Fracking and its Growing Popularity

Fracking has been widely covered in the press over the last decade, and it is undoubtedly fraught with controversy.

FREMONT, CA: Hydraulic fracturing is a contentious technique for extracting fossil fuels—in the form of oil or natural gas—from rock formations thousands of feet beneath the Earth's surface. It entails utilizing pressurized fluids to fracture bedrock formations to release trapped fossil liquids and gases. This activity has a profound effect on the subterranean rock structures.

Fracking has fueled an oil boom in the United States by enabling oil extraction from shale rocks, which contain an abundance of difficult-to-reach hydrocarbons. While this has resulted in cheaper oil costs and increased energy independence for the United States, there are substantial environmental concerns about fracking and how it changes places it operates.

Fracking begins with deep drilling into the Earth to build a conduit for injecting high-pressure fluids into shale or other types of rock formations containing hydrocarbons, the primary component of fossil fuels. After drilling the proper hole, a highly pressurized mixture of water, sand, and chemicals is sent straight to the rock area to liberate the trapped oil and gas. Hydrocarbons that have been newly released then flow to the surface to be collected.

There are various explanations for the controversy surrounding fracking. The technique necessitates the use of massive amounts of freshwater, which degrades after being injected into fissures and must be carried to fracking sites, incurring additional environmental expenses.

Additionally, there are concerns about earthquakes and tremors linked with fracking—and many environmentalists are concerned that the chemicals used in fracking fluids to help break apart rocks would escape and contaminate the groundwater surrounding any potential site. As a result, drinking water quality is adversely affected.

As a result of these worries, the fracking business has been subjected to growing regulatory scrutiny, yet the danger of anything going wrong remains.

The environmental consequences of fracking vary from excessive water use and seismic disturbances to greenhouse gas emissions and chemical seepage; it's reasonable to assume that fracking is declining. Overall, fracking operations decreased significantly in 2019 and again in 2020, while the latter was mainly owing to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Nonetheless, the oil and gas sector plans to invest more than $70 billion in new gas-fired power facilities through 2025, according to two different Rocky Mountain Institute analyses. This demonstrates that, despite mounting environmental pressure, natural gas will continue to play a significant role in meeting the world's energy needs in the near future—and that fracking is the most direct method of extracting this resource, particularly from shale reserves in the United States.

Companies consider the source of the gas and other resources used to generate electricity while also adhering to all applicable environmental requirements.