Fracking and the Environment: Myth and Reality

Professor, I don’t know if you will read this but to a lot of kids like me who made mistakes or maybe didn’t have their cards line up didn’t make it to college… yet the fact that I can sit and listen and learn about energy and fuel is such a great experience. I learn so much, and am captivated by every video of yours I watch. I feel like I can become learned, and gross not just intellectually… but as a person Thank you professor. I am so grateful for what you do

Fking love this guy. I keep watching his videos. The YouTube algorithm was like “soooo....you like that Chernobyl mini series? How about this guy?”

I'm a 20-year petroleum engineer. This is a very good and accurately represented video on this topic. I wish more people would take the time to watch and understand this. Hydraulic fracturing is not the demon the media makes it out to be

As an aerospace engineer I appreciate that our energy needs require practical compromises and demystifying the public’s reactive perceptions to certain energy solutions. I appreciate your YouTube series regarding nuclear energy. However, this presentation seemed to be less discussion regarding the science and more about defensive arguments. You literally said that the rare instances of poorly treated fracking brine are addressed by regulatory oversight. Do you really believe this? Really? Hw many federal agencies and personnel oversee these fracking locations? What are statistics regarding industry penalties issued and paid (not overturned or reduced) for improper operation? It is a disservice to just say it is handled without evidence. Consequently I don’t feel this review was balanced and comprehensive.

Thank you professor for you free knowledge. I appreciate that you have made these videos for all to see and learn from. Keep up the good work!

Hello as a person that been fracing for over 13 years. Sometimes we use produced water that's water that's flowed back. An sometimes we won't use the gel. Will just do an FR job aka friction reducer job. But your video was spot on though.any other question as far as other chemicals that are used or what else that goes on in fracing just reply. Your presentation are awesome though keep it up.

Coal pollutes far more water than natural gas. With natural gas, carbon dioxide may be a problem, but coal also has heavy metals and other unpleasant things.

I wish you did a podcast, your lectures are incredibly interesting and really easy to follow even when you're discussing complex subjects. Really appreciate these videos

I remember I used to repeat the "fracking causes flammable tap water" thing like all the time and when it was demonstrated to me that it wasn't true I felt like such an idiot. I live nowhere near a fracking site and if I open my kitchen sink tap just a little bit and hold a lighter to it occasionally a bubble of gas will light on fire. I guess it's more common with well water which is why people who live far out near fracking sites see it more often.

I wish he would have mentioned that the water once used for fraking cannot renter the water cycle either via treatment or dissolution. Water used for agriculture or household use, even black water can be treated and eventually reused, if not always be readied for potable use. However, fraking fluid can only ever be used for fraking. Additionally if commercial use produces waste water, its disposal is subject to the clean water act, however fraking fluid is not. Rather convenient for the industry... But all this is moot. Fraking has rarely ever been profitable, case in point: Louisiana. Examine the financial status of the firms engaged in fraking, at least one of them is filing for bankruptcy a month, heck even the firm that was the trailblazer, Chesapeake energy, is bankrupt. Other examples: Ultra Petroleum, C&J Energy, Diamond Offshore, MDC energy to name a few. Solar and wind is the way forward, augmented by Nuclear and Hydroelectric.

Please address the issue of methane release in fracking oil. It seems to be a huge problem, especially now that EPA allows release instead of capture or even flaring.

Friendly reminder water USE isn't the issue with fracking, mostly because they use non-potable/brackish water. The issue is methane leaking (2-3% of production) and water contamination. Can be from not even leaking fracking fluid, but disruption of the formation similar to mining, leeching heavy metals/hydrocarbons into the water table.

Another excellent de-mystification of an important issue where the public's technical understanding is largely the result of watching TV instead of presentations like this. Thanks...and keep 'em coming. Cheers.

My biggest question around Fracking is reguarding groundwater contamination.... I see large deposit in Michigan.. but I am concerned with contamination of fossil fuels in the great lakes.

Love these videos and the way he delivers them.

In general, I love the knowledge this man shares. However my curiosity about fracking continues after watching this. Mini earthquakes induced in areas nowhere near natural faults seems disconnected from possible benefits of lubricating the San Andreas Fault. Also, although it is possible for well water to naturally absorb methane, that also seems very different from a previously clean well suddenly developing methane absorption after the geological structures separating groundwater from methane were fractured. I’d love to see a video address these questions - I genuinely want to understand.

A great video, as always. The "daemon" isn't specifically fracking, rather the use of fossil fuels generally, and for the sake of addressing climate change we need to move full speed away from ALL fossil fuel usage, towards a combination of nuclear and renewables.

Got a question. How much water does it take one unit of oil or gas out the ground, or what is the ratio of water to extracted substance?

Dave nice I got you back utube. Love your lectures esp. for the ley. More more more

on top of professor energy’s knowledge, I do appreciate his humor.