How Hydraulic Fracturing [performed by oil companies] negatively impact the environment

General Purpose:        To persuade.

Specific Purpose:        To persuade the audience on how hydraulic fracturing negatively impacts the environment and will continue to do so until humanity switches to renewable energy. 

I.    Introduction

A.    **HOOK: **Raise your hand if you would like to have children of your own in the future. For those of you who raised their hands, how many of you want a sustainable world for your children? How many of you want to raise your child within a world in ruin? [nobody raises their hands to this rhetorical question]

B.     Those of you who raised your hand to the first of those questions, please keep your future children in mind when listening to me speak, because it may be a hot button issue in the future when it may be too late to enact substantive change.

C.     Our world & only home, the Earth, is a fragile blue marble that must be taken care of for our future generations. Although within the last few centuries, we’ve made considerable progress in our technology & perhaps unwittingly caused harm to this dynamic, organic planet of ours.

D.    I’m referring to the increasingly popular oil extraction technique of hydraulic fracturing in the modern arena of oil & natural gas production**. **My argument to my fellow students, professors & humanity in general is that renewable resources are a more sustainable form of energy for the future, as compared to non-renewables, which steadily add to global pollution, poison both ecosystems, waterways & ultimately exacerbate climate change.

E.     Things you need to know about hydraulic fracturing: how the technique works, why energy companies utilize fracturing in conjunction with oil pipelines, and most importantly, how hydraulic fracturing negatively impacts the environment. With the presented evidence, I believe the world energy supply will, one-day, be sourced from renewables, such as solar, wind or water power, instead of coal/natural gas-powered electricity grids.

Transition***The first among these points is how the technique of hydraulic fracturing works.

II. Body

A.    Hydraulic fracturing a resource-mining technique that allows oil & natural gas to be locally sourced and sent away for use at various energy companies.

1.      Although there are hundreds of years of documented use of steel drills used to bore into the Earth, hydraulic fracturing is a slight modification to the traditional method.

a.       When vertical drilling for oil was a novel technique introduced in the 1850s by George Bissell & Edwin Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania (TIME Magazine), the industrial revolution had the demand for oil rise considerably, mainly for commercial use to power primitive combustion motors in automobiles, but also as a light source within oil lamps (Building Green). Classical vertical extraction works via long, hollow steel rods being drilled & bored between the sedimentary rock layers of Earth, relying on natural pressure from the shale rock well to pump oil toward the surface. As a well gets older over time, they will de-pressurize, so mechanical pumps are used to extend production.

b.      Fast forward over one hundred years later in a world reliant on oil, the 1950s saw a boom in the use of a novel extraction technique known today as hydraulic fracturing, also commonly known as “fracking”. It only slightly modifies the procedure of classical vertical extraction, with the difference being that pressurized mixtures of water, sand and potentially dangerous chemicals are horizontally injected into shale rock layers, in efforts to penetrate & extract their oil-rich contents.

Transition*** However, within oil companies & their respective budgets for managed extraction projects & sites, it is no secret that hydraulic fracturing is an unconventional method of pumping oil, as well as how expensive it is relative to classical drilling. So, what motivates energy companies to use this method in spite of the cost?

B.     Oil & energy companies utilize a combination of hydraulic fracturing & oil pipelines to maintain profitability in the market for natural gas, oil & other non-renewables

1.      Without oil pipelines, hydraulic fracking would mean colossal monetary loss, especially for fracking operations in the Permian Basin, a massive oil reserve right here in Texas, specifically less than 10 miles from Lubbock, but mainly sprawled in the Midland/Odessa metro region. None of the major oil producers recorded positive cash flow [they lost money] within the Permian region (Forbes). Most of this monetary loss can be attributed to “logistical constraints”, mainly in costs transporting oil to and from using vehicular transit such as trucks.

2.      Starting November 1st, 2018, an oil pipeline dubbed with the name the “Sunrise” pipeline is being installed by Plains All American within the Permian basin to alleviate these financial woes.

a.       This makes it easier for oil companies to transport oil without the need for vehicular transport.

b.      When it is completed in 2019, it will generate hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, in anticipated, forecasted revenue; mainly due to savings in transport.

c.       This will further instill the practice of hydraulic fracking, increasing our dependence on fossil fuels & ultimately leading to continued, potentially irreversible environmental damage.

Transition*** Hydraulic fracking & oil pipelines hinder the growth of renewable energy as a primary energy source to electrically power our homes, our cars & other electronics. Without renewable energy powered electricity grids replacing outdated coal, natural gas, oil & gasoline-based power supplies, the Earth & humanity are sure to suffer the consequences.

C.     Ultimately, the environmental hazards from fracking will curtail its widespread use in drilling sites across the country. Rather, a future within renewables such as solar energy, looms upon the horizon of tomorrow’s energy source, due to their natural, free abundance.

1.      Hydraulic fracking poses the largest environmental risk for DIRECTLY and more importantly INDIRECTLY contaminating water sources.

b.      In order to prove the link between “groundwater contamination occurring as a direct result of hydraulic fracturing” (Vaidyanathan, Scientific American), EPA scientist Dominic DiGiulio established a clear, repeatable & testable method of groundwater analysis in the small town of Pavillion, Wyoming. The results of the analysis were staggering: DiGiulio demonstrated that hydraulic fracking released toxic, water-soluble chemicals into the drinking supply of the nearby Wind River water formation, such as the simplest alcohol, methanol, a trigger for permanent nerve damage & blindness, or diesel fuel from motorized equipment, all leaking into the water supply. According to DiGiulio’s report, some 10% of the fracking liquid used to crack sedimentary shale rock was methanol. Within aquifers of higher depth, concentrations of “salt & anomalous ions” were found to have “migrated directly into the aquifer ducts through fractures placed via hydraulic, pressurized pistons” (Vaidyanathan, Scientific American).

c.       In instances of direct groundwater contamination, companies are monetarily penalized under the Clean Water Act, in which the EPA prohibits the “pollution of any ’navigable waterways’” with toxic material. Repeat offenders of the CWA within the sphere of energy companies are ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron Phillips, just to name a few. According to the Environmental Director of Texas Luke Metzger, “Each year from 2011 to 2017, an average of 27,849 facilities were non-compliant across the U.S., while an average of 13,076 – less than half – faced any EPA or state enforcement action” (Collier, Texas Tribune). Without penalties for even direct contamination, energy companies routinely get off the hook. Imagine how many unreported, indirect instances of water contamination there may be in the United States alone! We should, at the very least, keep energy companies 100% accountable for properly disposing of waste, so that the general public is not affected by their actions.

d.      Within the fluid used to hydrolytically burst shale rock, there are many anomalous & toxic chemicals that we do not want to pollute our water supplies. According to the Chemical Disclosure Agency on Fracking, there are “Potentially toxic substances include petroleum distillates such as kerosene and diesel fuel (which contain benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene and other chemicals); polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; methanol; formaldehyde; ethylene glycol; glycol ethers; hydrochloric acid”, with many of these being carcinogenic, if not toxic. Would you like diesel fuel additives with that?

1.      Fracking adds positive feedback loop system of greenhouse gas emissions, adding to the problem of climate change.

a.       According to The Guardian, “Leakage of natural gas from drilling and pipework infrastructure means more methane is entering the atmosphere”. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, surely to accelerate the warming that scientists have noted for decades. In the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy, “scientists in the Swiss Alps have recorded data indicating that methane & ethane levels have been rising since the start of large-scale US shale gas extraction in 2009, indicating an increase in the global methane & ethane leakage from natural gas”. Additions to the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere only make the average global temperature rise more, and we keep adding more greenhouse gases in. The overall net effect is what biologists call a “positive feedback loop”, in which the gases released by cars, homes & energy companies only amplify & accelerate the rise in temperature felt around the world.

b.      Earlier I asked the class to keep their children in mind before time runs out to “enact substantive change”. Those claims are not entirely unfounded, especially in regard to our lifetimes. According to in a monumental new report released October 7th, 2018 by the United Nation’s climate science body, “We have just 12 years to make massive and unprecedented changes to global energy infrastructure to limit global warming to moderate levels” (Umair Irfan, Vox).

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