Fracking has Economic Benefits

Fracking brings many opportunities for economic advancement. According to www.energyfromshale.org/americas-energy/economy, the fracking industry supported 2.1 million jobs in 2012. This job number is forecasted to be 3.9 million by 2025. Energy coming from this industry has had a great impact on American lives, and will continue to have an impact on American lives in the future. Back in 2012, fracking produced almost $284 billion to the GDP and was an abundant and affordable source of energy for the United States. According to this flyer from the same website mentioned above (www.energyfromshale.org/articles/powering-manufacturing-renaissance), the industry has the potential to advance even more, and that advancment would create a $16 billion investment in the new manufacturing capacity, 400,000 new jobs, and an economic output of $132 billion for the United States alone.

Powering-A-Manufacturing-Renaissance-With-Hydraulic-Fracturing

 

With the allowance of fracking, the cost of production will go decrease, and this will give the American companies a “leg-up” in the world economic field. This will help America create new jobs, as well as export more materials, thus bringing in more money for the American economy.

As the fracking industry advances, natural gas prices will drop. This gas is used to repressure wells, vented and flared gas, and remove non-hydrocarbon gases. Additionally, the people who support fracking are seeing large economic gains. American household families would be able to save up to $200 per year. Other companies, including the power companies, would have economic gains of about $74 billion per year.

Fracking would benefit all 50 states. Although the colder states would be expected to benefit greatly from fracking, the South Central states would gain money in terms of consumer benefits, as would the North Central states. Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Texas would benefit both from the fracking that occurs, and the natural gas use that would in turn decrease the cost of other forms of energy.  Fracking has an incidental impact on electricity generation. The Americans have increased their electricity use over time. With the advancement of  the fracking industry, Americans would not have to worry about their increase in energy use. Currently, the use of natural gas emits harmful CO2 into the air, which is tearing a hole in the ozone layer. This hole is causing global warming to occur on Earth. However, with the use of the fracking process, there will be less harmful CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, and therefore global warming will start to slow. Additionally, the drop in the use of natural gas supply would drop the electricity prices in the United States. If fracking is allowed to occur in all of the states, the land prices of the areas affected by the drilling will increase, and the wealth of the homeowners in that area would increase as well. Therefore, fracking will help to advance the economy of the area that it provides energy to.

According to a report created by a group of Yale economic graduate students, “consumer benefits from the technology of shale gas drilling and new gas production can be expected to exceed $100 billion per year [annually], as long as the present production rates are maintained.” This supports the facts written above. For those consumers who worry about the environmental risks of fracking, even if the potable wells around the area were somehow contaminated with the hydraulic fracking liquid, the cost to replace that well would be about $ 5,000. However, with about 100 events like this happening around the nation, the cost to replace all of these wells would be about $250,000. But when a cost analysis is done, the cost to replace these well is much less than the economic benefits of the fracking process. The study used this data to conclude that the benefits of the fracking industry outweigh the risks of the fracking industry by 400 to 1.

Another example of the economic benefit of natural gas is its comparison to the cost of a barrell of oil. “It takes 6 mcf of gas to get the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil. If the average price of $100 per barrel was taken, and the average price of $5 per mcf, are taken, it would cost about $30 of natural gas to replace a $100 barrel of oil. Therefore, using the natural gas that you can get from the fracking process would cost much less than the barrell of oil that is now used for energy. The fracking industry has many economic benefits for society, and for these reasons, as well as the steps they take to keep the environment clean, fracking should be allowed to be used and not contested.

Sources:

http://www.energyfromshale.org/americas-energy/economy

http://politicsandpolicy.org/article/fracking-economic-boom-or-environmental-danger

http://www.cipa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=749

https://www.aei.org/publication/benefits-of-hydraulic-fracking/

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brookings-now/posts/2015/03/economic-benefits-of-fracking

3 thoughts on “Fracking has Economic Benefits

  1. Kyle Trabocco says:

    Fracking is really scary to me. I feel like it would be safer to invest money away from fracking in a way that still creates money. Like investing in green energy or something. I heard that fracking is responsible for the tectonic activity in Oklahoma and that is scary. Energy production is a great source of revenue for the economy, but maybe we could find a way that is not so scary.

  2. Eric Hodge says:

    I think one of the biggest global concerns for the next several decades extending into the next century will be securing a sustainable energy grid. One benefit of fracking is that it provides cheap natural gas for natural gas power generation. Although the natural gas turbines are not themselves CO2 free, their use supports the production of energy through sustainable means. This is because the turbines can run efficiently at different intensities, which saves room on the grid while renewable are available, and can fill in the gaps when the renewables are not on.

  3. Eric Hodge says:

    I think one of the biggest global concerns for the next several decades extending into the next century will be securing a sustainable energy grid. One benefit of fracking is that it provides cheap natural gas for natural gas power generation. Although the natural gas turbines are not themselves CO2 free, their use supports the production of energy through sustainable means. This is because the turbines can run efficiently at different intensities, which saves room on the grid while renewable are available, and can fill in the gaps when the renewables are not on.

Leave a Reply