Fracking: Money vs. health

Fracking is the controversial method of procuring natural gas and oil from the ground by injecting chemicals at high pressures. At first, fracking was hailed as a way to acquire hard-to-get stores for oil and natural gas at a low price. Fracking helps keep natural gas costs down, but there is the potential for negative environmental and health impacts. 

It seems the U.S. is at an impasse deciding if the money saved by the average person and the money gained by government entities offsets the health and environmental impacts of fracking. Several states have held hearings and listened to scientists and local residents discuss how fracking can create earthquakes and sinkholes and that the chemicals can cause a myriad of health problems if they seep into the groundwater, but little has been done to curb the practice.

States such as New York and Ohio are reaping the benefits of low priced natural gas, but some of the residents are suffering. The United States is in the midst of an economic downturn and the government seems to be looking the other way because fracking is keeping people employed and states and municipalities are reaping the tax benefits of it. Plus, the country is reducing its dependence on foreign oil and turning natural gas into the next miracle fuel.

Should the people who live near fracking sites be tossed aside as casualties in a war between fiscal responsibility and the environment? Companies engaged in fracking deny up and down that their process is doing anything wrong, but the yells of the opposition are getting louder.

In Pennsylvania, a natural gas well began shooting out high pressure fracking fluid and in New York the opposition may form a political action committee to take their fight straight to Capital Hill. The fight over fracking is long from over, but as the politicians and the environmentalists fight for control, who fights for those sickened by process?

Photo courtesy of what-is-fracking.com