Even oil and gas companies that are fracking wells on federally managed public lands are rarely fined for violating environmental and safety rules — and the few fines that are levied are small compared to industry profits, according to a congressional report.
As a result, regulating fracking falls largely to the states. Inadequate disclosure and poor protections are common features of state fracking laws. In Texas, for example, companies routinely exploit a trade-secret loophole to avoid disclosing which chemicals they're using in fracking fluid.
Companies used the Texas trade-secret exemption about 19, times in the first eight months of Pennsylvania state agencies have also confirmed more than cases of pollution in the past five years, despite the state's fracking regulations. Fracking pollution occurs even in states with regulations. The best way to protect our water, air and climate is to ban fracking now. But hasn't fracking been done in the United States for many years? Yes — but today's fracking techniques are new and pose new dangers.
Technological changes have facilitated an explosion of fossil fuel production in areas where, even a decade ago, companies couldn't recover oil and gas profitably. Directional drilling, for example, is a new technique that has greatly expanded access to rock formations.
As fracking methods have changed and fracking has expanded, so has the threat to public health and the environment increased. How can fracking booms damage infrastructure and create social problems? Heavy truck traffic associated with fracking in North Dakota has caused extensive damage to state roads. Drilling and fracking a single well can require more than 1, truck trips. The North Dakota fracking boom has also led to increased traffic accidents and traffic fatality rates.
Hospitals in the state's oil-boom area are suffering a debt crisis fueled by the need to treat workers who don't have health insurance or permanent addresses. But won't fracking lead the United States to energy independence? In a word: No. While U. E California. F Colorado. R Louisiana. T Maryland. In addition to water quality issues, fracking wells release compounds into the air, such as benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and n-hexane; long-term exposure to these has been linked to birth defects, neurological problems, blood disorders and cancer.
These findings were shared after NIOSH studied full shift air samples at 11 hydraulic fracturing sites in five states. Benzene, for example, is a known carcinogen, according to the American Cancer Society.
In , researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health released a study showing that air pollution caused by fracking could contribute to immediate and long-term health problems for people living near fracking sites.
Research by over studies suggests that chemicals released during natural gas extraction may harm human reproduction and development. A study also found that living near a fracking site might increase a person's risk of developing mild, moderate or severe asthma.
Additionally, many areas of the United States not considered earthquake-prone, such as Ohio and Oklahoma, are now experiencing relatively strong seismic activity; a study found that the chances of a damaging earthquake occurring in parts of Oklahoma and some neighboring states are just as likely as they are in quake-prone California. Fracking is believed to be the cause of Oklahoma's strongest recorded quake in and more than tremors in Texas between and To start off , an area of North Texas had nine confirmed earthquakes in a hour period.
Fracking is being investigated as the cause. Two studies suggested that hidden faults beneath the surface may explain earthquakes in fracking zones ; a study suggested that one way to calm the shaking was to limit the amount of wastewater pumped into wells deep underground. According to a study of the Orito Field in Colombia, only around 15 percent of proppants can be removed after the fracking is done.
Does leaving these foreign substances in a place where they weren't originally harmful? Bjornerud agrees, "Even with the sand propping open the cracks, the weight of the overlying rock will, over months and years, cause the cracks to close and the rock's permeability return to about what it was before the fracking.
To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Technically, fracking isn't new: Companies have been using this technique for decades to extract oil and gas from hard-to-exploit rock formations. Halliburton first used hydraulic fracturing back in as a way of increasing the flow of gas from wells in Kansas. In recent years, however, fracking has become much more widespread. In the mids, US companies figured out how to combine fracking with methods like horizontal drilling to extract oil and gas from vast underground shale rock formations at a reasonable price.
There's a lot of oil and gas in shale, so this breakthrough led to a drilling boom in states like North Dakota, Texas, and Pennsylvania. The "fracking boom" has reshaped the American energy landscape.
Domestic production of oil and natural gas has risen sharply, leading to cheaper energy and a reduced reliance on imports. Advocates often argue that fracking is creating jobs, boosting manufacturing, and helping to tackle global warming by reducing the amount of coal we use. Opponents often argue that the industry is poorly regulated, the global warming benefits are overhyped, and that fracking has led to increased air and water pollution around the country.
Using hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to extract oil or gas from shale rock involves a number of steps. Let's walk through a basic fracking operation for natural gas in, say, the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania:. This shale layer can sit more than 5, feet underground and drilling can take as long as a month.
The well is lined with a steel casing to prevent the contamination of nearby groundwater. The fluids crack open the shale rock. The sand holds those cracks open. And the chemicals help the natural gas seep out.
A typical well can produce gas for 20 to 40 years, pumping out thousands of cubic feet of gas each day. That's a very rough overview of the fracking process.
There are plenty of variations, depending on the geology of the region or the technologies used. Often other particles besides sand are used, for instance. And here's a partial listing of some of the different techniques used in North Dakota, for example.
This interactive map from the Post Carbon Institute shows the location of more than 63, shale oil wells and shale gas wells around the country. These aren't the only oil and gas wells in the United States shale represents about 29 percent of total oil production and 40 percent of gas.
But they're the ones that tend to rely heavily on fracking. Since the late s, the amount of oil and natural gas produced in the United States has risen dramatically, thanks to fracking, horizontal drilling, offshore drilling, and other advanced techniques. Supplies are projected to grow further in the years ahead:. Crude oil: By November , the United States was producing 7.
Oil production is now expected to keep growing until it reaches a peak of 9. Natural gas: US natural gas production has also reached new historical highs, to 24 trillion cubic feet in November Supplies are currently expected to grow until at least Note that these predictions are far from perfect — ten years ago, few were predicting the fracking boom. The oil and gas boom — driven by fracking — has had all sorts of effects on the US economy. Here are a few of the big ones:.
More jobs in some states: More drilling means more jobs. The oil and gas industry added , positions between and — growing ten times faster than the nation as a whole. Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania have seen some of the biggest gains:. Higher economic growth: The oil and gas industry is a fairly small portion of the overall US economy, but analysts tend to agree that the fracking boom has helped bolster the country's growth a bit.
JP Morgan estimates that the oil and gas boom added 0. Other models suggest that the boom could add 0. Lower energy prices sometimes : Oil is still quite expensive — because the price of crude oil depends on global supply and demand factors. But US natural gas prices have fallen significantly since the mids though they rebounded during the cold winter, as heating demand surged. That's saved consumers money.
It also means that power plants are more likely to use natural gas for electricity. The decline of coal power: Many electric utilities have taken advantage of cheap prices to switch from coal to natural gas as their preferred power source. That switch has reduced a variety of air pollutants, as well as carbon-dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.
This trend is hurting the coal industry — and one reason why one-fourth of the nation's coal power plants have closed since A boost for US manufacturing: America's glut of cheap natural gas is also luring some manufacturers to the United States. Factories being built in Texas and Pennsylvania will convert natural gas into ethylene, a key ingredient in plastics and antifreeze.
That said, it's unclear how many companies this will affect — as a note from Morgan Stanley points out, energy is still a small fraction of costs for most industries. Lower imports: The United States is importing far less oil and natural gas than it used to — one reason why the trade deficit has dropped to its lowest level since Indeed, many companies are now arguing that US government should loosen its restrictions on selling American oil and gas abroad.
It can. As fracking operations have spread out across the United States, they've triggered protests over air and water pollution. Here's an overview of some of the key concerns:. Groundwater contamination: One big concern is whether the chemicals used in fracking or the natural gas itself could contaminate people's drinking water. There's the worry, for instance, that natural gas leaks could make people's tap water flammable. There are two big ways this might happen. One is through accidents or contamination near the surface.
In recent years, fracking wells have blown out in states like North Dakota. In another incident, thousands of gallons of fracking fluid leaked out of a storage tank in Dimock, Pennsylvania.
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