Long-Term Costs Of Fracking Are Staggering:
By Jane Dale Owen via chron.com
All the hype by the fossil fuel industry about energy independence
from fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in tight gas reservoirs like the
Barnett Shale has left out the costs in energy, water and other
essential natural resources.
Furthermore, a recent report from the Post Carbon Institute finds that projections for an energy boom from non-conventional fossil fuel sources is not all it’s cracked up to be.
The report cites a study by David Hughes,
Canadian geologist, who says the low quality of hydrocarbons from
bitumen – shale oil and shale gas – do not provide the same energy
returns as conventional hydrocarbons due to the energy needed to extract
or upgrade them. Hughes also notes that the “new age of energy
abundance” forecast by the industry will soon run dry because shale gas
and shale oil wells deplete quickly. In fact, the “best fields have
already been tapped.”
“Unconventional fossil fuels all share a host of cruel and limiting
traits,” says Hughes. “They offer dramatically fewer energy returns;
they consume extreme and endless flows of capital; they provide
difficult or volatile rates of supply over time and have large
environmental impacts in their extraction.”
We must ask, is it worth the cost when it takes from 3 million to 9
million gallons of water per fracture to extract this fuel? The
withdrawal of large quantities of surface water can substantially impact
the availability of water downstream and damage the aquatic life in the
water bodies, says Wilma Subra,
scientist and national consultant on the community and environmental
impact of fracking. When groundwater resources are used, aquifers can be
drawn down and cause wells in the area to go dry...Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/03/19/1742171/long-term-costs-of-fracking-are-staggering/
