What the Frac...ing

The United States has been a major consumer of oil, coal, and natural gas. We have used those energy resources for the past 100 years. Our industrial sectors (manufacturing, agriculture, mining, construction), our transportation sectors (vehicles used to transport people or goods), our commercial sectors (office buildings, stores, churches, service industry, etc...) and even our homes depend on fossil fuels. As of 2012, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 81% of our energy needs came from fossil fuels, with only 9% from various renewable energy sources, and 8% from nuclear electric power. The United States in 2012 was able to produce 83% of the energy needed with the remainder imported. It's clear that we as a nation depend on energy to keep our economy going, but is the continued consumption of fossil fuel the right thing in the long run. It's estimated that we have enough oil to last anywhere from 50 to 140 years, depending on who you believe and that may increase with continued innovations and efficiencies to technology that makes oil accessible.Our need for energy is so demanding that we have created a new process called Hydraulic fracturing better known as fracking. Fracking drills a whole into the earth right above a shale deposit. The drill goes down a few miles then angles of horizontally for a couple of miles and then basically pushes water, sand, and chemicals into cracks made by the drill until natural gas is released.  Fracking is being done at the Bakken and Marcellus shale formation in the northern Appalachian Basin which goes through various states.

The U.S. Geological Survey 2013 reassessment of the Bakken and Three forks area found that the Bakken and Three Forks area contained "7.4 billion barrels of oil, 6.7 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas, and 0.53 billion barrels of natural gas liquids". The OhioEPA on their "Drilling for Natural Gas in the Marcellus and Utica Shales: Environmental Regulatory Basics" paper states that there are "363 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to satisfy U.S. energy demands for about 14 years." This enormous amount has brought the oil industry to expand into these areas. The oil companies have moved into these areas and leased the land from home owners and created thousands of wells. The wells are flushed with "...up to four million gallons of fresh water" and that water contains sand and chemicals. Most of the water stays underground and around 15% of it comes up the well within 7 days. The environmental impact of fracking hasn't be thoroughly studied, but there's a growing concern that the process may be contaminating groundwater. In 2011 the Environmental Protection Agency released a draft report stating that chemicals from fracking were found in well water in Wyoming.

The environmental problems are just one of the issues surrounding fracking. The presence of newly found oil and gas brings a huge amounts of people from all walks of life from around the U.S. into the affected areas. The oil companies have to keep water, waste water, gas, oil, and other products moving to and from the sites. Oil workers of all types work at the rigs and become permanent workers of the areas as the wells can last 30-40 years. Small rural towns that weren't equipped to handle thousands of people find struggle through growing pains. The boom is great for local business like restaurants, bars, hotels, and stores. However, there is a darker side in the increase in crime, prostitution and the change in the rural communities culture. The towns don't have the resources, or the budgets, to build new roads, schools, or hire staff. Hiring staff becomes a problem as the towns can't pay as well a salary as the oil companies. The documentary "Boom! Behind the Bakken" by PBS Montana chronicles the issues around fast growth of the town of Williston in Montana, a small town around the Bakken area. Economically fracking is positive for the individuals, towns, region and country. It creates thousands of jobs and provides and energy resource that the country needs.

Fracking creates jobs. During the Conservative Policy Summit this year Senator Ted Cruz of Texas goes on the say that the average pay of North Dakota is $45 an hour. That McDonalds was given a $300 sign in bonus, that high school graduates can earn more than $80k driving a truck and Wal-Mart cashiers are making $17 an hour.  Daniel Simmons Director of State Affairs at the Institute for Energy Research stated that  "...multistate governmental agency representing states' oil and gas interests have found no evidence of groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing fluids." Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy Corporation explains fresh water aqua-firs occur from the surface to at most 1000 feet below the surface and that companies are fracking at a distance much further than that . He implied that the drinking water will be safe.

A 60 Minutes show aired on May 4, 2013 goes into details around the human errors that cause accidents, leakeages, spills, and explosions. The state EPA fined a fracking company after recording infrared images of hissing and poping smoke stack. The same video shows an accident in Lousiana where 17 cows died because they ingested fracking fluids that run off into their pastures. If those chemicals can kill a cow what do you think it will do humans? To make matters worst the companies that conduct fracking are not required by law to list what chemicals are being used to frac. This is because they where exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) via a loop hole known as Haliburton loop hole which was pushed by then Vice President Dick Cheney. Even with the issues documented with fracking it is still a real opportunity for the U.S. to become energy independent and remove OPEC from our energy equation. It shouldn't be an end all. We should continue with fracking but ensure that companies adhere to the law and that government puts in place stronger safety standards that minimize accidents. The corporations running the fracking sites should be held to a more stringent safety standard to ensure the environment isn't destroyed. Furthermore, government should continue to invest in the creation of cleaner, renewable energy and see the additional fossil fuel capacity of the shale formations as bridge to green energy. This will be the way our economy can transition from old and dying legacy fuels to greener, cleaner, healthier alternatives that can keep our economy growing without destroying our environment.