By Paolo von Schirach
President, Global Policy Institute; Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Bay Atlantic University, both in Washington, DC
Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, is the phenomenal technological innovation that unleashed a U.S. boom in the production of oil and gas. Until a couple of decades ago, most energy experts agreed that America had practically exhausted most of its known oil and gas reserves.
This new reality presented an enormous economic challenge for the biggest hydrocarbons consumer in the world. Billions of dollars had to be spent every day to pay for vitally important imported oil and gas. Besides, this dependence on foreign suppliers of a critical commodity presented an enormous new national security risk. How could the U.S. economy survive in case of major oil and gas flow disruptions caused by conflict?
Of course, many hoped that renewable energy would come to the rescue, allowing America (along with many other countries heavily reliant on fossil fuels) to switch over to wind and solar. Nice idea, but not doable in the short or medium term on the scale required, given the low energy efficiency and high cost of renewable energy technologies. The outlook for renewables has improved dramatically in the last few years. However, even today a total switch to renewable energy remains a rather distant goal. Meantime, like it or not, America, just like the rest of the world, continues to run largely on fossil fuels.
And here comes the fracking revolution to the rescue. Energy experts knew very well that there are vast amounts of oil and gas trapped in shale rock formations, in America (also in Argentina, China, and elsewhere). The problem was the prohibitive cost of extracting oil or natural gas from shale. Enter George P. Mitchell, the founder of Mitchell Energy & Development Corporation.
Mitchell improved on and later perfected a technology first developed by the U.S. Department of Energy that consisted in drilling into shale formations and then pumping into them high-pressure water laced with sand and other chemicals. This disruptive force breaks the rocks, allowing the oil and gas to be freed and pumped to the surface. The extensive use of fracking, combined with horizontal drilling, made North Dakota almost overnight into a major U.S. oil-producing state. Pennsylvania became a leading natural gas producer. Texas, already a big player when it comes to conventional energy, became the leading shale oil producer in America.
As a result of this fracking revolution, today the United States is the biggest oil and gas producer in the world, bigger than Russia or Saudi Arabia. This new reality has had an enormously positive impact on energy security and on the cost of energy. Before fracking, America had to spend a fortune every day to import absolutely necessary energy sources. Now it produces most of its energy at home.
Needless to say, environmentalists are not happy with any of this. They see the fracking revolution as an additional obstacle on the way to a carbon-free, green future. They also pointed out that fracking requires enormous quantities of water, something that could create a water scarcity crisis in dry regions of the U.S. Besides, water pumped into wells becomes toxic waste difficult to dispose of after it has been used for fracking.
But here comes more innovation. Energy companies became acutely aware of the water problems they were creating, diverting water from agriculture and human use to fracking, as well as the issue of safely disposing of large amounts of polluted water resulting from fracking. An article in *Fiscal Notes*, a Review of the Texas Economy titled “Recycling Fracking Water” describes how Apache, an energy company, figured out ways to successfully filter the water used in fracking, so that sand, minerals, and oil residues could be totally eliminated. In some regions, this filtered water can be safely used for agriculture. In other areas, it is used again and again for new fracking operations. Thanks to innovative filtering technologies, fracking no longer represents a threat to scarce water supplies, especially in regions prone to droughts where water is essential for irrigating fields as well as for human consumption.
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