U.s. Federal And State Governments - 1247 Words

As a consequence of the Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003 and the current political unrest in the Middle East, the United States and other western countries have made no secret of their strategic goal of becoming energy independent. Incidentally, recent advances in hydraulic fracturing - a process used to extract oil or gas from underground formations - has contributed significantly to achieving that end. According to Terry Engelder (2011), of the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, â€Å"There is enough domestic gas to meet our needs for the foreseeable future thanks to technological advances in hydraulic fracturing† (Howarth, Ingraffia, Engelder, p. 271). U.S. federal and state governments should continue to permit and†¦show more content†¦shale source rocks using fracking is about 42 trillion cubic meters. . . equivalent to about 65 times the current U.S. annual consumption† (Howarth, Ingraffea, Engelder, pp. 271-274). The following year, i n his State of the Union Address, President Obama (2012) commented, â€Å"We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years.† Furthermore, advances in hydraulic fracturing technology have enabled an exponential increase in U.S. gas production, which had already reached 10 trillion cubic meters by 2012, â€Å"turning the United States into an unexpected technology-driven ‘petrostate’ of a type never seen before† (Golden Wiseman, 2015, p. 966). Consequently, the United States is now largely energy-independent with sufficient fuel reserves and the means of production to support its energy needs for the foreseeable future. An additional benefit of fracking is that natural gas reduces overall greenhouse-gas emissions. As with all fossil fuels, burning natural gas produces CO2. However, CO2 emissions from natural gas are 50% lower than coal, and between 20% and 30% lower than oil (Howarth, Ingraffea, Engelder, 2011). Also, the increase in production and availability of fracking-related natural gas has made it an economical alternative to traditional fossil fuels such as coal and oil for electrical power generation plants. Moreover, the combination of lower CO2 production from natural gas together with its widespread adoption as a