All that Fracking, Song and Dance!

Everything you need to know about fracking is in this amazingly-musical and surprisingly-nuanced little package:

In addition to making drinking water flammable, fracking yet again highlights the faustian dilemma inherent in getting power from fossil fuel: energy helps us but always comes with harmful side effects, from dirty air to poisoned water. There are real health costs that we bear everyday when we flip the lights on across America. We need to be honest with ourselves about these costs.

Even relatively clean-burning natural gas has health impacts: risks which vary widely depending on how we get the gas out of the ground. These two tables from a Cornell Study compare emissions from conventional and unconventional natural gas resources, coal and oil.

Figure 1 (Howarth2011): Emissions Comparisons at 20 and 100 years.

These charts show that the impact of natural gas on our air depends on how we get it out of the ground. Processes that remove natural gas from shale end up releasing a lot more of the gas into the atmosphere, which is bad for global warming, but, more immediately, also not good for the lungs. Bottom line is: when we frack it, we breathe it.

In addition to the airborne emissions from fracking and other unconventional extraction methods, there is an alarming body of evidence growing about the groundwater contamination evident in regions of high fracking. The Academy Award Nominated documentary Gaslands speaks to these issues with eloquence that is impossible to ignore.

Our friends at Cornell put these concerns in troubling context: “The Department of Energy predicts that by 2035 total domestic production will grow by 20%, with unconventional gas providing 75% of the total. The greatest growth is predicted for shale gas, increasing from 16% of total production in 2009 to an expected 45% in 2035.” We must realize that as we increase our dependency on natural gas, we are turning toward unconventional natural gas resources which, it is becoming increasingly clear, produce very high emissions and offer serious health risks.

At HEAL Utah, these public health concerns motivate our energy work. Our comprehensive Utah-specific energy study, eUtah, presents a blueprint for our state’s energy future that envisions a limited and decreasing role for natural gas in our state’s affordable and reliable energy portfolio.

100% Renewables by 2050 Scenario:

75% Renewables by 2050 Scenario:

Pursuing an energy policy that stabilizes or minimizes natural gas consumption by 2050 makes sense. It can be part of a path which both keeps us healthy and keeps our lights on – as a limited but not dominant source. 

Rocky Mountain Power, doesn’t seem to be completely up to speed on the risks associated with relying on natural gas. Their Integrated Resource Plan (discussion of natural gas on page 27) features a detailed discussion of natural gas. Notably and glaringly absent from this discussion is consideration of the increased health risks. 

Stay tuned for more on this and other energy issues, as we work together for a clean safe and affordable energy future.