Geostrategic Shale
Numerous environmental groups have warned that the Trump administration’s policy of facilitating fracking poses a serious threat to the environment
Author: Elson Concepción Pérez | internet@granma.cu
February 19, 2018 16:02:00
Photo: Pinterest
It’s very clear. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, acts on impulse, with sudden, melodramatic outbursts. He has even described coal produced energy as “clean,” ignoring the harmful effects on the environment.
“We have ended the war on American Energy — and we have ended the war on clean coal. We are now an exporter of energy to the world,” he stated in his State of the Union Address, January 30, 2018.
Beforehand, as he took his first steps as tycoon-President, he described global warming as a “lie,” claiming it was irrational, and promptly turned his back on the Paris Agreement, signed by almost all countries of the world, and applauded by the international community.
He then found it inconsistent with his way of thinking and acting that the major oil-producing countries – read Venezuela and Russia, fundamentally – should benefit from the rising price of oil on the international market. Thus he threw all his weight behind the production of oil and gas through fracking (hydraulic fracturing), extraction from shale rock through the use of large amounts of water and chemicals that pollute the environment and have even been linked to diseases such as cancer.
According to International Energy Agency forecasts, U.S. crude oil production will reach the record figure of ten million barrels per day. It could reach energy self-sufficiency in 2035, through the accelerated extraction of shale oil and gas.
Studies have demonstrated the contamination of surface and subterranean fresh water sources in areas close to where fracking is undertaken, as well as the increase of greenhouse gas emissions.
In one of his Reflections on January 5, 2012, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro, warned that “… exploitation of a platform with six wells can consume 170,000 cubic meters of water and even create harmful effects such as influencing seismic movements, polluting surface and groundwater and affecting the landscape.”
Suffice to say that among the numerous chemicals that are injected with the water to extract this gas are benzene and toluene, which are terribly carcinogenic substances.
As such, numerous environmental groups have warned that the Trump administration’s policy of facilitating fracking poses a serious threat to the environment.
Another measure of the current President is the easing of export restrictions and authorization to drill in protected areas such as Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Accusations of all kinds have been voiced throughout the world. A wire from the IPS agency highlights statements by Robert Howarth, professor at Cornell University in New York State, in which he notes that shale gas production generates between 40 and 60 times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional gas. Due to methane leaks during the fracking process, this method is worse than burning oil or coal, as methane has “105 times the warming potential of CO2 over a 20-year time frame.”
There remains no doubt that Trump and his team are obsessed with saturating the market with U.S.-produced oil, wherever it may come from, even if this means its people are exposed to the most terrible environmental contamination and diseases.
Geostrategic interests come above those of other human beings. Another point for Trump in a Presidential post for which he is obviously not in the least prepared.
GENERO: Report
Author: Elson Concepción Pérez | internet@granma.cu
February 19, 2018 16:02:00
Photo: Pinterest
It’s very clear. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, acts on impulse, with sudden, melodramatic outbursts. He has even described coal produced energy as “clean,” ignoring the harmful effects on the environment.
“We have ended the war on American Energy — and we have ended the war on clean coal. We are now an exporter of energy to the world,” he stated in his State of the Union Address, January 30, 2018.
Beforehand, as he took his first steps as tycoon-President, he described global warming as a “lie,” claiming it was irrational, and promptly turned his back on the Paris Agreement, signed by almost all countries of the world, and applauded by the international community.
He then found it inconsistent with his way of thinking and acting that the major oil-producing countries – read Venezuela and Russia, fundamentally – should benefit from the rising price of oil on the international market. Thus he threw all his weight behind the production of oil and gas through fracking (hydraulic fracturing), extraction from shale rock through the use of large amounts of water and chemicals that pollute the environment and have even been linked to diseases such as cancer.
According to International Energy Agency forecasts, U.S. crude oil production will reach the record figure of ten million barrels per day. It could reach energy self-sufficiency in 2035, through the accelerated extraction of shale oil and gas.
Studies have demonstrated the contamination of surface and subterranean fresh water sources in areas close to where fracking is undertaken, as well as the increase of greenhouse gas emissions.
In one of his Reflections on January 5, 2012, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro, warned that “… exploitation of a platform with six wells can consume 170,000 cubic meters of water and even create harmful effects such as influencing seismic movements, polluting surface and groundwater and affecting the landscape.”
Suffice to say that among the numerous chemicals that are injected with the water to extract this gas are benzene and toluene, which are terribly carcinogenic substances.
As such, numerous environmental groups have warned that the Trump administration’s policy of facilitating fracking poses a serious threat to the environment.
Another measure of the current President is the easing of export restrictions and authorization to drill in protected areas such as Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Accusations of all kinds have been voiced throughout the world. A wire from the IPS agency highlights statements by Robert Howarth, professor at Cornell University in New York State, in which he notes that shale gas production generates between 40 and 60 times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional gas. Due to methane leaks during the fracking process, this method is worse than burning oil or coal, as methane has “105 times the warming potential of CO2 over a 20-year time frame.”
There remains no doubt that Trump and his team are obsessed with saturating the market with U.S.-produced oil, wherever it may come from, even if this means its people are exposed to the most terrible environmental contamination and diseases.
Geostrategic interests come above those of other human beings. Another point for Trump in a Presidential post for which he is obviously not in the least prepared.
GENERO: Report
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