The first thing to understand is that this is simply a problem of the industry being greedy. The oil producers are drilling too many wells in close proximity to one another, and when they frack the newer wells — known as child wells — those “bash” or “hit” the older wells and cause problems.
The Most Revolutionary Act
Uncensored updates on world events, economics, the environment and medicine
The Most Revolutionary Act 
Destruction of our country; earthquakes, sink holes, water depletion, aquifer pollution, …what could go wrong?
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Marblenecltr, the only good thing I can think of related to fracking is the way it’s waken people up to the absolute control the petroleum industry has over our government and its regulatory agencies.
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Don’t forget wildfires, massive floods, volcanic eruptions and even new terminology; lavanadoes and firenadoes and next, we will have “Sharknados!” Everything is polluted now anyway; the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we eat. But hey! The smartphones are still working, so we good!
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You make an excellent point, Shelby about the role of distraction in keeping the corporate elite in power. Assuming that Smartphone are merely a fad, makes you wonder what will replace them.
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Leaving aside all the environmental and health issues, the harsh truth is that most fracking is âuneconomicâ. Thatâs why US is desperately trying to cannibalise other oil producers â Iraq, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, even Yemen â to force their production down and the oil price UP. Saudi and UAE remain the kingpins â which is why US grovels to them â but that ainât easy either with Saudi financial reserves dropping steeply as demand for oil levels off. Oil (not including natural gas) is peaking as developing countries and Europe desperately look to renewables to try to create some kind of economic independence. And while there are still vast reserves of oil â most of it is becoming harder to get at and more energy intensive to extract.
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Thank you for bringing up the economics of fracking, Lowell. Richard Heinberg mentions this in his book Snake Oil. He maintains that because fracking wells deplete so quickly, petroleum companies must continue to drill more and more just to keep up with their loan repayments every month. When the oil price dropped, most of the small fracking companies couldn’t keep up and went bankrupt. I understand that even Exxon is in financial difficulty now.
I understand that many banks refused to finance new fracking projects or coal fired power plants – or in some cases gas-fired plants because it takes 20-30 years to pay these loans off. And with so many customers switching to renewables already the banks worry about getting their money back.
Chris Goodall writes about this (and why the cost of renewables keeps dropping) in The Switch.
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