51 percent of Americans are opposed to fracking operations by big oil; 13 have no opinion, and 36 percent, who likely know as little about what truly occurs as the 13 percent, are in favor of the most dangerous drilling practice in the history of crude and natural gas mining.

For those of you who do not know how fracking operations are conducted, here is a short summary. Each operation begins with a mixture of four million, or more, gallons of water, mixed with sand and 600 chemicals; some of these chemicals are carcinogenic. The mixture is forced thousands of feet underground using extremely high pressure. When the shale is fractured, natural gas or crude is forced to the surface.

The post effects of fracking are dangerous to the environment and pose a danger to people and structures in the vicinity. Obviously the water is unusable; not all of it is reclaimed on the surface. Much of it leaches into underground water supplies. The material which is reclaimed must be disposed of, and those areas become biohazards. An additional problem has recently been exposed. The water left in the ground is causing seismic activity in areas previously unaffected by the shifting of Teutonic plates. Some scientists estimate that Oklahoma will begin to have as many earthquakes as California.

“Induced quakes have become more frequent because there’s more wastewater from oil and gas operations around the country that has to be disposed of,” Mark Peterson, seismic hazard expert at USGS, told National Public Radio. “Companies pump it down into underground well, and sometimes that water raises pressure on underground faults that then slip and cause small quakes.”

The petroleum industry is blaming low prices and decreased profits on the large quantities of available crude today, but they continue to seek additional permits on land and offshore. They refuse to join the rest of the world and create alternatives to fossil fuels and protect the environment.

Why does our government protect big oil from the demands of the American people? Companies donate millions of dollars to campaign funds through their lobbyists.

Once again the situation is ‘profit before people.’

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source

Photo Courtesy of Tony Fischer

Novels available on Amazon