Which picture of shale gas development—cornucopia or curse— is the true one? This study finds that they both are. It presents the results of a qualitative review of articles discussing shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, drawn mostly from the peer-reviewed energy studies literature, published in the past 10 years. On the one hand, this review finds that shale gas production, done properly, can bring with it wide-ranging benefits including the enhancement of energy security, lower natural gas prices, a cleaner environmental footprint than some other fossil fuels, and economic development. On the other hand, it finds that done poorly, it can be prone to accidents and leakage, contribute to environmental degradation, induce earthquakes, and, when
Fracking the Good and The Bad In the essay, “Hope It’s in Your Backyard,” by Neil deMause, he wrote about the positive and negative factors of fracking and its effect on the world. The ramifications of fracking could be devastating to the earth with regards to natural gas and oil. It is debated that fracking, in the United States, would stimulate economic growth, lower gas prices, create more jobs, and make our country independent for oil and natural gas. The effects of burning fossil fuels is negative to the earth’s climate and the cause of some pollution. Natural gas is cheaper, but its effect on our ecosystem may be devastating.
What is fracking? Fracking is the process of drilling into the ground and releasing a high-pressure water mixture into rocks in order to fracture them and release the natural gases inside. The water mixture consists of water, sand and chemicals. Fracking is beneficial because it lowers the prices of oil and gas, reduces America’s dependency on foreign oil, and reduces CO2 contribution.
The Energy East Pipeline is a 4,600 km pipeline that will transport crude oil from Alberta to New Brunswick. The project is in place from TransCanada which is a Canadian company that builds oil pipelines. This essay will explain the benefits and negative effects that can occur if Canada goes through with the installation of the pipeline across Canada. It will also discuss how all three levels of the government influence the subject and who ones to make the final approval is. Currently, the energy east pipeline is still being discussed because there are people who are against the installation of the pipeline and who are fighting to stop this from happenings because they are afraid of what the risks can cause.
SUMMARY Journalist, Nick Stockton, in the article, “Fracking’s Problems Go Deeper Than Water Pollution,” published in June 2015, addresses the topic of hydraulic fracturing and argues that fracking has more negative consequences than one might think. Stockton supports his claim first by appealing emotionally through a short summary of a recent event involving fracking and also by utilizing evidence to back up his statements. The author’s overall purpose is to highlight outcomes of fracking in order to make more people aware of issues that can arise from this common way of obtaining energy. Stockton utilizes a scientific, yet critical tone in order to create an unbiased article and appeal to his audience’s concern for the well being of the
My general overview of this article is the methods used to obtain fossil fuels is hurting people and nature all around the world. People are beginning to come to a realization about how fracking is harming the world. However, people in cities like “Buffalo, New York, Pennsylvania, and the author’s hometown
Another professional Shelly interviewed was Dr. Joseph Martin, a professor in Department of Civil, Architecture, and environmental engineer at Drexel University. Her question to the professor was “How is gas drilling compared to coal mining? What is the effect on the environment?” Dr. Martin stated, “The surface impact of this hydro fracking is phenomenally lower than anything you could do. As far as safety issues of natural gas drilling, they’re minimal.
Creating fissures has caused earthquakes making countless potential health hazards associated with fracking. The International Energy agency have yet to overcome the problems of air pollution, the contamination of ground and surface waters, the risk of earthquakes, and the release of greenhouse gases that would produce a larger environmental footprint than conventional gas development. The evidence I have presented means that we need to quit fracking so that our planet will stay clean and beautiful without any
With the increased scale of fracking in Texas, one might wonder if the oil boom is affecting our water supply. The value of water in Texas is deeply cherished considering Texas’s dry climate and long-standing droughts. One may even wonder if Texas is valuing its water as much as it is its oil. As research furthers, we can begin to weigh the positive and negative effects of oil fracking. By providing overwhelming data on oil fracking
Thesis statement The benefits of natural gas hydraulic fracking do not justify the adverse effects it causes through continuous earthquakes, pollution of the water table, or potential health hazards to human populations. This subject is interesting to me because I work for a natural gas company. I have had many conversations with other employees regarding natural gas fracking, and most of them are biased to the views of the drilling companies which means they do not see any harm in it. There also used to be companies fracking for natural gas in Arkansas on the Fayetteville Shell. The number of small earthquakes did rise (3.0 or smaller), but there was nothing resulting in a large amount of devastation.
Despite, the human’s constant concerns about the impact of fracking on the environment, human health and other issues, it has been one of the most important innovations for the economy in Northeastern Pennsylvania over the last century. “It’s almost impossible to overestimate the importance of fracking to the natural gas industry and the nation”. The importance of fracking on the economy in Northeastern Pennsylvania is similar to everywhere else in the United States. However, ever since the discovery of this technology, Northeastern Pennsylvania in particular has transformed completely.
Have you ever wondered about the Dakota access pipeline and thought is it good or bad. The Dakota access pipeline is an “Oil pipeline that would run diagonally across Iowa, through 18 counties, from northwest Iowa to southeast Iowa” (Tyler Durden, 2016). Even though I do not support the pipeline, because of damaging reasons, it does help our economy become more desirable. First I do not support this pipeline considering it does not help our environment.
Researchers have “requested data from Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Texas, all states heavily involved in the recent surge of oil and gas drilling, about complaints related to hydraulic fracking for oil and gas” for their research on fracking (Dechert). The research collected was shocking, over 2,000 complaints in Texas alone and several cases on well water contamination within the states mentioned in Decherd’s article. People need to be alerted about how real fracking is and the damages it is doing. These complaints and cases should be a wakeup call to the world and say that we should put it to a
For the citizens, “fracking will give them jobs so they can make money and support their families” (Rogowsky). Furthermore, with the addition of fracking “the United States can get about 1.8 trillion barrels of shale (“sedimentary rocks that have rich sources of petroleum and natural gas” (Rogowsky)) a year compared to Saudi
It covers around 240,000 km2 in the United States, including parts of New Your, Maryland, and six other States. (Kargbo et al., 2010; U.S. Department of Energy, 2009) The estimation of gas amounts in Marcellus Shale is uncertain, however, current productivity indicates that the potential recoverable resources from the Marcellus Shale could be promising. (U.S. Department of Energy, 2009; United States Energy Information Administration, 2012) The Marcellus Shale is poorly permeable, which makes gas productive level is low.
What do you do when you run out of gas in your car? Will you stop using your car? or Will you go to the gas station and refill your tank? Natural gas that has been pumped up from fracking nearly fuels 40% of the U.S. energy consumption. Without fracking, the price of gas would have a drastic raise from $3.25 to $11 per gallon, so consumers would have to pay about $130 or more to refill their gas tank.