The War on Fracking

by Max Harvey

                                                        

The Cuadrilla fracking site, near Blackpool

Having been a recurring focus for the media, fracking is back in the news this week with its latest development in the UK.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is an alternative method to extract natural gas from hard to access rocks deep beneath the surface. The method was originally conceived in the 1940s, but has only recently been thought of as a viable option to reduce the cost of energy for consumers.

The process involves drilling a shaft hundreds of meters down into the Earth and then horizontally into the gas bearing rock. Here a fracking fluid is pumped under extreme pressure into the rock which causes tiny cracks, fractures, to open up. Once the fluid is then removed from the hole, the natural gas can be extracted.

At face value, this method seems to be an innovative way to access previously unusable sources of natural gas, but the method does come with a number of side effects and hazards that have caused protest to fracking operations within the UK.

One of the issues with the process is the fracking fluid that is used. Not only does the fluid consist of 8 million litres of water, which many consider to be a massive waste of fresh water, but also the fracking fluid contains a number of chemicals. The chemicals in the fluid are present to dissolve minerals and kill bacterial but many of the chemicals are hazardous or carcinogenic. Examples of the hazardous chemicals include benzene and formic acid. In total there are an estimated 700 chemicals present in the fracking fluid.

The reason that this is such an issue is that the chemicals cause the water in the fluid to be so toxic that it cannot be cleaned even by our best methods and so once the natural gas resource is exhausted, the fracking fluid is pumped back into the main hole and sealed there. The main worry about this process is the contamination of water sources and in the USA where there have already been 1,000,000 uses of fracking, there have been many instances of water contamination due to the negligence of the fracking companies.

An even more contemporary issue with fracking is that many believe that this process promotes our dependence on fossil fuels. Those who believe strongly in the climate revolution say that instead of investing in ways to pry out the last little pieces of fossil fuels, we should be investing in alternative clean energy sources in order to meet Theresa May’s target of zero net carbon emissions by 2050.

Fracking is further detrimental to this cause as the process requires a high amount of energy to run the pumps used and this energy is often generated by the combustion of other fossil fuels. In addition to this, 3% of the gas extracted is lost to the atmosphere and this gas is mainly composed of methane, which is a 25 times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

But why is fracking back in the news?

One final issue associated with fracking that I have yet to mention is the increased instances of earthquakes in regions local to fracking operations. Due to the high pressures at which water is pumped through the rocks, seismic activity can often be triggered as the Earth’s crust is placed under stress.

Over the Bank Holiday, in August, residents of the Blackpool area, near to the Cuadrilla fracking site, were subject to tremors that reached 2.9 on the Richter scale. Now despite a 2.9 magnitude earthquake not being very high on the scale, the fact that the UK is not a tectonically active area raised concern within the community and led the local MP to call for a ban on fracking.

Ultimately this has led to the Conservative government placing an immediate end to fracking in the UK and announcing that it would not support future fracking programmes.

So is this a step towards a new age of cleaner energy consumption? Or is this a wasted opportunity to reduce energy prices and allow for cheaper consumption? Or simply the following of public opinion as only 12% support the fracking process? In my opinion, I hope that this new ban opens the door for greater investment into cleaner energy sources such as wind and solar power that will enable us not only as a nation but as a whole planet to reach our goal of zero net carbon emissions as quickly as possible.