Shale Reserves Mean Security for U.S. and Its Oil and Gas
Industry Worried about chemicals used in fracking fluid? Let's
break it down for you November 29, 2011 It's not as easy as Jed
Clampett made it look in the American sitcom The Beverly
Hillbillies. And it hasn't been for some 60 years. American oil
companies have been using hydraulic fracturing to gain access to
deeper and deeper oil and gas reserves since the 1940s. Today,
all of the shallower reserves have been exploited, but the
United States still has a wealth of reserves trapped in layers
of shale rock. In fact, this country has enough natural gas to
power itself for the next 200 years. We can access those
reserves through hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." Critics of
fracking have pointed to concerns about groundwater pollution.
Before you buy the sometimes sensational (and unproven) claims,
let me give you a few fracking facts: - Fracking involves
drilling down to levels of as much as 10,000 to 15,000 feet, far
below the aquifer, which is about