Pros And Cons Of Hydraulic Fracking

Hydraulic fracturing is one of the main reasons for the rapid increase in gas and oil production in the recent times. Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is a technique, which helps in recovering gas and oil from shale rocks. The process of fracking requires drilling into the Earth before high-pressure liquids directed at the rock help to release the gas trapped inside it. Water, sand and various other chemicals injected into the rocks, with great pressure, that allow the gas to flow out of the well. The process can be carried out vertically and horizontally, however it is common to use the latter as it helps in creating more ways to release gas.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been a hot topic in recent times due to its controversial ways. Many people argue that it is a way for the United States to become less dependent on foreign oil, while others argue that the environmental cons outweigh the pros of fracking. Fracking is the process of extracting natural gas from underground by drilling into the earth. This is done by injecting water, sand, and chemicals into a bedrock formation by a well (“Hydraulic Fracking”). By doing this, the process creates new fractures in the rock, as well as making previously made fractures bigger and easier to access (“Hydraulic Fracking”). Fracking is mostly done is areas that have low-permeability rocks like tight sandstone, shale, and some coal beds to increase the flow of oil and/or gas to a well (“Hydraulic Fracking”). The fracking process can take up to a month; the drilling team going more than a mile into the earth to extract the natural gases or oil. After the job is done, the well is cemented up (“What is Fracking”).

Fracking has become a highly controversial and publicized topic in recent years due to rising concerns into the potential benefits and consequences of using hydraulic fracturing to retrieve natural gas and oil reserves. With concerns over water pollution, mismanagement of toxic waste and irreversible environmental damage mounting, the practice of fracking has

Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, is the process of removing oil and natural gas from in between layers of shale and other low-permeability rocks. This is done by drilling both a well and a horizontal tunnel. Sand and chemicals are shot through the tunnel with incredible pressure, which cracks the shale allowing the oil and natural gas to travel up the well (Jackson, 2014). Fracking has caused a breadth of controversy due to the economic benefits and the geological consequences.

In the process of fracking, the first step is to drill a hole deep into the earth vertically and then to drill horizontally and put in a steel pipe. According to EnergyFromShale.org, water, sand and other chemicals are fed down a thin pipe, or surface casing at high pressure to create cracks in the ground to release any trapped oil. A ton of water is used in this process. EnergyFromshale.com states that almost one-hundred percent of the materials used is water and part sand. According to dangersoffracking.com, one to eight million gallons of water are used for just one fracture per day. It is also stated that forty thousand gallons of chemicals are used to help the flow of the water. That is an immense amount of materials

It’s been over 65 years since fracking first began as a method of extraction by oil and gas companies, but the government has done little to regulate the catastrophic practice. How anyone could consider injecting tens of thousands of gallons of water and chemicals deep into the ground being a good idea is beyond me. Those chemicals include chlorine, acetone, benzene, formaldehyde, ammonia, and almost 600 other chemicals that fracking operations won’t even reveal to the public. These chemicals, despite denial by all major natural gas and oil companies that practice fracking, almost always end up in groundwater supplies. I’m sure you’ve seen at least one video online of someone who lives near a fracking site lighting the water coming out of their faucet on fire. Thanks to a ruling in 2005 under the Bush administration, fracking operations are exempt from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean

Energy sources in today’s world are becoming scarcer by the day, as energy is one of our most needed and essential commodities. Who supplies the energy and how much energy they are supplying typically determines the amount of influence one country might have over another regarding our global economy. This is where hydraulic fracturing becomes a controversial and important topic to those of us in the United States. Lately, environmental campaigners have voiced concerns over the large amounts of water that is needed to carry out the fracking process and the possibility of tremors it could cause. For example, in 2011, the Black pool area in England experienced two relatively small quakes. One reading 1.5 and the other reading 2.2 on the magnitude scale. Collin Richardson, vice president of operations for Mineral Resources Inc., feels that the issue is perplexed when he states, "People go to a light switch and expect energy to be there, but they don't think about where it comes from. I don't think most people understand that without hydraulic fracturing, we wouldn't have natural gas to provide electricity to our homes or gas in our cars” (Rydbom). It seems as though there is a misconception about fracking that arises from the environmentalist groups as to what fracking really is. These misconceptions cause an emotional upset with citizens due to the twisting of facts and fake news.

During the process of fracking, water is first taken to the fracking site and is then mixed with chemicals and sand to make a fracking fluid. After the water mixture is created, “The fracking fluid is then pressure injected into the ground through a drilled pipeline” (“What Goes”). Once the fluid reaches the end of the well, “high pressure causes the nearby shale rock to crack, creating fissures where natural gas flows into the well” (“What Goes”). Due to the process of fracking, many effects occur, some positive and some negative.

Hydraulic fracturing is harmful to the environment and people. I believe there are alternative methods that are safer. In order to protect the environment and the population, precautions need to be implemented to reduce the damaging effects of fracking. The government needs to use other methods to change the current process of hydraulic fracturing.

Hydraulic fracturing is a divisive issue in the United States. One side argues that hydraulic fracturing has the potential to create jobs and prop up the economy while the other side argues that the resulting environmental damage from hydraulic fracturing greatly outweighs any potential benefits. A lot of evidence seems to support the opponents of hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing should be banned because it can cause great harm to the environment; it can lead to geological disasters and has the potential to negatively affect the health of those in surrounding areas.

The corporate values of keeping society in the dark of fracking is that people who have no education on the fracking industry have no other choice but to trust the companies since they have no case or studies as to what the chemicals do to the environment so fracking can keep running as is. People try to defend these companies and say that fracking is good for the environment. But if this is so, and they are environmentally cautious then why don’t they disclose the chemicals and processes if they aren’t hiding anything? When it comes down to the greater good of the health of millions of people then the companies controlling these decisions should not have the right to hide their word when there is sufficient evidence saying it is dangerous. The fracking companies should not have the decision to choose between what we are able to know when it is keeping us from our security. The 600 chemicals used in fracking need to be disposed of properly so that they don’t contaminate anything further and fracking need to prove that they are doing that correctly, and not risking public health. (Photo: 2012 fracking liquid disposal

Hydraulic fracturing, which is commonly referred to as Fracking, is a term used in the Oil and Gas Industry and describes a technique which is used to extract oil and gas from deep underground. This method involves a mixture of high-pressured water, sand and chemicals that are injected into the shale rock below the earth’s surface, which then releases the gases that are trapped underground.

Hydraulic fracturing, or more commonly known as ‘fracking’ is a technique designed by engineers to open fissures deep within shale to extract oil and natural gas. The practice involves using large amounts of high-pressured water along with proppants, usually sand, and a small amount of a chemical solution. The diagram below pictures the process of hydraulic fracturing. In the last few years, hydraulic fracturing has become a popular topic of debate centering on whether the increase in amount of fossil fuels is worth the cost of possible environmental damage. Fracking is not simply a way of providing more fossil fuels, but should also be seen as a viable solution to the nation’s foreign oil

Halliburton's former CEO, Dick Cheney had a hand in it's creation. Halliburton earns $1.5 billion through fraking annually. According to the information on greensourcedfw.org said it estimated that 30% or more of the water that is used during fraking remains underground. The potential for polluting aquifers. Fluids from fraking are isolated away from the groundwater by steel and concrete well casings, but like anything they are known for

Imagine a world less dependent on oil; a world that wars are not started over oil. This is the future the people that support hydraulic fracturing envision. The rapid development of unconventional sources of oil and natural gas using hydraulic fracturing has generated a great deal of controversy. As coal and oil struggle to remain the popular source of fossil fuel, fracking has gained a new spotlight in the war on energy. Hydraulic fracturing, also known as hydrofracking, hydrofracturing or simply, fracking, is the process of extracting natural gas from gas shales. The term gas shales refers to natural gas that is extracted from porous rocks that hold gas. A vertical well is drilled hundreds of feet into the ground, through this well, hydraulically