COMMENTARY | Fracturing shale rock to release the natural gas inside, called “fracking,” is either a great method for extracting new energy from existing resources or an ecological disaster that endangers our drinking water. Or both.
Extracting natural gas from shale formations has been going on for some time, but mostly through vertical wells that make extraction simple. Remaining deposits are largely in horizontal wells, which need external stimulation to release the gas. The most common technique is fracking—blasting millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals into the well to break up the shale and release the gas.
The Potential Gas Committee released a study in 2009 indicating that the United States has a resource base of 1,836 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—enough to supply our needs for the next hundred years. Most of it is in geologic formations like the Marcellus Shale, which extends from Tennessee to New York. The gas is difficult to retrieve, though, without techniques like fracking.
The problem, environmentalists say, is the side effects of pumping millions of gallons of toxic—even carcinogenic—chemicals into the ground and then disposing of it. The Associated Press reports that “The fracking liquid gushes back with
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
