Hydraulic fracturing in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hydraulic fracturing in the USA - Essay Example Fracking open up fractures in the rocks allowing oil and gas to flow. Drilling alone cannot be used to extract trapped shale gas in thin layers between the rocks. Therefore, gas and oil producers in the United States have deployed hydraulic fracturing to facilitate the mining into large shale natural gas and oil deposits. The use of the hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas and oil has ensured a long-term energy security outlook in the United States. This is due to the ability to exploit the shale. In this regard, the crude oil reserves have been bolstered by 11% and led to 47% surge in gas reserves across the United States. Fracking has reduced dependence on foreign energy sources, and as results the cost of energy has reduced helping to revive the economy. Therefore, there is a direct reduction of importation of natural gas. With hydraulic fracturing, there has been an expansion in the employment sector especially in the United States. The industry engaging on natural gas and oil production has employed more than 1.2 million people in the United States. Extracting underground minerals using hydraulic fracturing has some negative effect on water. The mining process requires millions of gallons of water. Therefore, water gets trucked around the shale and directed into the well; thus there is a diversion of water from other uses by the neighboring communities (Schultz, 2012). Moreover, some hazardous chemicals mixed with water may find the way into the fresh water aquifers especially if there exist poorly constructed wells. This endangers the health of organisms using such water. Hydraulic fracturing process together with the injection of wastewater into deep wells practice, cause minor earthquakes to shale exploitation areas. The survey of geologists of the United States has revealed that some tremors from hydraulic