oil and gas

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, is a drilling technique used to extract oil and natural gas that are dispersed within sedimentary rock formations deep beneath the earth’s surface. It typically involves pumping large quantities of high-pressure water mixed with sand and chemicals into the ground to create fractures in the rock and release the fossil fuels trapped inside. Hydraulic fracturing stimulates the flow of oil or natural gas to the surface, where it can be captured, processed, and used as a source of energy. The technique has enabled the oil and gas industry to extract large volumes of fossil fuels from unconventional locations like shale rock, sandstone, or coalbeds, where the oil or natural gas is dispersed in small pockets rather than concentrated in underground reservoirs.

Proponents claim that fracking and other advanced drilling technologies have revolutionized the energy industry and helped the United States become a world leader in petroleum production. Fracking has exhibited dramatic growth in the twenty-first century. In 2000 the technique accounted for only 2 percent of US oil production, which stood at 5.8 million barrels per day. By 2015, however, total US petroleum production had increased to 9.65 million barrels per day, and fracking was responsible for more than half of oil production and two-thirds of natural gas production. This rapid growth has raised concerns about potential environmental and public health risks associated with the technique. Opponents argue that fracking destroys natural landscapes, contaminates drinking water with hazardous chemicals, contributes to global climate change, and destabilizes underground rock formations to induce earthquakes.

Growth of an Industry

American oil companies experimented with primitive fracking methods involving gunpowder and nitroglycerin as early as the 1860s to break up rock formations and gain access to the fossil fuels trapped inside. The first commercial application of hydraulic fracturing by the modern US petroleum industry came in 1949, when the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company began using jellied gasoline to unlock underground natural gas deposits in Oklahoma and Texas. The US government began actively supporting the research and development of fracking technology during the 1980s in an effort to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign energy sources. By the early 1990s American energy companies had achieved important breakthroughs in hydraulic fracturing equipment and techniques.

In the early twenty-first century, amid concerns about global climate change, some environmentalists supported a shift from coal to natural gas as a source of electricity generation. They viewed natural gas as a cleaner alternative to coal because when burned in power plants it released 50 to 60 percent less carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Natural gas production using traditional vertical drilling techniques could not keep up with the demand, however, because conventional underground reserves of the fuel were being exhausted. US natural gas production declined steadily between 2002 and 2006, resulting in a spike in the fuel’s price. As a result, American consumers faced higher energy and heating costs as well as more expensive food products and industrial goods that were produced using natural gas derivatives.

Around this time hydraulic fracturing became not only technologically possible but also cost effective. Fracking, paired with horizontal drilling, opened up vast new reserves of natural gas and oil contained in shale and tight sand formations deep underground. Energy industry experts estimated that such formations as the Barnett shale in Texas, the Berea sandstone in Michigan, and the Marcellus shale in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia held technically recoverable energy reserves to supply the United States for a century or more. The feasibility of accessing these resources during a time of high energy prices and low interest rates created a fracking boom, with the number of active wells nationwide increasing from 23,000 in 2000 to 300,000 by 2015. Domestic production of petroleum products reached a new high that year at 9.4 million barrels of oil per day and 28.8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas per year, while energy prices fell by more than half. Proponents touted the many benefits of fracking, such as achieving US energy independence, reducing reliance on coal for electricity generation, lowering fuel costs and heating bills, creating new jobs, and promoting economic growth.

Environmental Consequences of Fracking

According to opponents nearly every element of fracking operations has negative environmental impacts. A typical fracking operation requires clearing and leveling around five acres of land to accommodate a well pad, drilling equipment, new access roads, and storage facilities. The ecological disturbance of the operation, however, can extend much further. Clearing land turns forests and rural areas into industrial zones, destroys fragile ecosystems, and fragments wildlife habitat. Like conventional oil and natural gas development, fracking wells require drilling a vertical hole up to two miles deep. Although the well bore is cased with metal and concrete, critics contend that drilling materials can still escape into the ground and contaminate freshwater aquifers. A review by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that two-thirds of fracking wells lacked cement casing in some sections, while a study of fracking wells in Pennsylvania showed that between 6 and 7 percent experienced leakage due to poor structural integrity between 2010 and 2012.

Once a fracking well bore reaches the targeted shale or sandstone rock formation, the drill continues pushing horizontally for thousands more feet to access perforations in the rock. Giant hydraulic pumps force pressurized fluid through these perforations, striking the rock and creating a series of fissures or fractures that may extend several hundred feet in any direction. This releases the trapped oil and gas to flow up the well for capture and processing. Fracking fluid is mostly water mixed with proppants—sand or ceramic pellets that hold open the newly created fractures in the rock. The fluid also contains chemical additives designed to increase flow rates, dissolve sediments, kill bacteria, control temperatures, or prevent degradation inside the well bore. A 2014 study found that at least 10 percent of the chemicals in fracking fluid were toxic to fish and wildlife.

Fracking requires an average of 3 million gallons of water per well. Critics assert that these huge volumes of water deplete resources needed for agricultural and municipal uses or to maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems. The Eagle Ford oil play in Texas, for instance, consumed nearly 18 billion gallons of water in 2013, which amounted to 16 percent of water use in the region. During fracking, large volumes of wastewater flowback also return to the surface of the well, mixed with fracking chemicals and naturally occurring materials such as brines, heavy metals, and radioactive minerals. The flowback is either stored on-site in tanks or pits, hauled away to a wastewater treatment facility, or injected into deep underground disposal wells. When wastewater is stored on-site, toxic chemicals can seep into groundwater or be released into the air through evaporation. An inspection of Ohio fracking operations found at least sixty-three cases in which improper construction or maintenance of wastewater impoundments led to contamination of nearby soil and water. When wastewater is injected into underground wells, it can further destabilize rock layers, increase pressure on tectonic faults, and induce earthquakes. In Oklahoma, a rapid increase in fracking operations since 2008 has contributed to seismic activity forty times greater than previous years. Finally, fracking results in both accidental and intentional releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change.

Impact on Human and Public Health

Opponents argue that many of the environmental risks associated with fracking also pose a threat to human health. In fifteen out of seventeen fracking sites examined in Wyoming and Colorado, workers measuring flowback were exposed to harmful levels of benzene, a chemical that can cause severe damage to the kidneys, liver, nervous system, and immune system. In addition, workers at nearly half of 116 fracking sites in five states were exposed to levels of airborne silica dust that exceeded federal occupational limits. Silica particles are commonly used as a proppant in fracking fluid. When inhaled, silica can penetrate deep into lung tissues and cause diseases like silicosis and lung cancer.

Critics contend that air pollution and water contamination from fracking operations also pose risks to residents of nearby communities. Fracking generates emissions of air pollutants such as methane, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are associated with increased risks of asthma and birth defects. A 2014 study found that children in Colorado who lived within ten miles of a gas well during their prenatal development faced a 30 percent higher risk of congenital heart disease and twice the risk of neural tube defects as children who were not exposed to gas extraction emissions.

Fracking has also been linked to contamination of drinking water supplies in areas with high levels of oil and natural gas development. A number of high-profile cases have affected rural Pennsylvania towns located on the Marcellus Shale, a formation that has experienced a fracking boom since 2005. The EPA, as well as state and local government officials, have received thousands of complaints about water from private wells appearing yellow or brown, having a foul smell, clogging drains with sand and muck, or even igniting when exposed to flame. In a 2016 analysis of fifty-eight water-quality studies conducted in Pennsylvania towns near fracking sites, nearly three-quarters of the studies found contamination associated with petroleum development. Residents who used contaminated water for drinking, bathing, cooking, or watering food crops reported such health complaints as skin rashes, nausea, respiratory infections, neurological impairment, miscarriages, and cancer.

Policy and Politics

Fossil fuel industry experts insist that fracking is safe and that adequate safeguards are in place to protect the environment and public health. They claim that environmentalists and the media have exaggerated a few isolated incidents in an attempt to discredit the entire industry. Opponents argue that fracking expanded too quickly for its full impact to be studied and understood. They also contend that powerful companies in the fossil fuel industry have used their financial clout to lobby elected officials and gain support for their position, which has led to widespread government reluctance to investigate claims of wrongdoing against fracking operations.

A provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, for instance, prevents the EPA from enforcing national Safe Drinking Water Act standards when fracking operations are accused of contaminating private wells. The provision is known among critics as the Halliburton Loophole, since it was developed by a task force chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney, the former CEO of industry leader Halliburton, with input from other oil and natural gas executives. Fracking is the only US industry that is allowed to inject or release chemicals into the ground in proximity to drinking water supplies without detailed monitoring by the EPA. A few states have enacted their own fracking regulations, but most do not require companies to provide information about the exact types and quantities of chemicals used. Although the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) adopted such regulations in 2015 for fracking operations on federal lands, they were blocked by a federal court before they took effect, and President Donald Trump’s administration began taking steps to repeal the regulations in July 2017.

Fracking activity occurred in twenty-one states as of 2016, while eighteen others had no oil or natural gas reserves that were recoverable by fracking. Three states (Maryland, New York, and Vermont) and dozens of localities have enacted bans or moratoria on fracking. Opponents of fracking achieved a long-awaited court victory in 2016 when two families from Dimrock, Pennsylvania, received $4.24 million in damages from a federal jury. Following a seven-year legal battle, Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation was found guilty of polluting the families’ well water with methane from its fracking operations. However, a judge overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial. The case was finally settled, on terms that were not disclosed, in 2017.