Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, injects high
pressure volumes of water, sand and chemicals into existing wells
to unlock natural gas and oil. The technique essentially
fractures the rock to get to the otherwise unreachable deposits.
Another company has given up on trying to develop oil shale in
the Uinta Basin, faced with legal battles, environmental
concerns and money going down the drain. Estonia’s national
energy company announced that it was wrapping up its fruitless
oil shale venture in Utah at the end of last month. Estonia
Finance Minister Mart Võrklaev said that the company’s project
in Utah was “neither profitable nor promising” in a news
release. … Oil shale is a hard sedimentary rock that can
be heated to release synthetic crude oil. It’s a thirsty and
expensive process that threatens air quality, water quality and
endangered species, and exacerbates global warming, according
to nonprofit Grand Canyon Trust staff attorney
Michael Toll.
California oil and gas regulators have formally released their
plan to phase out fracking three years after essentially
halting new permits for the practice. The California Geologic
Energy Management Division (CalGEM) wrote that they would not
approve (PDF) applications for permits for well stimulation
treatments like fracking to “prevent damage to life, health,
property, and natural resources (PDF)” in addition to
protecting public health and mitigating greenhouse gas
emissions. … Hydraulic fracturing injects liquids,
mostly water, underground at high pressure to extract oil or
gas. Oil companies say fracking has been done safely for years
under state regulation and that a ban should come from the
Legislature, not a state agency.
Nearly three years after Gov. Gavin Newsom directed it,
California’s oil and gas industry regulator kickstarted a
process to outright ban hydraulic fracturing, the fossil fuel
extraction method known as ‘fracking.’ Fracking permits have
not been issued in the state since 2021, but environmentalists
celebrated the move as a win in the fight against climate
change. Oil industry groups called it yet another example of
regulatory overreach and argued it could lead to higher oil
prices. … As the practice exploded in the
mid-2000s, research gave fracking a reputation for pollution
and public health dangers. Fracking not only is water
intensive, it releases potent greenhouse gases such as methane
and benzyne and can contaminate groundwater basins with
chemical additives.
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, injects high
pressure volumes of water, sand and chemicals into existing wells
to unlock natural gas and oil. The technique essentially
fractures the rock to get to the otherwise unreachable deposits.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information
in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the
Groundwater Resources Association of California.
It may surprise some people to know that California is the fourth
largest producer of crude oil in the United States and has a long
history of oil exploration. Since the 1860s, wells in Kern County
and Southern California have been tapped for more than 500,000
barrels of oil each day.