Alabama Shakes… so does Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oklahoma (Oklahoma shook its moneymaker more in the last year than California!).
It’s official: fracking causes earthquakes*
A government report released today finally sets to rest that the ground is, in fact, not at rest in areas of the country where there is a lot of drilling and fracking activity. Earthquakes caused by fracking are happening throughout America in states that prior to the “drill baby drill” approach of energy production were entirely stable. As a result, Oklahoma has had more earthquakes than California, and communities that in the past would laugh at the idea of an earthquake now shake on a regular basis.
How do you think the oil and gas lobby with their puppet politicians will respond to this one?
Most people who don’t drink the oil industry’s “drilling and fracking create good jobs” kool aid already knew there were big risks, but it’s nice to finally have a comprehensive report verifying it. People who think further into the future than their next car payment know that oil jobs dry up faster than a reservoir in southern California. Oil jobs are temporary. Now we see the short-term income boom for temporary employees waning while the after effects – and the aftershocks – are increasing.
The USGS report is clear that the process of injecting water and chemicals are causing dormant faults to again be active. Many of those chemicals are still undisclosed to the public, but we all know they tend to make drinking water catch on fire. Of course the energy companies declare it’s safe, but it only takes a little common sense. The process of fracking creates cracks while injecting highly flammable chemicals into the ground. Millions of cracks in the earth that at their most basic sense are similar to sink holes deep in the ground. Changing the make-up of the ground causes it to shift, hence, earthquakes. It happens in backyard gardens, it happens under paved roads, and it happens thousands of feet below the Earth’s crust. It ain’t rocket science.
As Mark Petersen, the head of USGS’s national mapping project said, “The hazard is high in these areas” yet the short-sited who care only about quarterly profit reports will most certainly be up in arms with more absurd claims that “it’s perfectly safe”. Fracking causes the Earth to shake and water to burn… how is that safe? Sounds more like armageddon than “perfectly safe”.
If any other industry in the world had a business practice that had the same side-effects they would be shut down. We’ve seen it happen. But since this is the oil and gas industry the politicians will be fighting tooth and nail, left and right – getting nothing done – which is exactly what Oil and Gas wants because constant political bickering means they can just keep on drillin’ without consequence or accountability.
Can we stop earthquakes caused by fracking? No. The environmentalists will never win over energy and economy. Society IS Economy. The environment is just a hobby. It’s nice to believe in good over evil, but at the end of the day we always know who wins. Yes, there are always exceptions to the rule, but on the pendulum of politics, “It’s the economy, stupid”.
*Official for people who don’t deny science, anyway.
