The Safety Issues and Economic Value of Fracking

You can find energy to power your house using many different sources, such as petroleum, coal, nuclear power, renewable energy, or natural gas. Some of the most common household appliances like clothes dryers, space or water heaters, and stoves are powered by natural gas. But have you ever wondered how it gets there? Natural gas is collected by a process called Hydraulic Fracturing, or "fracking". Fracking is "the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture rocks and release natural gas inside" (Dong). There are many different opinions on the safety issues and economic value of the process, and it is a very hot subject in the news within the last decade. In the end, although there are some major benefits, fracking is not worth the damage that it causes.

Fracking has formed to be a large factor in the United State's economy over the last few years. When compared to other forms of drilling and collection of natural gases and oil, fracking looks very good. It covers less land than other methods of extractions, and is less dangerous than the common offshore approach. While there have been over thirty notable oil spills on offshore rigs within the last ten years in the United States, there have been no significant mistakes with the fracking wells (BSEE).

In the year 2000, natural gas production was only 1% of the United States energy consumption. By 2010 that number largely increased to 24%, with coal at 23% and petroleum products at 39% ("Uses of..."). That increase in number was a direct result of a boom in fracking, starting in the 1980s. The economy and energy consumers are profiting from the increase in natural gas production, and it is believed that it has given the U.S. economy a significant lift within the last ten years. Shale gas, produced by the fracking of the shale rock, is also a cause of this improvement. In 2010, 30% of natural gas production was from shale fracking alone. The New York Times estimated that by the year 2040, that number will have at least risen to 50% (Wines).

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George Mitchell, often referred to as the "father of fracking" was the leader of the popularization of fracking that started in the 1980s. In 1990, 71 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu), or 566 billion gallons of energy were produced in the United States. When the fracking trend caught on, that number rose dramatically to 75 quadrillion Btu in 2010, and even faster to 78 quadrillion Btu just one year later in 2011. This increase in fracking and collection of natural gas directly increased the amount of employment in the country. Since 2003 there was a 67% increase in employment in the oil and gas sector, after the increase in value of shale gas and other products of fracking (Hassett and Mathur).

Another positive impact of fracking on the American economy is the impact upon the intercountry energy trade. Natural gas imports to the U.S. decreased by 25% from 2007 to 2011, and petroleum imports fell from 29 quadrillion Btu to 24 quadrillion Btu from 2005 to 2011 (Hassett and Mathur).

While hydraulic fracturing obviously has it's perks, there are many people and groups who do not support the practice. The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (FRAC Act) is one of the many organizations working to rid the country of fracking. There are many arguments as to why, but the most important of them all are the environmental and health factors fracking creates.

There is a massive amount of equipment needed to start and finish every well. Four hundred trucks are used to carry supplies to their destination, and there are up to 8 million gallons of water and 40,000 gallons of chemicals used in the fracturing fluid. The fracking fluid contains up to six hundred different chemicals, many of them highly toxic, including lead, uranium, mercury, ethylene glycol, radium, methanol, hydrochloric acid, and formaldehyde.

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