Fracking discussion (natural gas drilling process)
 

I've heard about fracking for a while now, but honestly never looked it up until today. Its obviously a controversial subject, and I don't want to start any arguments. I would like to hear your thoughts and get some information posted on the pros and cons of it.

This is the video I watched:

Fracking explained: opportunity or danger - YouTube

Here is a more technical explanation of fracking.

Animation of Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking) - YouTube

I have few problems with "fracking". Sadly, there were some foolish companies that drilled too close to the surface (coal seams) and it resulted in highly publicized videos of water taps on fire.

Yes, there are problems, but I believe the advantages far outweigh the negatives. For me, the biggest advantage is that we will continue to decrease the amount of petro dollars sent to the middle east. I recognize that the majority of our energy imports are from Canada & Mexico.

The downside to decreasing our petro$ to the middle east is that we will have even less influence over there. Like we have a lot now . . . .

But overall, being more energy independent is a good thing. Need to mention that I have no connections to any gas/oil company.


Steve



Note that I am NOT in the oil/natural gas business or have any connection whatsoever.

As long as we only get the natural gas from areas that have poor people I'm ok with it because they don't read contracts and are easily bought off.

^I sense a little tongue in cheek. :)

I agree with stevehull about the independence aspect of the natural gas industry, but for me a fossil fuel is a fossil fuel. Burning anything created over the last few million years is unsustainable and potentially dangerous (on many fronts). I don't think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. In fact, I believe the exact opposite is true. The only advantage to any energy source is a subjective view of "development". This is a first-world belief, where we must always advance and it's perpetual; the more we advance the faster and further we want to go. Think about the 9 year old girl who wanted a white iPhone for Christmas and got a black one instead, yelling and screaming at her parents for getting it "wrong". This is an American stigma; it's never good enough. More, more, more. Unfortunately, more NG means more GHGs.

I also believe in the precautionary principle, where we don't put all of our eggs into one basket, so to speak, until we know what will happen. Unfortunately, we already know what could happen: flammable tap water. What about the water table for the natural environment? Flora digs deep into the ground to find that now contaminated water, causing growth and reproduction issues. This *could* directly affect both the habitats of fauna as well as industries such as logging.

With regards to the videos you posted, I found it glaringly obvious who created each video. The first one was obviously from skeptics (at best) and the second was obviously a supporter of the gas industry. Notice how the first video said the "other" chemicals were in the range of about 700 and the second video said there were a "few"? I'm guessing it's somewhere in between there, but that is a large range.

Long story short, I think we should start pushing our other sources further, rather than the current options. Other countries have proved this viable: Sweden, Canada, and Brazil, to name a few.

It seems very difficult to find unbiased research on the subject. I found this article interesting.

http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/...4/fracking.pdf

The link to riverreporter (above) is interesting in that it describes all of the known and/or potential risks of fracking fluids.

My analysis of this is that oil/natural gas drilling is inherently very dirty even without the fracking fluids. After all, drilling mud (containing many of these same compounds) has been used (and continues to be used) on all drilling sites. This "mud" is necessary to cool the bit, bring up drilling castings to the surface and to solidify the bore wall. This "mud" pollutes the ground, the water and the air - just go visit (or breath downwind) of a drilling site.

There is NO question that carbon is carbon. Using CH4 (methane, natural gas) has a lot less carbon in it compared to coal (~ 1/2), but it remains as Jeff88 correctly states.

This discussion basically comes down to standard of living. I currently choose to use geothermal heat pumps. These transfer from the ground, into my home, about 4-5 units of energy for every unit energy purchased. But yes, much of that purchased energy remains coal fired (in Oklahoma ~ 2/3rds)! And yet, I am an early adopter of the GT heat pump (1991) and of energy efficiency in my own home.

I am doing "better", but I remain a carbon polluter. I will be looked upon with distain by energy bloggers 100 years hence!

The road past has seen individual homes burning coal (as many of our grandparents did), oil burners (as our parents did) and now methane burners (as many of us do) for far less polluting devices (such as GT heat pumps) in the near future. Progress is frustratingly slow.

Energy use is not an "off and on" situation, but an evolution. In the so called "first world" countries, polluting heating/cooling systems will abate in the next 30-40 years, but the so called "second and third world" will continue to ramp up carbon use. In that time, the early adopting "first worlders" will try to put pressure on up and down wind polluters as the world is a circular place. Wind just goes round and round.

You can already read of "plumes" of atmospheric carbon/pollutants coming from China to the pacific NW.

Going back to fracking. Just what are the options and how is each of us coping?

Steve

I am against the poison water that is left behind for the consumers / citizens , what a nice gift to the planet.
Call me a dreamer but i think non toxic water is more important then some Companies profit Margin.
Our governments need to reel these Companies back in and send them off to some REAL gas and oil explorations not this savage destruction of our water supply.

watch this !

Fault Lines Fracking in America - YouTube

The fact of the matter is that there will always be a struggle going on between the Rockefellers (and their powerful corporations) and the common citizens they buy off. The ways and means these entities possess essentially gives them a carte blanche to do whatever they deem necessary in the name of progress and capital gain. If they get caught red-handed, they send an army of lawyers and politicians to man their defense. If that doesn't work, they amend the law. It's not right.

On school grounds !

Documents Uncovered Show Leak at Fracking Site on School Property Last July - YouTube

They obviously do not have our best interest in mind