In these early stages of my research, I find myself rapidly forming a strong opinion on fracking, and I fear I am lacking proper evidence to do so. I have mainly found evidence that I believe to shed a negative light on fracking. Thus, I had to make attempts to view the other side of the argument and see what the supporters of hydraulic fracturing were in favor of in their support. For this information, I turned to the American Petroleum Institute (API) to examine their work. (To look at their mission statement and some of their research and statistics, you can follow this link:
http://energytomorrow.org/who-we-are). The API hails fracking as "clean technology" that can be greatly beneficial in providing the country with an energy source. They claim that in over 60 years, there has been "spotty, unconvincing, and contradictory" evidence supporting that hydraulic fracturing contaminates groundwater. Some other claims that API makes are:
- We know that hydraulic fracturing has been used safely for over 60 years.
- We know that producing energy from shale promises jobs and security.
- We know that America's oil and natural gas industry are committed to working with community leaders and regulators to ensure the safe and responsible development of this energy.
After reading further into some of the American Petroleum Institutes' claims of why fracking is indeed a safe practice, their main defense is that there have been no proven, documented cases that prove that fracking is the direct cause of contaminated groundwater is areas where fracking occurs.
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