For those who don’t know, hydraulic fracturing or “hydrofracking” is the process of injecting millions of gallons of water at an extremely high pressure into dried up oil and gas wells. Some of these wells can be as deep as 10,000 feet. These highly pressurized mixtures of water and chemicals breaks up the rock formations that contain high quantities of natural gas. States that are commonly known for their hydrofracking practices are New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Hydrofracking has been around for many years but not until recently has the government begun to try to stick it’s nose in the industry’s business via intense regulation.In today’s post, we wanted to highlight some of the pros hydrofracking brings to the people in the industry and the communities they represent.
The Advantages Of Hydrofracking
- It is the most efficient way of extracting oil and natural gas from shale rock underneath the surface
- These oil and gases are abundant in the United States. It is cheaper for us to find, distribute and consume because we don’t have to purchase from foreign suppliers.
- It allows us to access billions of reserves to exploit natural resources that we once believed to be unattainable. It truly has turned our industry around.
- Natural gas production is one of the cleanest burning fuels we have available. This is preferred to using much dirtier fossil fuels.
- Fracking is also often used to revitalize drinking wells. This fact is commonly left out of the argument against fracking.
- The industry creates many jobs. In Pennsylvania, hydrofracking added 72,000 jobs between 2009 and 2011 alone http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303936704576398462932810874.html
- The majority of the fluid injected is comprised of 95% water and sand. All other chemicals are disclosed to regulatory officials.
Overall, hydrofracking is a safe process when done in a controlled environment with proper supervision and precautions. It’s important to know all of the facts before claiming that these processes are harmful to the environment and “draining the world’s water supply.” Hydrofracking is instrumental to obtaining the natural resources that we need to survive everyday!