Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

FRACING IS CAUSING EARTHQUAKES?

Posted by Blacky on Friday, January 20th, 2012

Well, 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 Fracing is a new technology, because media and environmental groups present it as a new technology.  The practice of Fracing wells began in 1947.  Since then, most wells worldwide are Fraced.  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’s enough to get the attention of the media, government regulators, and elected officials. Their response is not to think this idea through, but rather their response is to formulate new regulations on industry.  There is a ban on Fracing in New York State now.

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 66 years. California is crisscrossed with active faults poised to slip at any given moment. No connection between fracing and earthquakes has ever been registered in 66 years of Fracing wells.  Keep in mind UCLA produced many PhD geophysicists over the last 66 years. Would they have noticed Fracing related earthquakes?
  2. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas experience 50 to 100 minor earthquakes every year. Hundreds of thousands of wells have been fraced in these States over the past 66 years. No increase in the occurrence or magnitude of these low intensity earthquakes have 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 on one of the most active, earthquake prone plates on the “Ring of Fire”, yet exploding two atomic bombs triggered no plate movement.

These are my big 4, I could go on, but I’m tired now.  Please read the post titled “Fracing and Residential Sanitation”. It offers an earthy perspective on fracing and the dire issue of the destruction of usable ground water by Fracing wells.

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