Why is fracking a good thing

This is because of the sheer amount of natural gas that has been extracted through the hydraulic fracturing process. With so much product on the market, consumers enjoy lower prices. In , fracking — in conjunction with falling oil prices — helped drivers save almost a full dollar per gallon at the pump. One of the biggest ways that fracking helps to benefit the economy is through job creation.

Fracking has made it possible for millions of Americans to find a job with a decent wage. Fracking has already helped to create more than 2. In communities where fracking occurs, the unemployment rate is, on average, 2. And, for every job created in the fracking industry, there are between one and three jobs added to other sectors. In addition to helping you save more money at the pump, fracking can also help you save on your energy bills at home. Fracking stimulates economic growth Advanced fracking technologies kicked off a new energy renaissance in America.

Their success started a U. Before fracking, America had plans to import natural gas. They worry that the chemicals used could contaminate groundwater. These concerns should be taken seriously. But natural gas has also been an economically viable means of reducing carbon pollution. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is perhaps the most important energy discovery in the last half century. As a result of fracking, U. This increase has abruptly lowered energy prices, strengthened energy security and even lowered air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions by displacing coal in electricity generation.

The lower energy prices have meant more money in the pockets of American families and businesses. And the lower emissions are certainly good news for our health with large reductions in air pollution dispersed across the country and, at least for the near term, our climate. Whether or not we as a society continue to gain from the broad benefits of fracking rests on the shoulders of the local communities where drilling takes place, or could take place. These communities must determine if the local benefits exceed the local costs, a calculation that requires a lot of information to be done well.

On the benefits side, fracking increases economic activity, employment, income and housing prices. Since health is such a critical factor, we decided to dig in further by looking at the health of those born near fracking sites. Our findings, published recently in the journal Science Advances , present the first large-scale peer-reviewed evidence of a link between hydraulic fracturing and health. Specifically, we found that babies born within 3 kilometers, about 2 miles, of a fracking site are more likely to suffer from poor health.

Out of the nearly 4 million babies born in the United States each year, back of the envelop calculations suggest that about 30, of them are born within a kilometer of a fracking site and another , are born between 1 and 3 kilometers away. We then combined this data with a list of all fractured wells in Pennsylvania through , which included 7, wells. One big question that naturally arises from this kind of work is whether the analysis controls for other factors that might contribute to low birth weight such as socio-economic or behavioral factors.