Hydraulic Fracturing, or “Fracking”, is questionable in...

Hydraulic Fracturing, or â€Å"Fracking†, is questionable in many people’s eyes. The â€Å"Why† â€Å"How† comes up often when hydraulic fracturing is mentioned. Fracking has been tested and proven to be an environmental safe process. Introduced in the 1940’s, hydraulic fracturing has discovered a considerable amount of oil and clean-burning natural gas from underneath the earth’s surface. Fracking contributes in providing well-needed resources from the earth’s surface to increase our country’s energy security and improve our ability to generate electricity, heat homes and power vehicles for generations to come. Fracking has been used in more than one million U.S. wells, and has safely produced more than seven billion barrels of oil and 600†¦show more content†¦In the U.S., an estimated 35,000 wells are processed with the hydraulic fracturing method; it’s estimated that over one million wells are processed w ith the hydraulic fracturing method; it’s estimated that over one million wells have been hydraulically fractured since the first well in the late 1940’s.†(Graves, 2012) Natural gas is considered to be the most important natural resource nationwide and considerably plentiful in the United States but developing it has always been a challenge. Fracking technology has made it possible to drill both vertically and horizontally to tap into natural gas reserves that were previously inaccessible. This techniques that has been around since the 1940’s has reformed energy production worldwide. How Does Hydraulic Fracturing Work? In a hydraulic fracturing job, â€Å"fracturing fluids† or â€Å"pumping fluids† involves enormous amounts of water and sand that’s injected under high pressure into the producing formation, creating openings that allow resources to move freely from rock pores where it is trapped. Surface casing is cemented into place at the main portion of a well for the purpose of protecting the groundwater. The depth of the surface casing is generally determined based on groundwater protection, among other factors. Additional casing is added as the well gets deeper.