Summary: The Benefits Of Fracking

Hydraulic fracturing, or more commonly known as fracking, is a process of extracting natural gas from bedrock deep within the earth. There may be some downfalls, such as contaminated drinking water and earthquakes, but most of them are human errors and in the end the benefits of fracking outweigh the risks. If done professionally, fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is beneficial to society because it provides towns, states, and countries with the natural gas they need, and reduces costs by using old oil and gas wells. Fracking is the process of extracting natural gas from in between layers of bedrock below the surface of the earth. The process involves sending large amounts of water and sand, along with small amounts of toxic chemicals at …show more content…
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf proposed the Pennsylvania Education Reinvestment Act, which includes a five percent severance tax on natural gas and charges 4.7 cents per thousand feet on the volume of natural gas extracted (Hartman). The United States gains revenue from oil and gas severance taxes and that money goes to conserving wildlife, education, and transportation projects in states that use hydraulic fracturing (Hartman). Some experts believe sixty to eighty percent of all wells drilled in the United States in the next ten years will require hydraulic fracturing to continue operating ("Hydraulic Fracturing"). By using the fracking method companies can use old wells in mature oil and natural gas sites ("Hydraulic Fracturing"). Fracturing can also recover oil and natural gas from formations that geologists once believed were impossible to reach because of tight shale formations ("Hydraulic Fracturing"). Taxes on natural gas recovered from the use of fracking can be used to maintain roads and to help schools. The tax can also help preserve wildlife around major fracking …show more content…
Even though there are some drawbacks to fracking the benefits far outweigh them. Most of the chemical pollution to the ground and drinking water is caused by human error (not dumping unused chemicals in the correct place and disposing of the chemical containers properly) and carelessness, not by catastrophic machine failure. By using hydraulic fracturing natural gas companies can save money by using older oil and natural gas wells. Countries should use hydraulic fracturing to capture natural gas because it is a safe and reliable