Fracking

What I don’t get is when people go, “Removing restrictions on fracking will destroy the environment!” It’s the same logic that motivates the endless war on drugs: fight the supply while doing nothing about the demand. And we all know how successful that plan is.

As long as the demand for oil is high, it will be wrestled out of the planet’s entrails. What does it matter where exactly it’s taken? It’s one planet, one environment. At least, when you get it here in the US, you get the added benefit of controlling world affairs. 

2 thoughts on “Fracking

  1. According the World Economic Forum, US oil consumption has fallen back to levels of the late 1970s. Demand in other countries has increased, and the US is now exporting oil. Exports are now above 4 million barrels per day, up from 1 million in 2000.

    Fracking is expensive and works when the price per barrel is over $35. One strategy for environmentalists has been to drive prices up to reduce demand, but that may have backfired.

    Fracking also works when states don’t hold oil companies liable for the damages being done. The GOP push to move regulatory decisions down to corrupt state governments simply allows companies to run amok.

    We can’t control demand but we can make companies fully financially responsible for what they do. Raising the cost of extraction is the simplest and most direct way to reduce fracking.

    Like

Leave a comment