Pros And Cons Of Fracking

Hydraulic Fracturing Hydraulic fracturing is a process to extract oil or gas from a well. This drilling process has been used for approximately sixty-five years. It first began in the 1940’s. Hydraulic fracturing is also known as Fracking, where millions of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock, which releases natural gas (Schmidt). The development of this process requires a significant amount of water and due to this process there are some pros and cons. As America has witnessed, we are in the era of the natural gas boom. The economic benefits of drilling has impacted our access to gas and oil. This technical revolution has increased our domestic supply by fifty percent, due to the result of Fracking.

There are those who support fracking and those who don’t. From an ethical perspective we might look at benefits and harms of fracking. Do the potential dangers of fracking, including contaminating water supplies, outweigh the potential benefits of producing oil and gas resources at a time when our national security may be in jeopardy because of our continued reliance on unreliable sources of energy? Is the United States energy independence more important than the potential for harm to those affected by fracking procedures (Ethics Sage)? The issue on having an ethical right, why not release all available information to the public about the safety risks to let the public decide. Those being affected by fracking have an ethical right to know the potential harm to their drinking water and other environment effects. This will lead to a trade-off decision between sacrificing some health and safety concerns in the name of providing economic benefits, including jobs and increasing exports to countries that crave safer natural gas energy supplies for their growing economy. These are tough decisions that one must

I am on the opposing side of fracking. The process of fracking requires eight million gallons of water per fracking. Seventy-two trillion gallons of water is needed to run current gas wells in the United States. There are 40,000 gallons of chemicals used for each fracturing site and 360 billion gallons of chemicals needed to run the current gas wells. Ninety percent of the water used for fracking never returns to the surface. Since the water is permanently removed from the natural water cycle this is bad news for the drought we are experiencing. Fracking also increases water pollution. Water supplies in areas where fracking takes place tended to show an increase in the amount of dangerous chemicals. The water seeps through the earth and end up in reservoirs, the seas, and other bodies of water, which can harm the