Senator @KamalaHarris, you have said “There's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking." I want to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the bubble you are in has shielded you from many facts about this vital technology. Here's the truth about fracking. (Thread)
Summary: Fracking is one of the most important technologies in our economy and can be done very safely. Government should ban only dangerous misuses of fracking, not all fracking. A fracking ban is the fastest way to create a global recession and an American depression.
Many politicians, including Joe Biden, support banning fracking--on federal lands or altogether. But fracking is required to produce over 60% of our oil and 75% of our natural gas. A frack ban is the single fastest way to create a global recession and an American depression.
Oil is the world’s leading source of energy because it provides low-cost, highly-concentrated energy for transportation. Oil provides 90% of the world’s transportation energy and has no scalable substitute for airplanes, cargo ships, and large agricultural equipment.
Fracking has taken us from a huge net importer of oil to a net exporter. In 2007, the US imported over 400 million gallons of oil per day. Last September, for the first time since records began in 1973, the US was a net oil exporter--a trend energy officials expect to continue.
A ban on fracking would take the same percentage of oil off the market as the 1973 Arab oil embargo did. That incident more than quadrupled oil prices and triggered a global recession. A smaller oil incident in 1979 also triggered a global recession.
Smart politicians know that restricting oil production = recession or worse. That’s why Barack Obama ran on ending “the tyranny of oil”8 but then ended the oil export ban and took credit for the fracking revolution: “America’s like the biggest oil producer…that was me, people.”
Fracking has added over 100 billion gallons of oil to annual oil production. And it has added even more energy in the form of natural gas--the equivalent of almost 200 billion gallons of oil a year!
Between 2008 and 2018 fracking natural gas added 17 times more energy to the US than all solar panels and wind turbines combined. And that’s 100% reliable energy, unlike the unreliable energy from solar and wind that needs constant backup from...fracked natural gas.
Does fracking endanger groundwater? Fracking is one of the world’s safest industrial practices for groundwater because it takes place a mile below groundwater.12 The biggest threat to groundwater is Mother Nature, who contaminates it with methane, arsenic, uranium, and salt.
Fracking, like many industrial activities, creates small earth movements--not dangerous earthquakes.14 A typical frack job moves the ground less than a semi truck driving down the road.
Because fracking is so vital to our lives and can be done safely and responsibly, it would be insane and cruel to ban fracking. We should continue to ban only dangerous misuses of fracking and otherwise continue to enjoy the prosperity this wonderful technology brings us.
I've published references for everything I've said above, plus more facts about energy policy, environment, and climate, at EnergyTalkingPoints.com.
PS Sorry some of the above points have seemingly random digits in them. Those are footnote numbers from EnergyTalkingPoints.com that I accidentally left in.
