President Barack Obama was right when he conceded recently that the boom in
Obama made this point when he gave a major environmental speech that focused on climate change and carbon emissions.
But to the surprise of some — including some environmentalist supporters, who were irked — Obama supported the boom in
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, has helped stimulate the
The reason for this is simple. Natural gas is used by many power plants to create electricity. Natural gas burns more cleanly than coal, sending fewer greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Such carbon emissions, in theory, lead to global warming and climate change. Regardless of how one feels about the great climate-change debate, it just makes sense to try to find cleaner ways to generate electricity.
The best two ways to do that are to use nuclear energy and natural gas. Nuclear power plants have zero emissions. They should continue to be a source of
Right now, the market is moving toward natural gas. Natural gas production, thanks to fracking, is up 30 percent since 2005, according to USA Today. Much of this stems from technological innovation.
Fracking involves pushing water and sand, mixed with some other fluids, deep into ground. Pressure is added as the fluid is pushed sideways. This fractures shale, and natural gas rises up through a well.
Many environmentalists hate the practice, although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has balked at attacking it. Most recently, the EPA decided not to finalize a 2011 report that fracking had contaminated a
Studies of fracking continue. USA Today reported that the U.S. Geological Survey found no evidence of wide-scale leaks of methane far from the fracking sites, “beyond naturally occurring amounts.”
Here one should note that no wide-scale production of energy is perfectly safe or free from accident. But there is little evidence to suggest fracking causes serious environmental damage.
Fracking shows that innovation is alive and well in the
It’s fortunate that President Obama understands that fracking and the natural gas boom have clear economic benefits to the nation, with minimal environmental dangers.