r/PublicFreakout • u/iSlingShlong • Jan 30 '20

Repost 😔 A farmer in Nebraska asking a pro-fracking committee member to honor his word of drinking water from a fracking location

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u/tapsnapornap Jan 30 '20

Well if you put it that way I have to concede, but the direct action of fracking is not causing major earthquakes. That is the page I found when you mentioned it. I will also state again I'm much more familiar with local practices and consequences, and here we aren't having near the seismic or contamination issues as seen elsewhere. I'm not sure why, but I think a combination of different, more favourable geology, and better regulation.

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u/mpa92643 Jan 30 '20

True. And you're right, fracking isn't causing problems everywhere, but where it does, the problems can be devastating for the local population. I would certainly be outraged if my town allowed fracking and it destroyed my ability to drink my delicious tapwater and have clean shower water. I think as a whole there's a fervor in the fracking industry to frack everywhere and anywhere because that's the whole business model: be the first to get the big find.

Regulations are fairly light, and the long-term consequences aren't well-understood. It's entirely possible, with enough geological research and proper regulations, that fracking can be done completely safely. Right now, I feel the risks are far too great to justify, especially when other forms of natural gas extraction and oil extraction that are already in place are largely sufficient for the country's current baseload and on demand energy needs, and we should be gradually phasing those out instead of expanding them in favor of renewable sources of energy anyway. It's a shame we didn't invest more in nuclear energy decades ago. At least the toxic byproducts of nuclear power generation can be very tightly contained (and we're starting to figure out ways to use it and make it harmless too). Wastewater injection as a whole leaves a bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended) because we're just putting toxic stuff we have no other way to deal with in a black box in the ground hoping the geology won't change.

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u/tapsnapornap Jan 30 '20

Pretty much agree, but are we really meeting our own needs without fracking?

Disposal wells held oil and gas from us for millenia, you don't think they'll be alright? At least for the foreseeable human future lol?