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Yeah, I love lighting my water on fire and fracking earthquakes. Switching America's oil subsidies to solar and wind would be much better than pretending that

Yeah, I love lighting my water on fire and fracking earthquakes. Switching America's oil subsidies to solar and wind would be much better than pretending that fracking shale is a net plus.

fred_is_fred 7y ago
Where I live in the US, pretty much none of the oil companies are fracking to get gas, they are fracking to get oil. The gas is effectively a waste product - and honestly if we don't burn it for heat, they will flare it - so at least by using it in our homes and power plants it has some value and also replaces coal.
- mrpopo 7y ago
  And fracking lives solely on government subsidies and will receive even more subsidies after this crisis. Without subsidies, fracking's gone and coal's back up. I fail to see how your comment responds to OP's suggestion of divesting subsidies to support renewables instead.
newswriter99 7y ago
>Yeah, I love lighting my water on fire and fracking earthquakes Natural gas from fracking does not cause burning tap water. https://www.cred.org/is-fracking-connected-to-burning-tap-water/ https://www.cred.org/is-fracking-connected-to-burning-tap-wa... Fracking-related earthquakes are either minimal or bebeficial https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/faq/does-hydraulic-fracturing-cause-earthquakes https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/faq/does... 0/10 "green energy" shill. Fracking gave us dirt cheap natgas, which is damn cleaner than coal AND why your electricity prices havent gone up in the last decade. Educate yourself.
- Analemma_ 7y ago
  What is cred.org? CRED (Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development) Our Membership Our members are leaders in the Colorado oil and natural gas community: Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Noble Energy, Bayswater Exploration and Production, DCP Midstream, Liberty Oilfield Services, PDC Energy Not exactly a trustworthy source you've got there.
  - newswriter99 7y ago
    "Oh noes, the corporations used science! That's not fair!" Find me a "credible source" that shows natural gas contaminates water. Go ahead. I'll wait.
- kstrauser 7y ago
  > Natural gas from fracking does not cause burning tap water. I'll take a step back from "burning", because that seems hard to prove, but it most certainly does contaminate ground water: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-contaminate-drinking-water/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-cont... > Fracking-related earthquakes are either minimal or bebeficial That's the most insane claim I've read on the Internet this week. You should be ashamed for saying that. Beneficial earthquakes. Now I think I've heard everything. I know it's against Hacker News rules to assume bad intent in posts, but I cannot believe that you're saying these things in good faith. It's just not possible.
  - samatman 7y ago
    It's possible. I have no clue if fracking does so, and the link doesn't support this, but hear me out: If you can choose between, say, five Richter 3 earthquakes, or one Richter 7, you definitely want the five small ones. IF fracking induced small earthquakes and IF those small earthquakes relieved pressure such that a big one didn't happen, then those small earthquakes would be beneficial. This is comparable to deliberately lighting small brushfires to use up fuel and prevent destructive wildfires. It would be a remarkable coincidence if fracking only caused such beneficent and salubrious earthquakes, and never triggered worse ones. But were it so, it would be good.
    - kstrauser 7y ago
      The Richter scale is log(10), so a 7 quake is 10,000 times stronger than a 3. A lot of Bay Area residents had thought the same you mentioned over the years (it's not a crazy idea! I mean, it seems at least plausible on paper!) but that's generally accepted as untrue now; see https://www.sfgate.com/earthquakes/article/do-minor-quakes-prevent-large-earthquakes-13541155.php https://www.sfgate.com/earthquakes/article/do-minor-quakes-p... for example.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - newswriter99 7y ago
- IAmEveryone 7y ago
  I hear these “Beneficial Earthquakes” are all the rage in the wellness community. Could be better than Probiotic Plutonium, Fun Flooding, and maybe even Happy Cardiac Arrest

Yeah, I love lighting my water on fire and fracking earthquakes. Switching America's oil subsidies to solar and wind would be much better than pretending that fracking shale is a net plus.

fred_is_fred 7y ago

Where I live in the US, pretty much none of the oil companies are fracking to get gas, they are fracking to get oil. The gas is effectively a waste product - and honestly if we don't burn it for heat, they will flare it - so at least by using it in our homes and power plants it has some value and also replaces coal.

mrpopo 7y ago
And fracking lives solely on government subsidies and will receive even more subsidies after this crisis. Without subsidies, fracking's gone and coal's back up. I fail to see how your comment responds to OP's suggestion of divesting subsidies to support renewables instead.

newswriter99 7y ago

>Yeah, I love lighting my water on fire and fracking earthquakes Natural gas from fracking does not cause burning tap water. https://www.cred.org/is-fracking-connected-to-burning-tap-water/ https://www.cred.org/is-fracking-connected-to-burning-tap-wa... Fracking-related earthquakes are either minimal or bebeficial https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/faq/does-hydraulic-fracturing-cause-earthquakes https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/faq/does... 0/10 "green energy" shill. Fracking gave us dirt cheap natgas, which is damn cleaner than coal AND why your electricity prices havent gone up in the last decade. Educate yourself.

Analemma_ 7y ago
What is cred.org? CRED (Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development) Our Membership Our members are leaders in the Colorado oil and natural gas community: Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Noble Energy, Bayswater Exploration and Production, DCP Midstream, Liberty Oilfield Services, PDC Energy Not exactly a trustworthy source you've got there.
- newswriter99 7y ago
  "Oh noes, the corporations used science! That's not fair!" Find me a "credible source" that shows natural gas contaminates water. Go ahead. I'll wait.
kstrauser 7y ago
> Natural gas from fracking does not cause burning tap water. I'll take a step back from "burning", because that seems hard to prove, but it most certainly does contaminate ground water: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-contaminate-drinking-water/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-cont... > Fracking-related earthquakes are either minimal or bebeficial That's the most insane claim I've read on the Internet this week. You should be ashamed for saying that. Beneficial earthquakes. Now I think I've heard everything. I know it's against Hacker News rules to assume bad intent in posts, but I cannot believe that you're saying these things in good faith. It's just not possible.
- samatman 7y ago
  It's possible. I have no clue if fracking does so, and the link doesn't support this, but hear me out: If you can choose between, say, five Richter 3 earthquakes, or one Richter 7, you definitely want the five small ones. IF fracking induced small earthquakes and IF those small earthquakes relieved pressure such that a big one didn't happen, then those small earthquakes would be beneficial. This is comparable to deliberately lighting small brushfires to use up fuel and prevent destructive wildfires. It would be a remarkable coincidence if fracking only caused such beneficent and salubrious earthquakes, and never triggered worse ones. But were it so, it would be good.
  - kstrauser 7y ago
    The Richter scale is log(10), so a 7 quake is 10,000 times stronger than a 3. A lot of Bay Area residents had thought the same you mentioned over the years (it's not a crazy idea! I mean, it seems at least plausible on paper!) but that's generally accepted as untrue now; see https://www.sfgate.com/earthquakes/article/do-minor-quakes-prevent-large-earthquakes-13541155.php https://www.sfgate.com/earthquakes/article/do-minor-quakes-p... for example.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- newswriter99 7y ago
IAmEveryone 7y ago
I hear these “Beneficial Earthquakes” are all the rage in the wellness community. Could be better than Probiotic Plutonium, Fun Flooding, and maybe even Happy Cardiac Arrest