Ever wondered what is going to happen after the big oil and fracking boom of this century? The after effects are already becoming evident as the first in line for the influx of cash to cities and towns are beginning to be deserted. There are many reasons fracking will end in ghost towns. Water quality is very high on the list of reasons these towns will no longer support life.
Gas and oil brings big money to many areas. The economy in drilling towns will have a boom, people will have jobs, money, etc. Then one day, their water, their air, their entire towns and homes are not habitable. This is what is “after the fracking boom”
Re “Days of Promise Fade for Ethanol” (news article, March 17):
With the ethanol boom came the inevitable bust, which hit some rural communities harder than others. The ethanol bust provides a glimpse into the future for communities that have opened their doors to shale gas extraction or those that seek to do so. Indeed, a recent report by Cornell University says fracking is already having mixed economic results, even in the short term.
The report says: “The rising tide is not likely to lift all boats: there will be losing communities, and individuals who are displaced or left behind. Moreover, the experience of many economies based on extractive industries warns us that short-term gains frequently fail to translate into lasting, communitywide economic development.
“Most alarmingly, a growing body of credible research evidence …shows that resource-dependent communities can and often do end up worse off than they would have been without exploiting their extractive reserves.”
KYLE RABIN
New York, March 17, 2013The writer is program director for Water and Energy Programs at the Grace Communications Foundation.
“It’s absolutely not true that we need natural gas, coal or oil — we think it’s a myth,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and the main author of the study, published in the journal Energy Policy. “You could power America with renewables from a technical and economic standpoint. The biggest obstacles are social and political — what you need is the will to do it.”
More and more restrictions are attempted for the oil industry, but are they too little too late? Will they even be enforced?
Some of the nation’s biggest oil and gas companies have made peace with environmentalists, agreeing to voluntary standards for the hydraulic fracturing drilling process in the Northeast. Drilling and pipeline companies will be encouraged to submit to an independent review. If they are found to be abiding by measures to protect the air and water, they will receive the blessing of the new Pittsburgh-based Center for Sustainable Shale Development, created by environmentalists and the energy industry. Many of the standards seem stricter than state and federal regulations. Participants include Shell, Chevron, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Clean Air Task Force, EQT Corporation, Consol Energy, and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.
A version of this brief appeared in print on March 21, 2013, on page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Pennsylvania: Pact Reached On Fuel Drilling.
What about the damage that has already been done?
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