How Does Fracking Measure Up to Wind Power?

Let’s go back to basics: Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is produced through the decomposition and heating of organic matter over many hundreds of thousands of years. Conventional gas extraction involves drilling vertically through rock formations into gas pockets, from which the gas rises through the borehole and is captured at the wellhead.

As these pockets dry up, the gas industry has been developing ways of extracting gas that is trapped inside the rock formations – known as unconventional gas.  The UK has potentially vast reserves of unconventional gas trapped inside shale rock and coal seams. A recent study should a great deal of potential unconventional gas in Lancashire.

Fracking is a convenient media expression for Hydraulic fracturing.  Sounds a bit alarming doesn’t it? Hydraulic fracturing. It’s an expensive process which is only economically viable when the price of fossil fuels are high or the supplies of gas and other forms of energy are in danger of running out.  It involves drilling into the earth and pumping a mix of water,  sand and chemicals (including in some instances highly carcinogenic benzene and formaldehyde) under high pressure into the bore hole to open up fractures and ease the flow of gas for extraction.

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There are  risks associated with unconventional gas extraction around the world. There is the risk of leakage of methane  a greenhouse gas – into the atmosphere and local water environment.  Another danger is the lowering of water tables and subsidence. A mini earthquake was recorded near Blackpool following fracking. The dangers of such man-made earth tremors are obvious. Finally there is the additional risk of toxic chemicals from the fracking fluid seeping into local water tables, potentially poisoning drinking water for humans and animals and contaminating agricultural land.

While natural gas is definitely cleaner than conventional fossil fuels, unconventional gas extraction is more energy intensive than conventional gas extraction and the added risk of methane leakage means it can be far from clean. I would not want to exaggerate the risks of unconventional gas extraction, nor would i want to underplay them. The trouble is that I and everybody else, doesn’t know how safe or dangerous fracking is. There hasn’t been a proper assessment of the environmental and health risks associated with unconventional gas extraction – which include climate change emissions and risks to the water environment. Nor has there been any large scale survey of the UK public’s attitude to fracking. Would you rather have a wind turbine a mile away from your home, spinning serenely and quietly in the breeze or a series of deep wells into which steam, sand and chemicals are pumped noisily and under great pressure, day and night to fracture the rocks underneath? I know what I would choose… I know what wind is and I know what a wind turbine is and the effect it has. I have no real knowledge of what the risks involved with fracking are- and sadly, nor does the UK Government. I want to know. Tell me. And then i can make my mid up, as i have about the pros and cons of wind power.

There are many pressure groups and celbreties, particularly in the United States, who are bitterly opposed to fracking.

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I’ll finish just by presenting a list of countries and their attitudes to fracking:

  • France: The first country to ban the use of fracking – March 2011
  • Denmark: A moratorium at least until the end of this year.
  • Germany: Moratorium in Northrhine-Westphalia which will last until the release of a study commissioned by the regional government – expected in September this year.
  • Bulgaria: Banned since January 2012.
  • Romania: Planning a text imposing a moratorium against shale gas exploitation
  • Netherlands: Government ban on shale gas extraction activity until research completed to see if the  risks are manageable and acceptable.