During tonight’s national coverage fracking was a topic brought up on multiple occasions. Can someone explain what it is and the pros and cons of it? Need it because a google search did not help :/
In: Biology
I didn’t bother to watch the debate, but the only definition of Fracking that i know of is short for Hydraulic Fracturing, a method used to drill for oil and natural gas. The method basically uses a pressurized water mixture to break open bedrock to access fossil fuels more readily, but its highly controversial due to pollution concerns.
Fracking refers to the method of pumping millions of gallons of water into oil shale formations underground. Oil shale cannot be mined for oil in the traditional way.
By hydraulically fracturing the oil shale, the oil and natural gas trapped within gets freed and the oil can be easily extracted while the natural gas just escapes into the environment, doing fun things like contaminating the ground water and spoiling the water table.
Fracking is another name for a process called “hydraulic fracturing”. In this process, a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals is pumped into an oil well, breaking up the rock and releasing additional oil and gas. The pro is that it can extend the life of otherwise spent wells, producing additional oil and gas and lowering prices. The cons are that the chemicals used and oil and gas released can leech into ground water, and people living near fracked wells have reported strange flavors in their drinking water as well as being able to light their tap water on fire.
Fracking is a technique used to try to find oil and natural gas reserves under layers of shale. It involves drilling a hole into deep into the ground, and then drilling a horizontal shaft from the bottom of that hole, and then shooting water and sand at high pressure. This will crack layers of the rock, which if there is oil and gas, will release those and make those available to be collected.
The pros, it makes it a lot easier to find oil reserves. The cons, it is really bad for the environment. It pushes minerals and sometimes oil, into ground water reservoirs. It releases gases into the atmosphere. It’s loud. And it increases the likelihood of earthquakes happening.
It’s not really biology, but physics mostly & a bit of chemistry. It’s a shorthand term for hydraulic fracturing—where oil and gas producers inject high pressure fluids to fracture ‘tight’ (typically low permeability shale) rocks to liberate hydrocarbons (oil & gas). The fluids are mixed with chemicals and proppants (usually surfactants and sands) to reach further into the rock formation and hold open the cracks created by fracturing. This is in contrast to conventional methods which targeted porous rocks with high permeability (usually sandstones) where the hydrocarbons can migrate without stimulation (fracking). This revolution has enabled firms to target what were conventionally considered seal or cap formations as sources of new production & is what has enabled the US to become the largest producer in the world.
Fracking involves pumping mostly water deep down into the ground, where previously unreachable deposits of oil and fractured methane (“natural gas”) are. Horizontal drilling is also used. Pumping high pressure water into the ground fractures underground rock. This rock often contains oil or methane which is then piped to the surface.
The NRDC has a good explanation, [here.](https://www.nrdc.org/stories/fracking-101#work)
The cons include:
* [Damaged water supplies](https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1100682108)
* [Increased amount of earthquakes](https://phys.org/news/2023-08-fracking-earthquakes.html)
* More CO2 and methane emissions in the atmosphere.
Pros:
* More oil and gas is available without having to find and drill entirely new wells, which is time consuming and expensive.
* Old, previously abandoned/unproductive wells can produce again.
It’s a wedge issue in Pennsylvania because the state has a LOT of natural gas sources, the largest of which is called the Marcellus Shale, which is the second largest (known) deposit of natural gas on the planet and the fracking industry employs a lot of people in PA and the companies are very happy to endorse any candidate who will pledge to support them.
To add to what the other answer didn’t provide: it’s also a divisive issue because fracking and natural gas extraction is extremely inefficient and leads to release of methane into the atmosphere, which is a greenhouse gas 80x more potent than carbon dioxide. It also releases toxic chemicals into groundwater, which can render drinking water in the surrounding communities undrinkable (and occasionally flammable).
Fracking is a shortened term for the process called hydraulic fracturing. Basically it’s a process for oil and gas extraction where high pressure fluid is injecting into wells drilled deep down into rock. This high pressure fluid causes cracks to form in the rock, which makes it easier to then extract the oil and gas.
Pros and cons are somewhat subjective. I suppose a pro would be that it allows easier and cheaper extraction of lots of oil and gas (and thus, theoretically, lowering oil and gas prices), but that could also be seen as a con. Fracking also has a number of environmental concerns. First, having more oil and gas means more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to increase global warming. Fracking also has local environmental concerns. Some of the chemicals used in fracking fluid are toxic and can leach into the ground water and surface water, which is a source for drinking water and agricultural water for many people. Also, Fracking uses up a lot of water as part of the fracking fluid, so that diverts local water resources away from things like agriculture and human needs, and can be an issue in areas with limited water resources.
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We need energy to power everything, and Fracking can help power our devices. They make a big disruption deep under ground, which forces the chemicals we need to rise. They catch the chemicals and use them to make energy, and all this also creates jobs.
The bad thing is it’s not harmless. We were originally sold on the technology because it was cleaner than things like coal and oil, but now we know it’s not much better. It releases poisonous gas and pollutes our drinking water. One of the biggest problems is the ground doesn’t like being disturbed like that, so states such as Oklahoma which are big into Fracking used to have 1-2 earthquakes a year, and now they have hundreds and hundreds each and every year.
We need the energy and the jobs, but it’s destroying the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the very ground we stand on.
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