Are anti-fractivists...

[texas_ex2000]

clutch your pearls, science deniers?

www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/nyregion/cuomo-to-ban-fracking-in-new-york-state-citing-health-risks.html?_r=0

Some insanely stupid myths these yahoos throw out there:

1) Your faucets become flammable. Not only is that an utter lie from that Gasland garbage (this was happening before fracking as idiots were digging their wells through coal beds)...that premise defies laws of physics, chemistry, and geology.

2) This is some new crazy $)&%. Anyone who's worked in oil and gas knows well that fracking and well reinjection have been going on at least as far back as the 70s.

3) It will pollute you drinking water. Wrong. ZERO cases of polluted drinking water. If for some reason the laws of physics took the day off when a barrel of fracking fluid on a site was spilled and somehow polluted an entire reservoir (you know which is 1,000x more likely from other regular commerical activity), fracking fluid is 98% water, 1% sand, and 0.5% chemicals...some of which are additives in our food in much higher concentrations.

4) FRACKING CAUSES EARTHQUAKES!!!!

We've been doing this since at least the 70s and I can't recall one major earthquake in any fracking region. Was the recent East Coast quake caused by fracking? I suppose you can't rule it out as a statistical possibility...but hydro and geothermal power have been proven to actually cause quakes, especially those near active tectonic plates (which have quakes all the time anyways). Any human activity on the ground affects tectonic movement. I guess we should stop construction.

 

[Mr. Deez]

I think the idea is that those things can happen if somebody screws up. I don't think anyone is suggesting that they always happen with fracking. Of course, the appropriate remedy for damage caused by a screw up isn't to ban the practice for everybody. It is to impose tort liability on the careless companies and let the responsible ones operate and make money.

 

[Musburger]

Right now, the biggest impediment to the fracking industry isn't the environmental movement, but the fact that the costs of production exceed the revenue that can be generated at the current low price; perhaps for gas and certainly for oil. Not only is it now unprofitable, the capital for most projects was borrowed and a sustained slump will lead to multi-billion dollar defaults which not only will effect the oil industry, but also the financial industry.

Many projects are about to be halted. Months from now when supply finally falls enough to match demand, prices will likely skyrocket, but it will be more difficult to raise capital to begin new projects.

 

[texas_ex2000]

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[Bevo Incognito]

Uh, no less than UT's own Bureau of Economic Geology at the Jake Pickle Research center has determined that fracking causes earthquakes. They've published studies and everything.

 

[texas_ex2000]

Could you post a link to this report that says earthquakes are positively and conclusively connected to hydraulic fracking and not other types of oilfield operations such as well re-injection which have always been part of oil production since Spindletop or moreso than other commerical/industrial operations?

And this report, of course, probably quantifies the billions of dollars damage and injuries from these 6+ Richter fracking-caused natural disasters...because of course, you're not talking about the millions of imperceptible tremors everyday that occur from all human activity such as construction demolition, dynamite explosions, etc.

 

[Bevo Incognito]

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[texas_ex2000]

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[Musburger]

Cuomo waited until it became economically unviable to frack before banning it since that was politically expedient. That way, he satisfies the anti-fracking constituents, without pissing off the industry since they aren't going to pursue projects anyway until price moves back up which may take 18 months or more. Once that happens, the debate will resume and Cuomo or whomever is in office, will have to see which way the wind is blowing.

 

[dillohorn]

anti-fractivists............make em walk.

 

[Crockett]

I'm sure there are some hurdles in determining what causes the recent increase in Texas earthquakes, but the finger seems to be most often pointed by experts to injections wells, which certainly have a relationship to fracking operations (it's how they get rid of the polluted water produced by the process.)

Here's a link to a news story.The Link

And while these earthquakes are minor compared to those along the San Andreas Fault, they are significant irritation/financial issue for people with cracked foundations, collapsing ceilings, nail pops in their drywall, etc. Irving school children are taking time from learning to practice earthquake drills.

 

[BrntOrngStmpeDe]

As was pointed out in the thread volume and magnitude do matter. Not just the lack of earthquake magnitude that was highlighted but also the current volume of fracking compared to historical fracking and well-injecting. We may have been doing this for decades but certainly not at the volume and magnitude we currently are. And while the evidence may not yet be 'conclusive', the correlation is strong enough to warrant caution.

The cigarette folks denied the correlation for a few decades before the evidence became 'conclusive'. Seems to me that we have a similar situation here.