Is fracking causing earthquakes? To quote an entertainer we all know, I’m going to respond to this grave issue with half my brain tied behind my back.

Most people think fracking is a new technology, because media and environmental groups present it as a new technology.  It isn’t. The practice of fracking wells began in 1947. Since then, most wells worldwide are fracked.  Environmental groups with radical agendas have claimed that fracking in Ohio is causing earthquakes. I wonder what they base this revelation on. Whatever it is, it’s enough to get the attention of the media, government regulators, and elected officials. Their response is not to analyze the claim, but rather to formulate new regulations that needlessly burden a vital industry in to appear to be concerned and responsible. There is a ban on fracking in New York State now.

Are needless regulations to appease radical groups why we elect our government? Could this be an important reason U.S. businesses have chosen to relocate their companies in countries that do not engage in “La La Land” politics? Anyway, I could go on forever on government logic, so let me just present my argument:

1. We have been fracking wells in California for 66 years. California is crisscrossed with active faults poised to slip at any given moment. No connection between fracking and earthquakes has ever been registered in 66 years of fracking wells. Keep in mind, UCLA produced many PhD geophysicists over the last 66 years. Wouldn’t they have noticed fracking related earthquakes?
2. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas experience 50 to 100 minor earthquakes every year. Hundreds of thousands of wells have been fracked in those States over the past 66 years. No increase in the occurrence or magnitude of these low intensity earthquakes has been registered.
3. The Nevada Atomic Testing Range has been tectonically active for as long as we’ve had the ability to monitor it. There is no doubt that energy is stored in normal and transformed faults throughout this area, yet we drilled ½ mile into the earth and detonated thermonuclear devices without triggering an earthquake. Comparing the energy released from an underground nuclear explosion to hydrofracturing an oil/gas well is the difference between a jet liner and a house fly.
4. Arguably, Japan is located on one of the most active earthquake prone plates on the “Ring of Fire”, yet exploding two atomic bombs there triggered no plate movement.

These are my big 4 and I could go on, but I’m tired now.  Please read the post titled “Fracking and Residential Sanitation”. It offers an earthy perspective on fracking and the “dire” issue of the destruction of usable groundwater by fracking wells. And for more information about fracking, visit “Drilling an Oil Well”, a video that illustrates hydrofracturing.

Jim (Blacky) Pryor, Wildcatter “Drilling for tomorrow’s oil today”.