Fracking Criticism

In Flower Mound, Texas, residents called upon the state to investigate an alarming spike in the number of children with leukemia, a form of cancer which affects white blood cell production in the body and compromises one’s immune system. In half a dozen Texas counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there were higher rates of invasive breast cancer than anywhere else in the state (Rawlins). Some residents and researchers alike attribute this startling health trend to the natural gas industry and its overwhelming presence in the Lone Star state. In fact, Texas ranks number one in natural gas production nationally, and accounted for nearly thirty percent of all of the US’ natural gas production in 2011 (Davis). Natural gas fracturing or “fracking”

The biggest issues facing my community is the Marcellus and Utica shale gas drilling boom. There are many pros and cons involved. I would like to address a few of them here. The pros are mostly economic advantages like, jobs, increased local tax bases and lower consumer prices for natural gas and other products that come out of the wells with it. Some of the cons are increased traffic on roads that are not designed to handle that volume.

"Hydraulic fracturing, the process of extracting oil or gas by forcing fluids into the ground to fracture shale rocks, at the Eagle Ford Shale Play has produced more oil and natural gas but at the cost of environmental hazards and affect human health. The part of the process that creates the environmental hazards is the fracking fluids that are forced into the ground. For each fracking job, these fluids are comprised of 1 to 8 million gallons of water and 40,000 gallons of chemicals. Some of the 600 chemical carcinogens and toxins in the fracking fluids are lead, radium, uranium, mercury, methanol, hydrochloric acid, ethylene glycol, and formaldehyde. Once the fracking job is done, about 50 to 70 percent of fracking liquids are left in open

This affects the surrounding area by turning the area around into roadways for the transport trucks(Pros and Cons of Fracking), it disrupts the locals(Pros and Cons of Fracking), and the soil in the surrounding area is being tainted with chemicals(Potential Health and Environmental Effects of Hydrofracking in the Williston Basin,

Fracking is not a new think it was invent seventy years ago in 1947(“ Thanks To Fracking, Earthquake Hazards In Parts Of Oklahoma Now Comparable To”).For most of those years it has been loosely regulated because people were further worried about what was happening with the coal industry. The fracking fluid starts in a tank then it moves through a pipe into a sand truck. Then the mixture is moved into the blending truck.

The technological advance of oil and natural gas extraction has advanced greatly in the last few decades. The method of propelling sand, chemicals, and water beneath the surface of the Earth in Shale rocks is known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking (Occupy Theory, 2014); while effective at extracting oil and natural gas, fracking remains a controversial method. Many factors such as water consumption and reduction of surface toxicity play major roles in the debate about the expansion of the fracking industry. With the high price of oil, new technologies were necessary for supply the energy demands and decrease prices. Fracking allows companies to access more oil and gas because they are able to horizontally drill through rocks thereby obtaining more product.

Fracking Protest and the Fight for Aboriginal Rights, David Shwartz and Mark Gollom of CBC News begin by providing the information that it is Canada’s “duty to consult and accommodate aboriginal people when the development is on their traditional land.” Non-aboriginal people in New Brunswick also opposed fracking in the area. Because of this, the county’s council “voted nearly unanimously for a moratorium on shale gas exploitation” (Shwartz & Gollom para.8). Stephen Augustine, principal of Unama’ki College, explained how the rights to lands or resources of the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet people were never surrendered in treaties, but that the treaties were of “peace and friendship,” which the Canadian government has acknowledged. Bill Gallagher, the author of Resource Rulers: Fortune and Folly on Canada’s Road to Resources who spent the first third of his life in New Brunswick, believed this protest was a part of a continuum; that there are issues the government must go back to address, and a cooling-off period is needed.

Hydraulic fracturing is a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock and release the gas (what is). This new and booming form of extracting natural gasses from shale rock is sweeping the nation in controversy. Fracking has many issues, those for it claim it has large economic benefits while remaining environmentally safe. Those against claim it does in fact effect our environment, The debate over fracking and its recent boom indicate a need for better understanding of the effects of Hydraulic Fracking.

In the article “Dirty oil is turning Canada into a corrupt Petro State” written by the Canadian, Journalist, well-awarded author Andrew Nikiforuk, argues that bitumen, steam plants, and tar sands are changing Canada from a country that cared; to a country that does not stand for much. Throughout this rhetorical analysis, I will use the three appeals to prove these points. The author Andrew Nikiforuk uses the appeal of Ethos to help get his message across to his readers. The appeals of ethos proves that the author has credibility and authority.

I acknowledge that our nation is one of the biggest users of natural resource and our overreliance on the natural gas cannot be overemphasized. I appreciated the claims made by proponents of fracking. They have argued that fracking creates job for people who deserve to secure their livelihoods. It has expanded the opportunities we have for earning more money.

This means the energy companies do not have to apply for permits to inject chemicals into the wells they are fracking. Jackie Shulkie began suffering from headaches, nausea and skin rashes and she was diagnosed as having been exposed to hydrocarbons. As Jackie said, she lives out in the open in the country, and she never experienced any of these problems until fracking began on her neighbor’s

Thesis statement The benefits of natural gas hydraulic fracking do not justify the adverse effects it causes through continuous earthquakes, pollution of the water table, or potential health hazards to human populations. This subject is interesting to me because I work for a natural gas company. I have had many conversations with other employees regarding natural gas fracking, and most of them are biased to the views of the drilling companies which means they do not see any harm in it. There also used to be companies fracking for natural gas in Arkansas on the Fayetteville Shell. The number of small earthquakes did rise (3.0 or smaller), but there was nothing resulting in a large amount of devastation.

The first pro of fracking is that it is an alternative source of easily accessible fuel. The plentiful supply of oil and gas may not seem great today due to air and water pollution, but there will again be a time where resources will be scarce, but with fracking there won’t be another time. If oil drilling and fracking are both continued there won’t be another fuel shortage in an estimated 100 years in the US. Not only are oil shortage avoided but a country’s dependency on foreign oil will decrease and oil exports across America will decrease. Another pro for fracking is the reduction of surface toxicity.

Hydraulic fracturing can affects land use and water consumption, methane emissions, air emissions, water contamination, noise pollution, and health. Water and air pollution are the biggest risks to human health from hydraulic fracturing. Research is underway to determine if human health has been affected, and rigorous adherence to regulation and safety procedures is required to avoid harm. (wiki) New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo will ban fracking.

Researchers have “requested data from Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Texas, all states heavily involved in the recent surge of oil and gas drilling, about complaints related to hydraulic fracking for oil and gas” for their research on fracking (Dechert).   The research collected was shocking, over 2,000 complaints in Texas alone and several cases on well water contamination within the states mentioned in Decherd’s article. People need to be alerted about how real fracking is and the damages it is doing. These complaints and cases should be a wakeup call to the world and say that we should put it to a