Harsh Facts of the Week
American offshore oil
drilling extracts about 1.5 million barrels a day. In comparison, the current
daily oil consumption of the United States is 21 million barrels.
Drilling technologies
have improved, leading to less spill occurrences. However, at current
extraction rates, predictions indicate that in the Gulf of Mexico over the next
forty years, there will be one oil spill per year of at least 1,000 barrels.
An average hydraulic
fracturing (fracking) well requires three to eight million gallons of water
over its lifetime.
In 2011, France
became the first nation to ban hydraulic fracturing.
Natural gas extracted
by fracking may have a significant environmental advantage over coal mining;
when burned, shale (natural) gas emits half the carbon dioxide per unit of
energy as coal. Regardless, fracking adds greenhouse gases to the atmosphere
through extraction leakage and emissions from burning natural gas. Methane, a
greenhouse gas about twenty times more effective at trapping heat than carbon
dioxide, can leak during hydraulic fracturing. So, it is unclear which is
potentially “healthier” for the environment.
Fracking for natural gas provides
major economic advantages and allows access to stores of fuel that otherwise
would have remained untouched. If you read up on the topic, you’ll find that
hydraulic fracturing has disadvantages and advantages, both of which can be
heavily and extensively argued. While fracking supporters provide some solid defenses,
I still find myself opposed to fracking for one major, overlaying reason.
Our Earth’s fuel resources are
limited. Finding new places and ways to obtain it is helpful in the short run.
However, in the long run, we’ll eventually be left high and dry, or we’ll
suffocate on our own fumes, whichever comes first. Every time the sun shines, a
wind blows, and a river flows, there’s raw energy that can be tapped into,
perhaps indefinitely so. I want my country, and at the very least, New York
State, to realize the superior long term benefits of focusing on renewable
energy, rather than temporary solutions to the energy crisis. Instead of
pouring oceans of money into lobbying, promoting, developing, and executing
fracking, I want the efforts to be shifted to renewable. Developing renewable
energy can provide just as many jobs and will be more economical and ethical to carry out
than harvesting fossil fuels.
Most importantly, renewable sources
are the only reliable way to provide energy to the masses without further
damaging the environment. It’s such a simple, healthy concept. So why is a big
chunk of society and business fighting back against its evolution?
We have an addiction to fuel, all
of us, myself included. I’m ready to
beat my addiction. That’s why I traveled to Albany today and rallied in the
capitol against fracking for over three hours. The details of my experience
will be described in a separate post.
