White House Energy Policy

In the most recent White House Energy Report, there was a lot of weight put on the increase of the America's energy independence. Big part of this increase is the fact that U.S. is becoming the world leader in the natural gas production. New techniques and technology is being used to increase this gas production. White House stated in this report that the increase in natural gas production has been 7%, the highest year-to-year increase in history. One of the causes for this is the $45 million in interagency R&D budget. Large amount of this money goes to development of "fracking" techniques, a way of extracting shale gas from the soil. One thing that is not mentioned in the report, is that "fracking" is one of the techniques with the worst effects on environment.

The problems with "fracking" are many. First of all, amazing quantities of water are needed for the process: 1-8 million gallons per one "fracking" job. In addition to this, around 600 chemicals are being mixed with this water, many of which are know toxins and carcinogens. This mixture is then put in the soil to break the shale and release the gas. This process contaminates underground water and soil, and has serious health effects on the people living around the shale gas wells. In overall, there is lot about energy production increase in the report, but very little about the environmental degradation in the process. 

For all who are interested to learn more about "fracking" and its dangers, watch the well know documentary Gasland, in addition to going to the link about "fracking" in this blog.

BT