FRACKING PRO AND CON Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is an innovative and cost-saving process for drilling oil and gas from rock formations far underground and is a booming industry. Fracking (hydraulic fracturing), a simple but revolutionary process, has changed the way of collecting natural resources after the propitious success in 1947. Hydraulic fracturing is a technique in which rock is fractured by using a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of 'fracking fluid' (primarily water, containing sand or other proppants suspended with the aid of thickening agents) into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep-rock structures through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow freely. When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants (either sand or aluminum oxide) hold the fractures open. By injecting water, sand, and toxic chemical such as mercury and lead with high pressure into a wellbore, fractures smaller than 1 mm can be formed and a vast amount of formerly inaccessible hydrocarbon will be available for use. …show more content…
Natural gas plays a key role in our nation's clean energy future. The U.S. is a stockpile of natural gas that is commercially solvent as a result of advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies which enable greater access to gas in shale formations. Responsible development of America's shale gas resources offers important economic, energy security, and environmental benefits. Fracturing allows for extended production in older oil and natural gas fields. It has made recovery of oil and natural gas possible from formations that geologists once believed were impossible to produce, such as tight shale