Fracking? for or against?

stpaddy99

I know so very little of this but am interested to know more

is it safe is it green? whats its track record abroad?

is it green? have we got viable alternatives? what about using the tide for energy? building a few barrages?

will this really reduce prices?

who will make money from this? is it going to be private money mainly?

Valetta

< Snip >

Smart arsed answer removed as original post was in AH.

Ruu

Moved from After Hours, you might learn more here.

J_E

is it green?

It's 'greener' but affects people and their area to a huge degree.

have we got viable alternatives?

Probably.

The worst part is when big companies start fracking areas without consent of nearby residents, who it definitely affects. Imagine waking up to a sickening smell of chemicals in the air giving you headaches, water in the house turning to crap, with little in the way of prevention or compensation from said company. That's the big issue really.

The other problem is that the big pro/anti people all provide a slight variation on the truth, which just confuses things more. Knowing Ireland's whole Shell debacle though, I doubt anyone in the government is going to put up much of a fight if and when it comes here.

end of the road

stpaddy99 wrote: »

is it safe is it green?

it has been linked to causing small earthquakes, but whether thats the case or not i don't know, whether it is really "green" or not is debatible, all the waste from it has to be dumped somewhere.

stpaddy99 wrote: »

whats its track record abroad?

i think france and a couple of other countries have banned it but i'm unsure of that, i think the UK government recently has said that if councils encourage fracking they will get to keep the proffits

stpaddy99 wrote: »

will this really reduce prices?

i suspect not to be honest

stpaddy99 wrote: »

who will make money from this?

mostly private companies, the government will get something from it whethr it be taxes, a percentage of the proffits, or royalties.

stpaddy99 wrote: »

is it going to be private money mainly?

i'd imagine so, i can't see the state setting up a company to do it.

circadian

Fracking referendum proposed in Fermanagh.

Hopefully there's a push all over the country to at least give the people a say on such a contentious issue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25871715

Personally I don't see the point. As fossil fuels run out they'll get more expensive regardless of where it is obtained. Focusing resources on renewable energy and moving away from the dependencies that fossil fuels create is much more sensible.

Lurching

If it created local jobs for both initialisation and ongoing works, and if the money produced was in Irish companies, it'd be hard to throw out without at least some consideration.
Truth is that if it happens, the companies won't be Irish, the taxes wont be high enough to take advantage of it and it'd turn in to a social and environmental disaster.

I think it'd be better off leaving it a few more years for two reasons:
- The technology is still evolving due to its age. Advancements will surely have positive environmental effects (when compared to the current effects).
- More and more countries are considering Fracking of late. Wait and see how they handle it. Learn from their mistakes.

Birdnuts

circadian wrote: »

Fracking referendum proposed in Fermanagh.

Hopefully there's a push all over the country to at least give the people a say on such a contentious issue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25871715

Personally I don't see the point. As fossil fuels run out they'll get more expensive regardless of where it is obtained. Focusing resources on renewable energy and moving away from the dependencies that fossil fuels create is much more sensible.

No evidence really of fossil fuels running out - especially gas which is still burned off as a waste product in many oil producing countries.Indeed many gas producing countries such as Algeria are having problems getting customers ATM, with major new conventional gas discoveries both offshore and onshore in East Africa and elsewhere. Fracking has led to much cheaper energy prices in the US compared to the EU which is why the latter is looking again at its renewable energy targets which have so far failed on cost and cutting CO2 emmisions in many cases. My views on fracking is that once its tightly regulated(it wasn't initially in the US which led to some of the problems mentioned by others) and doesn't involve the use of chemical injection, then I think it should be looked at seriously in suitable parts of the country.

zombieland

Hi Guys, first time posting here. Just giving my opinion here on this. I'm against Fracking, just from the point of view that we just don't know what the long term effects will be. It's all well and good doing it in the US, we live on a very small island, if it screws up the water table etc, where do we move to, can't move two States over like in the US. I read an article on a dairy farmer in either Austria or Germany, when setting up he got a 700k loan from the govt at 1% to set up a large dairy farm. After only a few years he had paid off most of the loan and got another large loan to set up a bio-digester - electrical generating system on his far, fulfilling fully his own needs and also supplying the national grid with the surplus.

I don't believe it should be a question of fossil fuels running out, and then using invasive/destructive methods to get more. In Ireland I believe it should be a case of utilising the methane gasses we let go to waste and then we have to pay for in the carbon footprint/green house gasses contributions to the EU etc.If every farmer could set up a similar system on a smaller scale imagine the dividends we as a country could reap.

Impetus

Fracing in the West of IRL is a non-runner, given the experience with conventional gas wells off the West of Ireland- 12 years behind schedule etc. While one can turn the clock back to Kinsale gas, and its close to zero problems - and which gas has provided much of the energy used in Ireland for decades, the hydraulic fracturing of shale using chemicals various could be as dangerous to the environment as cows, slurry, fertilzer, etc

Given the choice, I would prefer windmills and solar voltaic in my vicinity, rather than being able to put a match to a water tap in a bathroom only to see fire from the tap!