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Is natural gas from fracking – used to produce electricity – going to be a bridge to renewables?
Should we be celebrating the rise in fracked ‘oil’ which has increased US oil production?
definitions
conventional gas or oil: in permeable rock, flows out easier and cheaper to extract
unconventional gas or oil: in less permeable rock, more difficult and more expensive to extract
coalbed methane
shale gas
tight gas
shale oil
what, where and how?
‘basins’ and ‘plays’: Pennsylvania, Texas, and beyond
hydraulic fracturing (fracking or frac’ing)
horizontal drilling
inputs
explosives: the ‘perf gun’ (aka perforation gun)
energy input (pumping trucks, trucks to haul equipment and waste)
fracking fluid (many toxic chemicals)
water
outputs & impacts
water discharge (toxic flowback, toxic produced water)
radioactive waste
water contamination: spills and/or groundwater contamination (methane, toxic chemicals)
air contamination and emissions: the methane problem (Anthony Ingraffea, Cornell U.)
earthquakes: from reinjection wells (not from fracking itself)
landscape, infrastructure, and livelihood
man camps and violence against women: Indigenous resistance
labor: instability & toxicity
Biden, COP and climate legislation:
whittled down to trying to reduce methane leakage from oil and gas industry
the myth of “responsibly sourced gas”
For the public health junkies:
Concerned Health Professionals of NY. 2018. Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings
Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking. 5th Edition. http://concernedhealthny.org/compendium/