August
2019: The latest about Fracking is in this article,
by Tara Lohan:
https://www.ecowatch.com/risks-and-harms-of-fracking-2639651274.html
(I hope there aren't
too many ads on the piece. Please ignore them and read
the information. It is very interesting.)
This is a massive subject
to cover. Fracking is the latest way to extract gas
from Shale rock in the ground. It is such a controversial,
technological subject, that people get really angry
about on both sides, for and against. I am a non-scientific
person so not qualified to write about the subject so
I will only add links to pages that are thought provoking
written by those who know their subject. But first an
introduction to the man who started this modern fracking
boom in the 1990's. Although there is more
to the story
George Phydias Mitchell
(1919 - 2013) was the billionaire Texan oilman who will
be remembered as a man who set in motion the technological
breakthroughs that have led to America’s current
oil and gas boom.
But just because he touched off the “fracking”
revolution doesn't mean Mitchell was a knee-jerk apostle
of the practice. In perhaps his last interview in July
2012, he spoke to me about how he was in favor of more
regulation of fracking. “The administration is
trying to tighten up controls,” he told me. “I
think it’s a good idea. They should have very strict
controls. The Department of Energy should do it.”
The
article by Christoper Helman - Forbes staff is here.
Though hydraulic fracturing
has been used widely in oil and gas drilling since the
1950's, it was Mitchell who in the 1990s first decided
to use fracking to break up layers of impermeable shale
rock in the Barnett formation near Fort Worth.
So why did Mitchell
think fracking needs to be better controlled? “Because
if they don’t do it right there could be trouble,”
he said. There’s no excuse not to get it right.
“There are good techniques to make it safe that
should be followed properly,” he said. But, the
smaller, independent drillers, “are wild.”
“It’s tough
to control these independents. If they do something
wrong and dangerous, they should punish them,”
Mitchell said. All of them “know how to set up
a proper well and do the proper technology.” But
a few bad actors could ruin the entire industry. Mitchell
dismissed any concern that the costs to drillers of
abiding by a barrage of fracking regulations would be
egregious. After all, any extra costs associated with
best practices—assuming all producers follow them—would
be passed on in the price of natural gas.
What
is Fracking?
From Auburn University, Alabama
http://cla.auburn.edu/ces/energy/fracking/
10 Myths
of Fracking
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/g161/top-10-myths-about-natural-gas-drilling-6386593/
The
potential for spills and leaks of contaminated liquids
from shale gas developments
A Reversal from the EPA on Fracking's role in Water
Polution - 2016
This page linked
below is a very interesting one. It is also Scientific
and goes into different scenarios. Written in 2018 it
is one of the newer resources we can learn from.
Potential types of Spills & Leaks:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718302146
I will continue
adding to this subject when up to date information comes
in to me.
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Earthquakes
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Tsunami's
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Flooding
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Explosions
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Whales
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Greenhouse
Gas
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Acid
Rain
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Garbage
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Alternative
Power Sources
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Plastic Waste
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Links
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5G |
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