Pros And Cons Of Hydraulic Fracturing

Today there are increasing reports of natural gas depletion. Across the United States a new type of natural gas extraction called hydraulic fracturing is taking ground. Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” for short is a process, which extracts natural gas deep from within the Earth’s surface. A well first needs to be constructed. After that is complete, the materials needed are chemicals, sand, and water. A lot of water is actually needed to in the hydraulic fracturing process. About 200 tanker trucks worth of water to be exact. The mixture is pumped at a high pressure at furthers 10,000 feet into the ground. This causes the rock to crack. Fissures are opened and kept open by the sand from the mixture. From the fissures comes the

There are quite a few pros and cons to fracking. One pro is that it is an alternate way to retrieve more natural gas lying underground in a society where it is crucial to have this nonrenewable resource. Another pro is that fracking in the United States makes us less dependent on other countries for natural gas, giving us more control over our own gas prices, politics, and economics. This also makes the global oil industry more stable. Relying on the Middle East for oil has caused rapid price surges due to the increased turmoil in Middle Eastern nations both politically and economically. Fracking also creates more American jobs. This is a great plus for a country that needs more homebound jobs in a recovering economy whose jobs are going to other nations like China. And yet another pro is using natural gas to heat our homes and power our cars releases far fewer carbon emissions than coal (Wheeler, 2014). Fossil fuels have a big energy reserve. There are a lot of untapped fossil fuels. Hydraulic fracturing accesses this better alternative to coal and thermal

The Anglers of the Au Sable, a Michigan environmental conservation group, and others, worry that this will deplete freshwater sources and potentially dry up rivers and streams that are key to Michigan’s ecological health (Wheeler, 2014). Many chemicals put into the mixture used for hydraulic fracturing. Many are concerned that the chemicals in this mixture could leak into groundwater reservoirs. Another concern is that the chemicals are getting released into the atmosphere. Fraking companies don’t have to release the list of chemicals used in the mixture. This causes concern to people near fracking sites because they don’t know what these chemicals could do to their community. Another major con is that fracking is conducted both day and night, so if one lives near a fracking site it could become very inconvenient for one and one’s community. Ultimately humans will deplete all sources of natural gas and fracking just gives a crutch to fall onto for the time being. We will have to face the fact sooner or later that we need to find a new substance to replace our needs for natural