New U.S. Fracking Rules Earn Disdain from Both Sides

ENVIRONMENT

Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers’ Toolkit.

Discussion Ideas
Read through our activity “Extracting Natural Gas from Shale,” and its collection of linked websites, to help answer the following questions.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released new rules for companies involved in fracking. What is fracking? Take a look at our video “How Hydraulic Fracturing Works” for some help.
- “Fracking” is the nickname for the process of hydraulic fracturing. Fracking is a method of extracting natural gas from deep below the surface of the Earth.
- Layers of rock called shale and sandstone hold “tight oil” or “tight gas,” fossil fuels trapped in the rock formation. Some shale formations lie more than a mile beneath the surface of the Earth.
- Water and other chemicals, called drilling fluid, is pumped into the rock formations at extremely high pressure. This exposes existing cracks in the rock, and allows natural gas to escape.

The new BLM rules also impact the process of “horizontal drilling.” What is horizontal drilling? Is horizontal drilling only used in the fracking process?
- Horizontal drilling, also called directional drilling, is the process of searching for underground oil using non-vertical well shafts. This illustration below, from the good folks at the National Energy Technology Laboratory, illustrates horizontal drilling.
- Horizontal drilling can also be used in the non-fracking extraction of fossil fuels. (Let early 20th-century oilman Daniel Day-Lewis tell you about it in a famous metaphor decades before the process was actually used.)

According to the Nat Geo Great Energy Challenge blog, the oil and gas industry objects to the new BLM fracking rules. Why?
- According to the blog, the industry is objecting for two main reasons.
  - First, the new rules require that companies disclose the chemicals used in their drilling fluids. Companies claim that the components of drilling fluids are trade secrets. Trade secrets are data that give each company a competitive edge. (The most famous fluid-related trade secret, for instance, is probably the formula for Coca-Cola.) Forcing oil companies to reveal trade secrets about the chemicals in their drilling fluids will hurt business, companies say.
  - Second, oil companies say the BLM rules are redundant. There are already rules in place at the state and regional level that duplicate the new federal rules.

According to the Nat Geo Great Energy Challenge blog, environmental groups also object to the new BLM fracking rules. Why?
- According to the blog, groups are also objecting for two main reasons.
  - First, the rules allow companies to disclose the components of drilling fluid after the drilling is complete—and maybe not then. “Companies can get exemptions from revealing that a chemical was used during fracking if they submit an affidavit with specific information about why the material needs to be kept secret, according to the rule.” Environmental groups are concerned that the fracking process may release toxic chemicals into the soil, groundwater, or atmosphere.
  - Second, environmental groups are concerned that the new rules do not address methane leaks at drilling sites. Methane (CH4) is the primary component of natural gas, the fossil fuel extracted during fracking. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and, leaked into the atmosphere at drilling or transportation sites, can contribute to anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming.

TEACHERS’ TOOLKIT

Nat Geo: Get to know oil, oil shale, and natural gas

National Geographic Education Blog