Research Paper On Fracking

Bobby Carl
Neal Peters
English 102
26 April 2012
What a Fracking Opportunity

The United States has an energy problem. We are dependent on Petro-dictators for the energy needed to fuel our economy. But recently, due to a new technology called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, new estimates of accessible natural gas reserves have increased dramatically. Used throughout the United States and worldwide, this process has profitably unlocked Trillions (emphasis added) of cubic feet of natural gas here at home in just the past few years.

Concern about this new technology spans the political divide. Here’s how fracking works: A 150 foot tall tower is set up; then a five-inch-diameter hole is drilled down several thousand feet until hitting…show more content…
If you watched the movie Gasland, you’d blame fracking as the reason residents’ water catches on fire. But the Colorado community featured in the movie has been catching tap water on fire since at least the 1930’s. The Colorado division of water chronicled “troublesome amounts of ….methane” in the water back in 1976. As it turns out, places that have a lot of gas in the ground have a lot of gas in the ground. (Williamson). Colorado’s gas regulator took the unusual step of releasing a public debunking of Gasland’s claim that fracking is responsible for the flaming faucets. (1)

There’s other stuff in that fracking slurry, too, but really nothing that isn’t considered run of the mill industrial chemicals (those friction-reducers use a polymer that also is used in children’s toys, for example). And these chemicals aren’t injected until the pipes have run more than a mile beneath the surface of the earth, and then it’s being injected 4 or 5 Empire State Buildings deeper than the aquifer, separated by impermeable rock. Fracking couldn’t occur through that if engineers tried.…show more content…
At the same time, we have a fracking great opportunity to reduce the geopolitical turmoil caused by our dependence on foreign energy, and maybe even sell them a few tankers of the stuff while we’re at it.
Works Cited

Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Department of Natural Resources. Gasland Rebuttal. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://cogcc.state.co.us/library/GASLAND%20DOC.pdf>.

McGlynn, Daniel. "Fracking Controversy." CQ Researcher 16 Dec. 2011: 1049-72. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.

"U.S. U.S. Natural Gas Imports & Exports." U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_move_state_dcu_nus_a.htm>.

The Role of Natural Gas in a Low Carbon Energy Economy. Issue brief. World Watch Institute, 1 Apr. 2010. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Worldwatch%20Gas%20Paper%20April%202010.pdf>.

Williamson, Kevin D. "The Truth about Fracking." National Review 20 Feb. 2012: 26-31. Print

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[ 1 ]. Among the most active of the shale-gas formations that stretch across the continental United States, the Marcellus Shale Basin is 575 miles long and reaches beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and