Natural gas-Is it worth the risk?
By kkropat
@kkropat (29)
Canada
September 25, 2010 9:11pm CST
It's practically turning into a war in my area. On one side you have landowners and gas companies praising financial freedom, economic stimulus, cleaner energy source, etc and on the other end you have residents expressing concern over potential water contamination, noise pollution, explosive dangers, etc. With companies offering leases to landowners at 250-1000 a month plus a 12.5% royalty on extracted gas, it's easy to see why many cash strapped people are signing up. You have multi-generation farms about to go bankrupt and/or foreclose. You have a distressed area with an unemployment percentage higher than the national average. An area with a median income of 39,000 for two person families. Then you have entire towns decimated by the gas drilling. Their water wells contaminated with unknown chemicals because the companies refuse to release what is in the fracking fluid they use. Water from faucets that can be set on fire. Gas lines exploding and leveling entire neighborhoods. I personally feel that the risk is no more than in other industries. Whether it's a landfill, quarry, power plant, etc-there is always some risk for pollution and disaster. With proper oversight and regulation, it should be a big change economically. What do you think?
3 responses
@Qaeyious (2357)
• United States
26 Sep 10
Yep, here in the US we have republicans and tea party people saying "Less government! Less regulation!" allegedly to help the economic situation here. I guess they don't recall even recent events like the BP oil spill or the mortgage failures that caused banks to get free money from future tax payers (which will not include the big corporations, of course, they get tax breaks.)
I don't remember the town's name in Kansas in the 1990s sometime, suddenly exploded in multiple places. They turned the gas off, but the fires continued. Turned out a storage facility miles away converted improperly from propane storage to natural gas storage. Natural gas is under pressure, propane isn't, and they just kept topping off the tank when it got low, and not try to find why it was lower every day ...
The gas went through the sandy soil for miles until it reached the town, then boom boom boom.
Under most cases, it is a clean gas, but the equipment needs to be maintenanced periodically. Nothing lasts forever.
@rameshchow (4426)
• India
27 Sep 10
in india the usage of natural gas is increasing day by day.
Natural gas can not harm to the society, it will not form any pollution(u know this),
More number of vehicles are increasing today,
@elmiko (6630)
• United States
26 Sep 10
if people are going through such problems with the worry of their water being contaminated then the gas drilling companies should provide them with access to clean water. all this really is a big means of trial and error when it comes down to it. yes their is some dangers when it comes to natural gas drilling but their many other areas where its safe so its just going to have to be worked out. natural gas is much cheaper then oil. if it can be switched over as the major fuel source over time it will free up alot of money over time. i like the idea of the vehicle called the volt general motors is getting ready to have on the market. i runs off of electric motor and gas but if. the electric motor is recharged by gas once the motor runs out of electricity while the car is still running. however, if they could replace the gasoline fuel source with natural gas to recharge the electric motor then to me that would be the perfect energy alternative at least for a vehicle.
