20 February 2014 - US and UK fracking policies
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In parched states, fracking's thirst grows
Jenny Deam (The Los Angeles Times)
GREELEY, Colo. — In this parched farming region, where the land flattens out and every drop of water is precious, another player has lined up at the spigot.
On a recent sunny afternoon, a huge cylindrical tanker truck rolled up to a red city fire hydrant and driver Jose Ofornio hopped out. With well-practiced efficiency he hooked hose to hydrant and began to fill. And fill.
"It's really bad in the mornings," Ofornio said, noting that trucks often have to wait in line for their turn. This was his third trip of the day. In less than 15 minutes, thousands of gallons of water gushed into his tank and was shuttled 50 miles to a drilling site, where it would be blasted into the ground along with sand and chemicals to free a bounty of oil and gas in a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
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A bit of context
Julie Schmit (USA Today)
The USA's domestic energy boom is increasing demands on water supplies already under pressure from drought and growing populations, a new report says.
The water-intensive process used to extract oil and gas from shale underground — known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking — has required almost 100 billion gallons of water to drill more than 39,000 oil and shale gas wells in the U.S. since 2011, says Ceres, a green investment group.
More than half of those wells — 55% — were in drought-stricken areas, and nearly half were in regions under high or extremely high water stress, such as Texas, the report says.
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In Britain
Henry Chu (The Los Angeles Times)
SALFORD, England — Just a few yards from the messy camper van where he now spends his nights, Hytham Chlouk points through some winter-stricken trees at what he calls "the death star."
It's a giant derrick that rises high in a clearing behind a perimeter of fences topped with razor wire. To the company that runs the deep-bore drill inside the structure, it offers a potential gateway to lower natural gas prices in energy-hungry Britain. But to Chlouk, it's a death knell for England's picture-postcard countryside.
"This is the selling of Great Britain," Chlouk said, peering out from behind a pair of glasses and a mop of brown dreadlocks. "I don't want my beautiful country destroyed. I'd hate for it to be like some places in America that look like alien landing zones."
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"20 February 2014 - US and UK fracking policies", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), février 2014. Consulté le 19/04/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/key-story/archives-revue-de-presse-2014/20-february-2014-us-and-uk-fracking-policies