Essay Example on Hydraulic fracturing is known as fracking

Hydraulic fracturing known as fracking is a technique used to recover gas and oil from shale rock Fracking is a process of drilling down into the earth with a high pressure water mixture that is guided to the rock and then releases the gas inside Water sand and other chemicals are put inside the rock at high pressures which will let the gas flow out to the head of the well Early humans knew enough to burn the oil shale as a fuel source but the earliest fracking can be traced back to is 1862 The first form of fracking innovation didn't take place until the 1930 s The birth of hydraulic fracturing began in 1947 After finally achieving experimental success in 1949 fracking became commercialized quickly Modern day fracking didn't begin until the 1990 s This originated when George P Mitchell created a new technique by combining hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling The United States is estimated to be the largest known shale gas reserves in the world According to the gas and oil industry this could help in the country's energy change from coal to renewable sources like wind and solar About 40 percent of the country's electricity is fueled by natural gas As natural gas has increased so has the debate on how the fuel is obtained In this essay you will learn how fracking works and what techniques are used for fracking You will learn where fracking occurs and why You will also learn the effects fracking has on the environment good and bad Then you can decide for yourself if fracking is good or bad for our environment and if we should continue to do it 

The process of fracking could be vertical or horizontal drilling Horizontal drilling is more common because it can create new pathways to release gas or it can open up existing channels The term fracking refers to how the rock is fractured by the high pressure mixture Land acquisition and leasing cost 2 1 million Permitting cost 10 000 Vertical drilling cost 663 00 Horizontal drilling cost 1 2 million Hydraulic fracturing cost 2 5 million Completion cost 200 000 Production to gathering cost 472 000 More than 7 6 million is invested in a community for every well that is drilled In 2000 there were 23 000 fracking wells producing about 102 000 barrels of oil a day Now there are 300 000 fracking wells producing about 4 3 million barrels a day One barrel of oil produced from fracking cost 60 Oil produced from fracking cost consumers 0 29 to 0 94 per gallon on gasoline and other products Fracking is good because it benefits health by not producing air pollution like burning fossil fuels would Fracking produces about 30 percent of our electricity which causes nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions to reduce dramatically Fracking leads to lower taxes because it allows us to have more access to gas and oil 

The fracking industry also creates a lot more jobs Fracking also lets us be dependent and not have to rely on other countries for oil Fracking can be bad by increasing water pollution because fracking uses so much water and the water can seep into the earth and end up in water reservoirs contaminating the water with chemicals Fracking can lead to droughts because of all the water that is needed to frack Fracking is believed to have caused earthquakes because they are drilling into the ground Fracking will increase noise pollution because the process is very loud and takes a long time to do Fracking fluid caused months long earthquake events in Alberta Alberta Energy Regulator issued an order requiring operators to shut down any facking operations causing seismic activity over magnitude 4 that occurs within 5 kilometers of the well Research was funded to find out what was causing the earthquakes Researchers found that the increased pressure caused small changes in stress within the earth that caused the earthquakes They also found that the high pressure fluids went downwards reaching a pre weakened fault which caused the earthquakes Fracking industries have to be located where shale deposits are buried North Carolina does not have any fracking industries 

As of May 2017 North Carolina did not have oil or natural gas reserves This means no fracking occurred in the state as of May 2017 Fracking is a process of drilling down into the earth with a high pressure water mixture that is guided to the rock and then releases the gas inside The United States is estimated to be the largest known shale reserves in the world More than 7 6 million is invested in a community for every well that is drilled There are 300 000 fracking wells producing about 4 3 million barrels a day There are pros and cons to fracking Like fracking benefits health by not producing air pollution but fracking can cause droughts because the process needs a lot of water In this essay you learned how fracking works and what techniques are used in the process You learned where fracking occurs and why You also learned the effects fracking has on the environment good and bad Now you can decide for yourself if fracking is good or bad for our environment and if we should continue to do it