The End Of Fracking Is Closer Than You Think

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-end-of-fracking-is-closer-than-you-think-2014-9


The Cuadrilla drilling site is seen in Balcombe, southern England August 15, 2013. An oil explorer has suspended drilling in southern England in response to the threat of an escalating protest against fracking, the controversial process used to extract gas and oil from shale deposits that has transformed the U.S. energy market.

Canadian geologist David Hughes has some sober news for the Kool-Aid-drinking boosters of the United States' newfound eminence in fossil fuel production: it's going to go bust sooner rather than later.

Working with the Post Carbon Institute, a sustainability think-tank, Hughes meticulously analyzed industry data from 65,000 US shale oil and natural gas wells that use the much-ballyhooed extraction method of hydraulic fracturing, colloquially known as fracking. The process involves drilling horizontally as well as vertically, and then pumping a toxic cocktail of pressurized water, sand, and chemicals deep underground in order to break apart the rock formations that hold deposits of oil and gas.

Hughes found that the production rates at these wells decline, on average, 85 percent over three years.

"Typically, in the first year there may be a 70 percent decline," Hughes told VICE News. "Second year, maybe 40 percent; third year, 30 percent. So the decline rate is a hyperbolic curve. But nonetheless, by the time you get to three years, you're talking 80 or 85 percent decline for most of these wells."



Read more: https://news.vice.com/article/the-end-of-fracking-is-closer-than-you-think#ixzz3CtzrPlSb

[BlueJazz]

1. Great..just great. We finally get a safe, clean, environmentally friendly way to produce energy..

....and we find out it's only a pipe dream.

[djean111]

2. "a safe, clean, environmentally friendly way to produce energy" - fracking? really? sarcasm tag,

I hope?

[BlueJazz]

3. Of course..I just wanted to wake everybody up with a good outrage.!

[djean111]

4. Not outraged at all - just mystified a bit.

I have seen wind and solar attacked as more environmentally harmful than nuclear plants here, so just wondered.

[newfie11]

10. U did

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Are you saying that fracking is "safe, clean, environmentally friendly "?

[BlueJazz]

6. No. I thought by now that everybody would know my weird sense of satire.

I hope you know me better than that.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Well, I hope with time I will come to know you better

but often on message boards, it is hard to tell unless one uses the thingy.

[Hoppy]

9. Oh, dear.....

[LiberalAndProud]

8. not sustainable in the longterm

Is that important?

[Hissyspit]

11. Yeah, they're just going to do all the damage as quickly as they can.

Last edited Wed Sep 10, 2014, 11:46 PM - Edit history (1)

And then leave the mess after all the money has been made.

We've seen this before.

[GliderGuider]

12. That's essentially the same technique the banksters used in the sub-prime fiasco

Make sure the money flows immediately to the recipients (bonuses for the banksters, profits for the fracksters), and then walk away with the spoils, leaving the larger system to suffer, falter and fail. It's another example of how to externalize costs in the interest of greater profits.

[PoutrageFatigue]

13. Yup...seems so familiar doesn't it?

But unless these greedy pricks have some off-planet resources we don't know about, they're poisoning their own future as well...hope that money tastes good, because you won't be able to eat the food once these frackers are done..