A “safe” Alternative Energy Source.

Is Hydraulic Fracturing an actual “safe” alternative energy source? Hydraulic Fracturing also called “Fracking” is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas. Fracking is an alternate way to obtain energy for the country that could last for a long period of time, but in the end it is none the less different than fossil fuels. The reason is that in the process of fracking many chemicals are used in a mixture of water that is then put underground where the chemicals can seep into and contaminate water. Just like fossil fuels, it causes harm to the environment and the people. Many people who live near these fracking site have experienced many problems with their water source and there have been reports of people getting sick.

Fracking has been around for a long time, the first natural gas well was drilled in 1821 which was the first one in the United States. Ever since, the expansion of Fracking has dramatically increased leading to over 500,00 active natural gas wells in the U.S. An extensive amount of resources go into this process, for example 400 tankers of water and certain supplies are needed to and from the location. The amount of water used for each fracturing job is 1–8 million gallons of water and also includes around 40,000 gallons of different chemicals mixed with the water which is then sent underground. “During this process methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater”. This shows how fracking is just as dangerous as fossil fuels because it does pollute the air as well as this harmful mixture of water and chemicals which often seeps into the groundwater making it unsafe for thousands of people. So, are there any solutions in order to get an energy source that is not harmful?

There are a variety of ways to obtain energy that is much safer than fossil fuels and fracking. A few examples are Solar power, wind power, as well as hydro-electric power. These alternative energy sources have been around for a long period of time and have done little to no harm at all making them a safe and reliable energy source. Fracking has expanded greatly quickly, but why haven’t these alternative energy sources which are much safer and environmentally friendly? Fracking is used because it can help obtain a larger amount of energy while these other ways take much longer and you need a larger quantity in order to obtain a large amount of energy. We can get energy for our country using these actual safe alternative energy sources, although we may need a large quantity its better than damaging our planet even more than it is. Sooner or later these energy sources like natural gas, coal, and oil are going to be exhausted and then what? So this method of acquiring energy is not as “safe” as people say it is, those who support it won’t be supporting it anymore when they are the ones being affected by the problems fracking causes.