Strengths
Fracking has the potential to significantly lower the price of natural gas. Using statistics on CBSnews I found that in June of 2008 gas was $4.10 a gallon. It fell in August of 2008 to $3.74 a gallon. At the time Marcellus Shale, which is a large Fracking Company, was producing around half a billion cubic feet of gas per day. Today Marcellus Shale produces 16 billion cubic feet of gas per day. They were able to tap into shale rock which we originally thought we wouldn’t be able to accomplish. The point is that gas is now $1.92 a gallon in Colorado. This is evidence to bolster the argument that Fracking can have a significant effect on gas prices. Another strength of our argument is that producing natural gas domestically relieves our dependence on foreign countries. According to the “Global Energy Statistical Yearbook” the United States passed Russia to become the world’s leader in Natural Gas production in 2013. Fracking was starting to take hold in 2013 and certainly had an impact on us overtaking Russia. Continued fracking will only help us maintain this position, thus helping to break the dependency we used to have on the Middle East and other countries.
Weaknesses
According to Yale Climate Connections, it’s believed that the effects of fracking on air quality are not thoroughly understood. It’s assumed that the burning of natural gas is much safer for the environment than the burning of coal, which fracking helps minimize. There has been evidence given that supplements the idea that fracking can be harmful to the ozone layer, in ways we don't fully understand yet. Besides that they make the fact that natural gas is still not a clean renewable source of energy, it’s not truly cleaning the air, only relatively compared to coal. Fracking provides a cheap alternative for the uses of natural gasses and this is seen as harmful to the cause of solar, wind and other truly renewable sources of energy. As long as people can keep getting oil for the right price, they’ll keep buying it. A study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims that fracking can contaminate drinking water, because methane leaks into it, thus making it flammable. This doesn’t mean your glass of water is going to all of the sudden light on fire, but it can result in destruction of wells (a well blowout) which can be very harmful to the environment..
Opportunities
The big opportunity in fracking is the money. The oil industry in just the United States is bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars each year. According to CNN Money the fracking industry now accounts for half of the United States production. This creates a wealth of benefits for the public. Being able to produce our own oil allows for the country to have more of a control over the gas prices. The reason a barrel of oil does not cost 100$ anymore? Fracking stepped up and saved the day. The industry is booming producing over 100 times more barrels of oil per year than in 2000, just inside the United States. When you produce your own oil you also have the added bonus of not having to import as much oil from other countries. The United States is in the top 5 countries in the word for producing oil, partially thanks to fracking. Another benefit to the public? Fracking has created over one million jobs in oil for American citizens. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 21st Century Energy Institute, that number will keep rising to a projected total of 3.5 million jobs by 2035.
http://www.energyxxi.org/us-chamber%E2%80%99s-fracking-job-boom-behind-numbers
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/24/investing/fracking-shale-oil-boom/
Threats
Some threats that our group faces are the variety of different anti-fracking coalitions that have organized to halt fracking activity. Many of these groups have been able to amass a variety of different followers who advocate for the ban of fracking. After browsing a few state-based anti-fracking Twitter groups, I found that they had fewer followers than those who organized on a nationwide level. With this in mind, having such a presence has enabled these nationwide groups to recruit people from all over the country to protest fracking activity, and it is precisely this kind of unity that poses a threat to fracking activity, potentially halting it altogether. Perhaps one of the greatest threats the fracking movement faces are the protests and demonstrations on fracking sites which cause any and all activity to halt. One of the more recent protests that have gained attention through the media involves the Dakota Access Pipeline. “The Huffington Post” recently wrote an article covering this protest: the Standing Rock Sioux tribe gathered to protest the construction of the Dakota pipeline, not only because such construction affects the environment, but the tribe has argued that the pipeline would disturb sacred land and burial grounds. In addition to these concerns, many anti-fracking activists say that construction of these pipelines and fracking sites are dangerous, both for the safety and health of the community. Protests and concerns such as these are apt to gain a lot of support from the anti-fracking movement, as well as concerned members of the public, which could potentially halt any bills or legislation on fracking. In addition to these issues, some research I conducted showed that there is a lot of media bias on fracking, causing a lot of partiality on the debate of this issue. Most liberal mainstream media (CNN, MSNBC) tend to frame fracking as bad for the environment and the health of the community, especially highlighting the costs and high risks whereas more conservative media (FOX news) claims there are no bad side effects to the environment due to fracking and argue that fracking will help the U.S. lessen its dependency on foreign oil. The effects that fracking has on health are often dismissed by conservative news media outlets, as they claim there is not enough scientific evidence to back up such assertions.
Where is the Anti-Fracking group vulnerable?
In the debate over fracking much of the opposition to fracking has been false stipulation from the other side. An example of this would be in the 2010 academy award nominated movie gasland one man held a flame up to his water and it caught fire. This was later proven to not be caused from natural gas drilling but rather the farmers own water supply. Incidents like this are where the anti fracking group will have trouble and be vulnerable because if they are basing their arguments for an environmentally harmful view of fracking off of stories like these then their credibility will need to be called into question. The science behind fracking being environmentally harmful is faulty. In an article by popular mechanics titled, “Is Fracking Safe? The 10 Most Controversial Claims About Natural Gas Drilling”, geologist Gary Lash of the state university of New York at Fredonia says that the intervening layers of rock have distinct mechanical properties that would prevent drilling fissures from expanding a mile or more towards the surface. According to this, basic geology would prevent natural gas from contaminating the above layers of the earth. Because of this we need to call into question the evidence that is gathered by the anti fracking group and how it was gathered.
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