Pro-Fracking View

          As the previous post describes, America and the world is in an Energy Crisis. America's turbulent relationships Iraq and Afghanistan, significant oil providers, has increased the appeal of "home grown" oil. In a way this is good, instead of relying on countries we don't have a healthy relationship (something about starting wars with them and terrorism), we can rely on more stable sources of energy. As the bar graph below shows, the U.S. has decreased it's dependence on foreign oil, not because we've decreased the amount of energy we're consuming, on the contrary the amount of energy we're consuming is increasing, bur rather because we have invested more in natural gas and renewable energy. Relying less on foreign oil boosts our national security and relationships because we're not as involved or controlling in other countries. The other big incentive for investing in fracking is the stimulus it gives to the economy. The fracking companies sometimes pay families more money than they make in a year. After the fracking companies have bought the land they employ drivers to transport the gas and workers to do manual labor. They also employ scientists to oversee the drill and make the process more efficient. In a Job Crisis (so many crises!) any increase in employment, an estimated 1.7 million jobs,
is important to help families and the economy recover.

Link to Debate at Tufts

Break Down of Energy Consumption in America

        Right now we are in an "Energy Crisis" for multiple reasons. We depend on energy for electricity which we use everyday for light, heating, cooling, computers, etc. Energy is also used for transportation   via airplanes, trains, cars, etc. As the population of the world along with the amount of people using electricity and traveling increases, energy has become in high demand. However we are consuming energy at an unprecedented and unsustainable rate. Most of our energy comes from nonrenewable sources (sources of energy that can't be replenished in our lifetime, but rather takes billions of years to regenerate) such as coal, natural gas, and coal. Nuclear power is technically nonrenewable because there is a finite amount of uranium, but there is a lot of it so it's regarded as a sustainable alternative. Each type of energy has it's own interest groups; the intents of these groups will be discussed in further detail in later blog posts.
            The diagram below shows how much of different types of energy America uses. Oil became very popular in the 1950s because that is when oil could be found in Texas. These wells didn't last too long and created many ghost towns. A ghost town occurs when a temporary rise in jobs attracts businesses and families, but then when the source of those jobs is depleted everyone leaves the town. When Texas dried up, America turned to foreign countries for oil (possibly a cause for the invasion of Afghanistan). Coal has dramatically decreased in popularity because it must be burned to release its energy. This process causes pollution of carbon dioxide, which is a contributer to climate change. Investors have turned to natural gas to provide an alternative to foreign oil. Natural gas isn't fool proof, but it's heavily abundant and "local", plus renewable energy couldn't handle the pressure of providing energy for all of America. This is evident in the pie chart that shows the present, but little contribution renewable energy makes to providing electricity.