Hydraulic fracturing is a process majorly used in the United States to release natural gas from underground wells. It is a technique involving fracturing underground rock by injecting the high-pressure liquid (Sovacool, 2014). The high-pressured fracking fluid creates cracks in the deep-rock formations, thus releasing natural gas, petroleum, and brine. The United States has largely adopted this extraction method since the rocks contain shale gas and oil deposited in a manner that the normal methods of extracting minerals from the underground rock cannot effectively work (Burton et al., 2014). The fracturing fluid comprises of a mixture of water combined with sand and a special cocktail of chemicals; these make the rock break leading to the release of the hidden natural gas, which escapes through the fissures to the surface of the earth (Burton et al. 2014). The gas is then collected and carefully stored ready for processing. The finished product helps in heating homes as well as cooking. In my area, hydraulic fracturing is not used currently, but the recent discovery of natural gas wells will necessitate the use of this process. Just like other processes for extracting minerals, hydraulic fracturing has several advantages as well as disadvantages. Most of the cons align with environmental problems that need consideration as the debate relating to greenhouse gases continue to grow. In recent years, hydraulic fracturing is widely used in natural gas wells, due to its numerous advantages over other processes. In every ten wells, nine of them utilize the fracturing process to extract the gas (Burton at al. 2014). The first advantage is that hydraulic fracturing allows the extraction process to get access to more gas and oil as compared to other forms of extracting natural gas. This is because fracking is able to penetrate to greater depths, hence the volume of natural gas available for cooking and heating homes gets higher. Secondly, hydraulic fracturing allows for an attitude of self-dependence regarding fossil fuel to the respective country (Burton et al., 2014). Most of foreign countries base their economy on the amount of fossil fuel they can export, and some may sell them at exorbitant prices, which become a nightmare to developing countries. Use of hydraulic fracturing increases the supply of natural gas hence reducing its price. At the relatively affordable cost of natural gas, many people across the globe can be able to purchase and consequently improve their living standards. Finally, the use of hydraulic fracturing has led to less pollution. With the increase in supply of natural gas, companies have switched from using fossil fuels to natural gas use hence reducing the amount of greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere. Electricity generating companies, for instance, have substituted fossil fuel with natural gas and the amount of greenhouse gases released has been reduced by half (Hassett & Mathur, 2013). However, hydraulic fracturing is also associated with various cons, which in most cases are environmentally related. First, the deposits emanating from hydraulic fracturing process cause water pollution as they eventually mix with water underground (Sovacool, 2014). Other than the oil and gas deposits, the chemicals found in the fracturing liquid contaminate underground water that eventually flows to water sources. These chemicals can have adverse impacts on both animals and plants. Other than pollution, the disadvantage of using hydraulic fracturing is that it requires a lot of water which may cause serious ecological impacts in areas close to natural gas wells. The use of heavy machines becomes a nuisance to the community as it causes noise pollution during operation. Therefore, after the review of the advantages and disadvantages of using hydraulic fracturing, I would recommend the utilization of this process for the extraction of natural gas in my area. This is because its advantages are more than the disadvantages and such disadvantages can be easily mitigated. The reduced environmental pollution due to the elimination of fossil fuel use and the reduced cost of electricity and natural gas as a result of increase in supply make the biggest reasons for me to advocate for the use of this process.
References
Burton, G., Basu, N., Ellis, R., Kapo, K., Entrekin, S., & Nadelhoffer, K. (2014). Hydraulic “Fracking”: Are surface water impacts an ecological concern? Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry , 33 (8), 1679-1689.
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Hassett, K. & Mathur, A. (2013). Benefits of hydraulic fracking. Oxford Energy Forum. Retrieved from https://www.aei.org/publication/benefits-of-hydraulic-fracking/
Sovacool, B. K. (2014). Cornucopia or curse? Reviewing the costs and benefits of shale gas hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews , 37 , 249-264.
