Published on May 07, 2013
- Fact Sheets:
Taken together, spills of toxic fracking fluid and fracking wastewater, groundwater contamination from methane and fracking fluid, local and regional air pollution problems, explosions and fires, and climate-threatening levels of methane emissions demonstrate the shortsightedness of relying on the dirty energy from shale development.
Published on March 04, 2013
- Reports:
Maryland has an opportunity to ban fracking now. We already know enough about the impacts of drilling and fracking for natural gas to know that we don’t want it in our state. Opening up Maryland to fracking won’t bring energy security to the region, won’t solve our economic problems and won’t provide clean energy.
Published on January 23, 2013
- Fact Sheets:
The oil and gas industry plans to massively expand a labyrinth of pipelines to market natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale and other rock formations using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. But allowing the industry to build out its sprawling pipeline infrastructure and to lock-in decades more of U.S. dependence on natural gas would be a colossal mistake. The industry’s pipeline projects must be stopped.
Published on January 17, 2013
- Issue Briefs:
The potential for widespread hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” threatens New York’s abundance of farmers markets, community-supported agriculture, and locally grown produce and food products. Fracking is a process that the oil and gas industry uses to extract natural gas and oil from shale rock formations buried deep within the Earth. It requires large quantities of water mixed with sand and toxic chemicals, which are injected underground at high pressure to crack dense rock and release oil and gas.
Published on November 14, 2012
- Reports:
Promoters of modern drilling and fracking celebrate the industry’s newfound ability to extract oil and natural gas from shale and other tight rock formations, calling it an energy “revolution,” a “paradigm-shifter,” a “rebirth” and a “game changer.” One recent report claims that North America might soon become “the new Middle East,” a net exporter of oil and natural gas. In April 2012, ConocoPhillips’s CEO at the time called shale gas a “blessing.” But for whom is it really a blessing?
Published on September 26, 2012
- Issue Briefs:
Despite the alarming water crisis the world is facing, private interests are polluting, exploiting and selling water — a resource essential for all life. A 2009 publication, sponsored by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and several for-profit multinational companies, predicted that by 2030 global freshwater demand would exceed available supplies by 40 percent. In addition to the increasing pollution and overuse of the available freshwater supply, climate change will exacerbate water shortages worldwide. In fact, a UN-Water report said, “…climate change is expected to account for about 20 percent of the global increase in water scarcity.”
Published on June 08, 2012
- Fact Sheets:
The State of California does not require companies to disclose if and where they are fracking, but industry docu- ments reveal that fracking has taken place in the counties of Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, Solano, Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Monterey, and in the San Francisco Bay Delta, a source of drinking water for over 20 million Californians.
Published on June 06, 2012
- Issue Briefs:
New drilling and fracking techniques have made it possible to extract oil and natural gas from shale and other dense rock formations that were previously inaccessible. While such drilling and fracking has been a boon for the oil and gas industry in the United States, it has been a nightmare for Americans exposed to the pollution that accompanies shale development. The expansion of modern drilling and fracking across the country has caused widespread environmental and public health problems and created serious, long- term risks to underground water resources, all of which affect farming and our food.
Published on May 15, 2012
- Issue Briefs:
From the Sacramento Valley to Los Angeles County, the oil and gas industry has been fracking in California without clear regulatory oversight for many years. Now, the next generation of drilling and fracking involving much more fluid and chemicals injected at much higher pressure, and creating much more waste, pollution and risk — has arrived on the West Coast.
Published on April 18, 2012
- Fact Sheets:
The oil and gas industry argues that the potential economic benefits of fracking justify the risks and costs to public health and the environment. But the industry has grossly overestimated the number of jobs that fracking would create, and has either ignored or dismissed the public costs of the practice.
Published on April 16, 2012
- Fact Sheets:
Drilling and fracking a single shale well can produce millions of gallons of toxic wastewater and hundreds of tons of potentially radioactive solid waste. Disposal of these wastes poses serious environmental and public health risks.
Published on March 07, 2012
- Fact Sheets:
Europe: New drilling and fracking techniques have been a boon for the oil and gas industry in the United States, making it possible for companies to extract large quantities of oil and gas from shales and other "tight" rock formations. However, shale development has been a nightmare for those exposed to the resulting pollution.
Published on March 07, 2012
- Reports:
Within the past decade, technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” have enabled the oil and gas industry to extract large quantities of oil and natural gas from shale formations in the United States. However, the practice has proven controversial. Pollution from modern drilling and fracking has caused widespread environ- mental and public health problems and created serious, long-term risks to underground water resources.
In this report, Food & Water Watch reviews the risks and costs of shale development that have been demonstrated in the United States, including economic costs that run counter to industry-backed claims about the economic benefits of the practice.
Food & Water Watch then summarizes the state of shale development in six selected countries: France, Bulgaria, Poland, South Africa, China and Argentina.
Published on December 08, 2011
- Issue Briefs:
Gas drillers use a water-intensive process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract natural gas from shale. The process injects millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, under high pressure to crack the rock formation to release natural gas. Private water players can make money on both ends by selling water to drillers and then treating the wastewater.
Published on November 29, 2011
- Reports:
The Cuomo administration is currently considering regulations that would allow widespread drilling and fracking for shale gas in New York. The regulations being considered are based on the state’s 1,537-page environmental impact analysis, which included a socioeconomic impact analysis with job and revenue projections for several different shale gas development scenarios in the state.
Food & Water Watch closely examined New York’s socioeconomic impact analysis and found that it does the people of New York a disservice. The New York analysis concluded that an “average” shale gas devel- opment scenario would bring 53,969 jobs, but only in the fine print of a footnote of the widely read factsheet is it mentioned that this is a 30-year projection.
Published on November 25, 2011
- Fact Sheets:
Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," have enabled the oil and gas industry to extract natural gas from rock formations deep below ground, called shales. Fracking entails injecting a large amount of water, sand and toxic chemicals at a pressure high enough to fracture the shale and release the natural gas. The oil and gas industry now wants access to natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations underlying large regions of the State of New York.
Published on November 15, 2011
- Issue Briefs:
The oil and gas industry is aggressively promoting the expansion of shale gas drilling in the United States. Over the past decade, oil and gas companies have developed new fracking technologies to extract gas from shale, a previously unprofitable source, leading to a resource extraction rush referred to as the “natural gas revolution.” The Marcellus Shale is projected to become the largest source of gas produced in the country and has been a focal point of the industry. However, shale gas drilling blowouts and explosions, drinking water contamination, wastewater and drilling fluid spills and leaks, and local air pollution have caused environmental problems and led to growing public resistance to the practice across the country. In response, the oil and gas industry has promoted the supposed economic benefits and job creation potential of shale gas drilling for communities. Economic studies by industry, industry-funded academics and ideological think tanks claim that shale gas development will generate enormous economic benefits. One study claims that developing the Marcellus Shale alone could create more than a quarter of a million jobs in the coming decade.
Published on November 15, 2011
- Reports:
The oil and gas industry, industry-funded academics and ideological think tanks have promoted shale gas development — through the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — as a sure-fire job creator during difficult economic times. Food & Water Watch closely examined a recent report touting the job-creation potential of shale gas development and found numerous inaccuracies and methodological flaws. Even after correcting for these problems, questions remain about the validity of using economic forecasting models to predict the economic impacts of expanded shale gas development.
Published on November 03, 2011
- Fact Sheets:
Gas drillers use a water-intensive process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract natural gas from shale. The process injects millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, under high pressure to crack the rock formation to release natural gas. Much of that water returns to the surface, along with water from underground, contaminated fracking fluids and other, possibly radioactive, substances. Private water players can make money on both ends by selling water to drillers and then treating the wastewater.
Published on October 30, 2011
- Fact Sheets:
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a drilling process used by the oil and gas industry to extract natural gas that is locked away in tight rock formations and buried deep within the earth. The process injects large quantities of water mixed with sand and toxic chemicals under high pressure to break apart the rock and release the gas. Over the past decade, advances in fracking technologies have enabled the development of previously uneconomical sources of natural gas, so fracking has expanded rapidly. However, this expansion has faced increasing public resistance due to the resulting environmental pollution and public health problems.
Frac sand is a type of industrial sand — which is often referred to as “silica sand” because of its high levels of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Frac sand is mined like other types of sand and gravel, which typically entails an open pit using standard mining equipment.
