The U.S. EPA Is Attacking Fracking in a Green Way with New Federal Standards - Image from Google
In the natural gas and oil world, fracking is a huge blessing but also has been a huge curse: It allows the United States to extract natural gas from areas once unreachable, but it also hasn’t been the healthiest process for humans or for the planet. The fight is on now in the U.S. government’s new green “frack attack” – new standards to decrease greenhouse gas and smog emissions that suffocate humans and Mother Earth while also saving millions of dollars.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently has finalized fracking standards to reduce air pollution that stems from the production of natural gas and oil via wells. At the same time, natural gas and oil producers do not have to worry about their businesses being hampered. The new fracking standards include the first federal air rules for natural gas wells that are hydraulically fractured and require that new technologies be used to capture natural gas that otherwise might escape from these wells. The new fracking technologies will decrease 95 percent of the harmful emissions from wells that contribute to smog, and they also will allow companies to collect extra natural gas that can be sold, an added bonus.
Another perk of these new fracking standards is that the new regulations essentially will result in savings of between $11 million and $19 million for the industry annually.
“Green completions,” technologies that currently are already commonly used at wells, must begin being used by all well owners and operators by January 2015.
As America strives to be independent of foreign oil, being able to frack for natural gas domestically is imperative along with employing other clean energy technologies. The benefit of these new EPA fracking standards is that they allow fracking to go on without being detrimental to the environment – the same issue that led to the argument concerning the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline earlier this year (which was met with controversy due to fears that the erection of the pipeline would threaten environmentally sensitive regions of the United States).
When the nation’s estimated 13,000 natural gas wells are fractured or re-fractured on an annual basis, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted, and they contribute to the creation of smog along with cancer-causing chemicals. Furthermore, methane is the chief component of natural gas extracted through fracking, and this is a potent greenhouse gas that actually is 20 times more dangerous than carbon dioxide.
“The president has been clear that he wants to continue to expand production of important domestic resources like natural gas,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said. “[The new fracking] standard supports that goal while making sure these fuels are produced without threatening the health of the American people.”
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