natural gas fracturing or “fracking” is on the rise and our country is benefiting from in on several levels. From meeting energy needs to creating jobs and helping the economy, natural gas is an invisible miracle. Many precautions are taken during the fracking process in order to ensure it is safe as possible. Natural gas is something I work around every day due to the fact I work in the oilfield and the work I do is carried out during a “frac.” Many environmentalist and various people from different scientific fields argue that the benefits are not worth the risk.

The fracking process involves a lot of hazardous chemicals that if not taken into consideration can cause a lot of issues to workers health, the surrounding area and can compromise the safety of the well and the gas purification plant. (FEASTA, 2017) A health consideration that has been taken into account is the amount of Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) that is being emitted to the air. Hydrogen sulphide is a very hazardous compound at which concentrations of over 100ppm can cause coughing, eye irritation and loss of smell at above 500ppm if it not detected can cause someone to be unconscious and potential fatality within an hour. In addition if too much hydrogen sulphide is emitted into the surrounding environment it can react with the oxygen and

left undeveloped and wasted, it was once considered “unusable” and “worthless”, compared to oil. In order to try to break our country’s dependence on foreign oil supplies, we have begun to dip into our own natural gas supply. Natural gas is found underground, and is produced when trapped gas is released above ground. Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is a process that extracts natural gas from the ground. As harmless as the billion dollar producing oil companies would want us to believe, environmental groups, scientists, and average citizens have raised concerns about the negative impact of hydraulic fracking on the environment and

According to Throupe, Ron, Robert A. Simons, and Xue Mao,“the oil and gas industry in the U.S. is an economic driver that has evolved over the last 20 years” (206). The overall topic of interest in this paper is hydraulic fracturing “fracking” in the United States. The academic culture is Social Sciences and my research will be focusing on the economy discipline. My research question is: How has oil fracking influenced the economy in the United States over time?

amount of natural gas or oil. Once the well is ready then tonnes of gallons

The new technological advancement which is also known as “Fracking” process has tremendously increased the supply of natural gas in America. And on the other hand, as natural gas does not emit the greenhouse gases like that of coal fuel energy, the consumer preference of coal based products switched to natural gas. As supply and demand of natural gas kept increasing, fracking process has also increased in larger extent in different regions of the country. As a result, negative impacts are also generated like water contamination, air pollution, health problems, natural resources impact and broader economic impacts (Environment America

The process of hydraulic fracturing can be understood at different geographic scales such as the local, national and global. In order to better understand this process, the ways in which these scales influence hydraulic fracturing need to be deeply considered. The original purpose of hydraulic fracturing was to benefit the national and local economy plus environment of the United States, but due to the large interdependencies and networks of our world today, impacts at a global scale are inevitable. By analyzing each scale individually starting with national, local and ending with global, it will become clear that each scale is interdependent and interrelated with one another.

In the face of looming environmental concerns such as air pollution and waste disposal while searching for resources, fracking for natural gas has become a widely debated topic. Fracking for natural gas however, if done responsibly, can have potentially huge benefits that outweigh any cost. There are a few major reasons that natural gas fracking Companies that resort to fracking for natural gas are under immense pressure to disclose their methods, and in accordance to the law, they yield that information willingly. Companies also are required to frack in accordance to water boundaries, or in locations that cant harm water supplies essential to certain areas such as towns or habitats. Natural gas fracking also has 3 interlinked benefits: social improvement, positive economic improvement, and even an environmental benefit, relating to how natural gas is reusable and has reduced emissions. Alternative energy sources are needed in todays times where oil and coal aid in the damage of our atmosphere, and natural gas fracking can help with that wish.