To those of you who skipped class, we talked about pros and cons of natural gas, as well as how there can be improvements.

Benefits

  • Natrural gas has 1/2 GHG of burning coal
  • Reliable / huge reserves
  • Job creation (29K in Pennsylvania)
  • Tax revenues / wealth creation

Negative consequences

  • Water quality and water use
  • Social division
  • Land disturbance
  • Increased EQ’s?
  • Workplace hazards
  • Questionable long term effects / health impacts
  • Air pollution (FPI, VOC)
  • Nonrenewable
  • Strain to existing infrastructure

Area of improvement

  • Wastewater treatment
  • Research on geologic/ecosystem impacts
  • Dry fracking, LPG fracking
  • Environmentally benign fracking
  • Fluids
  • Improved monitoring

We also watched some YouTube videos involving fracking, including…

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm7e553S7fg
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFUxq9UolN4