Well, to quote an entertainer we all know, I’m going to respond to this with half my brain tied behind my back.

Environmental groups with radical agendas have claimed that fracing in Ohio is causing earthquakes. I wonder what they base this revelation on. Whatever it is, it is enough to get the attention of the media, government regulators, and elected officials. Their response is not to think this corny idea through; rather their response is to formulate new regulations on industry.

Are silly regulations to address frivolous issues 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 fracing wells in California for 60 years. California is crisscrossed with active faults poised to slip at any given moment. No connection between fracing and earthquakes has ever been registered. Keep in mind the UCLA brain trust has produced many PhD geophysicists.
2. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas experience 30 to 50 minor earthquakes every year. Hundreds of thousands of wells have been fraced in these States over the past 60 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 over past geological time. There is no doubt that energy is stored in normal and transform faults throughout this area, yet we drilled ½ mile into the earth and detonated thermal nuclear devices without triggering an earthquake. Comparing the energy released from a buried nuclear explosion to hydro-fracturing an oil/gas well is the difference between a jet liner and a house fly.
4. Arguably Japan is located in one of the most active, earthquake prone plates on the “Ring of Fire”, yet exploding two atomic bombs triggered no plate movement.
5. I could go on, but I’ve made my point. Please read the next post titled “Fracing and Residential Sanitation”. It offers an important perspective on fracing and usable ground water.
Jim Pryor, Wildcatter “Drilling for tomorrow’s oil today”.