RE: As both an oil guy and a rancher, I’ve never understood why environmentalists dislike fracking.
Well, let me explain what the environmentalists are agruing:
* They claim that fracking can contaminate groundwater, cause air pollution, and contribute to climate change by releasing methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
* Additionally, liberals often view fracking as being linked to earthquakes and other seismic activity.
Because of these, They believe that the potential benefits of fracking, such as increased energy production and job creation, are outweighed by the environmental and health risks involved.
Well same methane is released from any drilling. You generally don’t waste methane because that’s money.
The water you drink is less than 500 feet below the surface. Horizontal wells frack miles below that surface. There is much less chance of an up hole leak because there are less wells and the horizontals are much more robust casing.
The “earthquakes” is bedrock settling from poor water disposal. Basically, instead of putting water back to the formation from whence it came, they dispose of it in shallow formations. Eventually the water weighed enough to shove the rock down. This has been made illlegal and now water goes back to the same depth or lower.