What Is Fracking?

Copyright © 2012-2013 Fracktivist.com. All rights reserved.

Fracking is the common name for a process used by oil and gas companies to induce hydraulic fracturing. Hydrofracking includes injecting highly pressurized chemicals, sand and water into a wellbore. The pressure forces natural gas, petroleum and other fossil fuels out of the bedrock, so they can be collected and sold. As the solution is pumped into the rock base, it makes more cracks that speed the release of the desired substances.

What’s So Bad about Fracking?

Fracking can cause serious side-effects to the immediate environment. Once the gas has been removed, the sandstone or shale rock base is left with gaps that make the bedrock unstable. Gas companies try to fill those cracks with sand or other particulates that will keep the crack from collapsing, but that doesn’t always help. In areas where the fracking is done far below the surface, the cracks are nearly impossible to fill. These cracks can cause minor earthquakes.

Water contamination is another consequence of fracking. Sometimes the gas ends up in the water table. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize the health risks associated with the presence of oil in the water table. Cancer and other illnesses are common in areas of high fracking activity.

What are Fracktivists?

There are numerous efforts under way around the world to ban fracking. Anti-fracking activists, called fracktivists, have been able to establish frack-free zones in some areas. A fracktivist, no matter how zealous, has a hard time keeping a gasoline company from a source of gas, even if the process is dangerous to the local water table and geologic structure. Gas companies have lobbyists and plenty of money to spread around to keep politicians on their side. They get laws passed that permit this haphazard operation to continue with few regulations and little culpability.

When Dick Cheney was Vice-President of the United States, he was able to get the Energy Policy Act of 2005 passed. This act exempts fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Because Cheney was the former CEO of Halliburton, the act is referred to as the Halliburton Loophole. It has since been discovered that critical information was omitted from the report that was used to pass that Energy Policy Act.

It’s a shame that corporate greed and outright lying have led to fracking sites across the United States. Ohio has recently experienced earthquakes in areas of fracking that previously had no seismic activity. Sadly, these events have had little effect on the conscience of greedy businessmen and their money-hungry petroleum companies.

Copyright © 2012-2013 Fracktivist.com. All rights reserved.

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