4
dropped sharply, and the U.S. now exports more oil than it imports. No matter how
one feels about fracking itself, there is no denying that it has made a major impact
on the energy economy of the United States, and indeed the world.
The O&G business often views environmentalists as impediments to progress,
wanting to endlessly study everything, constantly finding problems, needlessly
slowing down production, reducing profits, and always ready to impose additional,
burdensome regulations on a long-suffering (in their eyes) industry. The typical
attitude in the O&G industry is to address problems as they come up, but not to go
out looking for them. The goal is to charge ahead, and leave well enough alone if at
all possible.
As such, the O&G industry has been remarkably uncooperative about helping
independent researchers gather data that would better quantify the environmental
impacts of fracking. Much of what has been done to date (e.g. Kell 2011; Ingraffea
et al. 2014) has relied on state records of environmental incidents and well permitting reports. The United States government has no authority to compel industry to
cooperate on such a study, and neither do the states outside of the permitting process. However, the critical data needed to address these issues can only be obtained
with access to drill rigs, frack jobs, production sites, and long-term air and groundwater monitoring. More than a few researchers have asked (i.e. Soeder 2015) if
industry is so confident that there are no environmental problems with fracking,
why do they restrict access to sites and data?
2008
quadrillion British thermal units
petroleum
natural
gas
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
60
50
40
United States
Russia
Saudi Arabia
30
20
10
0
Estimated petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbon production in selected countries
million barrels per day of oil equivalent
Fig. 1.2 Annual production of natural gas and petroleum in the United States compared to Russia
and Saudi Arabia. (Source: Reproduced from U.S. Energy Information Administration (USEIA)
webpage, dated May 21, 2018 (https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36292))
1 Introduction
dropped sharply, and the U.S. now exports more oil than it imports. No matter how
one feels about fracking itself, there is no denying that it has made a major impact
on the energy economy of the United States, and indeed the world.
The O&G business often views environmentalists as impediments to progress,
wanting to endlessly study everything, constantly finding problems, needlessly
slowing down production, reducing profits, and always ready to impose additional,
burdensome regulations on a long-suffering (in their eyes) industry. The typical
attitude in the O&G industry is to address problems as they come up, but not to go
out looking for them. The goal is to charge ahead, and leave well enough alone if at
all possible.
As such, the O&G industry has been remarkably uncooperative about helping
independent researchers gather data that would better quantify the environmental
impacts of fracking. Much of what has been done to date (e.g. Kell 2011; Ingraffea
et al. 2014) has relied on state records of environmental incidents and well permitting reports. The United States government has no authority to compel industry to
cooperate on such a study, and neither do the states outside of the permitting process. However, the critical data needed to address these issues can only be obtained
with access to drill rigs, frack jobs, production sites, and long-term air and groundwater monitoring. More than a few researchers have asked (i.e. Soeder 2015) if
industry is so confident that there are no environmental problems with fracking,
why do they restrict access to sites and data?
2008
quadrillion British thermal units
petroleum
natural
gas
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
60
50
40
United States
Russia
Saudi Arabia
30
20
10
0
Estimated petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbon production in selected countries
million barrels per day of oil equivalent
Fig. 1.2 Annual production of natural gas and petroleum in the United States compared to Russia
and Saudi Arabia. (Source: Reproduced from U.S. Energy Information Administration (USEIA)
webpage, dated May 21, 2018 (https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36292))
1 Introduction