The more I dig into learning about fracking, as well as the oil and gas industry’s responses to it, the more certain I am that the earthquakes felt on Aug. 23 in Colorado and Virginia were man-made. Whether it happened because of the initial fracking, or because of the thousands of gallons of salt water which are injected after the frack, I don’t know.
Yes, we need energy independence in the west.
Yes, we need energy independence now, to stop so much overseas deployment/protectionism.
But we don’t need this energy independence at the expense of earthquakes underneath the ground we’re standing on.
Denver had man-made earthquakes in the 60’s. There is historical precedent.
The UK halted some fracking recently because of man-made earthquakes. There is modern precedent.
Arkansas passed a moratorium on fracking after a series of freak weird earthquakes, and earthquakes have lessened since in a way that is more than statistically significant.
Generally:
We need to stop fracking and put the same kind of investment and energy into technologies like solar troughs and solar updraft towers.
Want to learn more about fracking? It’s disturbing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/25gas.html?_r=1
Less gas in shale than previously thought though it’s still being sold as a great investment.
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052702303822904576516114289723344.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
http://www.grist.org/list/2011-08-25-fracking-sadface-u.s.-has-one-fifth-the-shale-gas-once-projected
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/24/1010047/-Was-The-August-23rd-Earthquake-Man-made?via=blog_2
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=geothermal-drilling-earthquakes
http://lunaticoutpost.com/Topic-Did-Fracking-Cause-the-Virginia-Earthquake?page=5
http://www.grist.org/natural-gas/2011-08-17-rick-perry-wants-to-frack-iowa