Michael+M.+-+POSITION+PAPER


 * Research Question: **

Should the United States start to extract the natural gas in our country or continue to import oil from other countries?

How should the United States go about their natural gas needs?

**Thesis Statement:**

Americans should spend more time extracting the natural gasses by using a new technique of fracking, a more efficient way of getting the abundant amount of energy out of our country's ground to help the economy and to provide the world with an energy source.

Everyone in our rapidly modernizing society needs energy to continue running all of his or her daily needs. All over the world, many nations are feeling pressure to find a renewable source for energy and in an article written by Jenifer Weeks, a Massachusetts freelance writer who specializes in energy, the environment, science and technology she wrote about America and how many democrats are saying that “a failure to pursue alternative energy sources will heighten global damage from climate change, make the nation increasingly beholden to unstable foreign oil producers and hurt the economy” (Weeks Energy Policy). While many alternative sources have been tested and some may work and be implemented in the near future, a topic very local to us is fracking to release the nearly abundant amount of natural gas located below the Appalachian region and other parts of North America. Another article written by Jeff Goodell, the author of "Big Coal" And the writer of "Obama's Pipeline Limbo" in RS 1145 wrote about how these natural gasses were at one point believed to be “too difficult and too expensive to get out of the ground” (Goodell The fracking Bubble). With new technologies in fracking, extracting the gas will become an easier and safer energy source for humans to use.The require for more energy sources is becoming more prominent in our society and moving to other sources like natural gasses is a step we need to reach.

The problem that we will soon be out of oil is not a very recent topic. Mary H. Cooper, specialist in environmental, energy and defense issues and graduate from Hollins College in English wrote “In the early 1970s, a series of energy crises awakened the country to its growing dependence on foreign oil” (Cooper Renewable Energy). Although it wasn’t a huge topic 40 years ago, they still were thinking that we would need a new source of energy and were right because today we are facing the pressure t get out of the whole we are in. Rodman D. Griffin, Manager of Environmental Defense Fund, wrote that in America this topic has affected nearly everyone because “Fossil Fuels now account for 85 percent of U.S. energy use” (Griffin Alternative Energy). People are not the only thing that will be affected by the switch from oil to natural gas; companies will become involved. Many companies will emerge with new technologies in fracking to release the natural gas from earth while other strong businesses will go under because they will be nothing for them to do anymore. Moving to natural gas will also shift the economy. Considering that oil has been a major factor to the economy not only in the US but also worldwide, moving away from this could both benefit and harm our economy. It will obviously hurt our country because that would be one less thing that we can put into the economy but when these companies go under, the U.S. government [has] continue[d] to dole out $4 billion a year in tax breaks to [these] companies. These subsidies are not sustainable, and we intend to end them (Weeks Energy Policy). Because these oil companies will not be there to drain the money in our country, new business will have to be built to accommodate for the loss and jobs will be created stimulating our economy intern employing people. This new still of fracking is a more dependable way to release the natural gas and can result in more energy for society to use.

The switch from oil to other sources such as natural gas will affect everyone; all ages, genders, races, and regions of America and some parts around the world. There are many reactions regarding this new energy source that are both good and bad. With the war in the Middle East over oil, moving to a national fuel source could potentially get us out of that danger zones. Mary H. Cooper wrote a secondary encyclopedia expressing what alternative fuels we could use and she wrote that having our own fuels could “help end U.S. reliance on Middle East oil” (Cooper Alternative Fuels). This could sort out the struggle for energy sources and help to push America back on top in the world. As I mentioned before, the topic of getting a new energy source has been around since the 1970’s. We have had many generations to try and solve the problem but there have been no substantial long term reliable sources implemented into society and “future generations will condemn us because we did not act” (Cooper Alternative Fuels). With the gallons of oil dropping these young people will all have to come together to fix it and come up with a better solution. To solve this solution “New drilling techniques have opened up U.S. natural gas supplies that were unavailable just a decade ago… called fracking," which consists of “horizontal drilling” (Fracturing for Natural Gas). Because this new system was just recently found out, the wells that we were unable to reach in the past, we will now be able to collect and supply America with their energy needs.

With the quickly modernizing society, energy is a necessity to function properly in today's world, but will these major energy sources such as oil ever run out? Ker Than, freelance reporter who got his masters degree from New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program wrote "that [oil] reserved will one day run out" and some analysts believe that the end or oil could “be measured in years rather than decades” (Than The Mysterious Origin). This daunting task of finding a new source is not that new to us. With the find of oil since 2000 alone, “member agencies have spent about $163 million on oil pollution research and conducted at least 144 research projects cover[ing] a range of topics, like in situ burning (burning oil off the water’s surface), detecting oil in icy waters, predicting oil behavior in deep-water blowouts and using micro-organisms to remove oil from saltwater marshes” (Adams $163 million spent) Laura Adams, graduate from the University of Delaware in May of 2010 with majors in international relations, Spanish, and Latin American studies. In the process of knowing what there is to know about oil, scientists have estimated the oil reserves to run dry in the near future and we would have to have a new source to thrive on Erath. When many of the earlier generations came to the problem that we will soon run out of oil, they didn’t think much of it because it wasn’t going to affect them in their lifetimes. “During the oil crisis of 1978, the American public was less concerned about the country's energy dependence than their president” Patch (Oil Imports) who at the time was more concerned about other subjects like getting American hostages from Iran. Because of the lack of support from the generations who were first faced with this problem, we are now in a push for time to get a solution like fracking to release natural gas.

The problem after the recognition that oil would run out was to find a new source of energy and this will continue today until that is met. Many past solutions have come with ways to fill the needs although they have drawbacks. Some of these are nuclear energy, which has enough energy to power society, but “nuclear energy emits dangerous levels of heat and radiation” (Weeks Managing Nuclear Waste). Other sources such as hydro power and wind power have also been considered but these have their drawbacks as well like hydropower ruining the landscape and wind power killing thousands of birds as well as not having the space for these sources with the growing population. Other sources like fracking have been tried and at this point we need to start using the abundant sources we have at our availability. “The U.S. is estimated to have 827 trillion cubic feet of this gas… enough to last for decades” (Mooney The Truth About ). This energy could supply Americans and countries around the world but we just need to begin extracting it to cover the energy needs and stop the oil problem.

Now that I am driving, I realize more than every how important oil is on our society. Throughout my years in school I’ve been taught the significance of oil and how many wars occur in the Middle East over them but not until this year have I taken in the impact on what this has on me as well as the future of the world. Because humans are so dependent on oil, the power lays where the wells are, and unfortunately many of the oil reserves are located in the Middle East. This has caused the US and many other countries to try and get holds in these areas, in turn starting war. To try and avoid I would suggest that the United States government step in and invest in American companies to mine for natural gas, a nearly abundant resource here in our own country. If we were to focus on the resources or country gave us we would have the opportunity to leave the Middle East’s hold over us. Some experts predict an oil "production crunch" within four to five years that will have severe geopolitical and economic impacts and one expert says the energy supply-demand gap could create "social chaos and oil” by 2020” ( [] ). If we were able to supply ourselves with enough energy and could leave, we would be avoiding all of this madness in the near future in that region. Before we leave we should have a stable source of energy, by understanding how to mass collect natural gas and use it to create energy. Once companies are set up and can do this, we can leave this area to get out of the madness. This change will change society because everyone will be affected in their efforts to get the new energy source to work and implemented into our society but it will also be weird to leave the Middle East. This new technique of fracking to get natural gas will be beneficial for Americans because we, energy wise, would be able to support ourselves and not be under the wing of other countries. If the government were to step in a help start this drastic change, we could achieve so much more on so many more levels than ever before in the past.

Many people believe that switching from oil to natural gas will prove to be too expensive for the United States. They think that producing new equipment to get the natural gas will outweigh the benefits from this energy source because they would have to scrap the old oil equipment. Catherine Elder, a senior researcher associate at consulting firm Aspen Environment Group conducted a study analyzing the economics of shutting down the coal plants in which she wrote that “replacing 335,000 MW of coal fired generation [could] cost in the range of $335 Billion and the news article written by Stacy Feldman later went on to explain that the switch “would require an additional $348 Billion of new pipeline capacity” (Feldman). Many people like these two believe that the switch is way too expensive.

While it may be quite expensive to switch, it will be very beneficial to do so. According to many people like Feldman and Elder, this could cost upwards of $700 Billion and destroy our economy but that is not including the fact that we could reuse many of the parts or sell them to other countries that are still fighting to get oil and or sell these parts as scrap metal. Even though it will be a bit pricy to switch from oil to natural gas the price of gas, Corbin Hiar - previously an editor at The Huffington Post and as a reporting editor at PBS – wrote that “U.S. natural gas prices [have] plummet[ed] from a 2008 high of nearly $13 per thousand cubic feet to below $2 – the energy-to-cost equivalent of $15-per-barrel oil” (Hiar). With the new technologies in fracking, natural gas prices have gone way down and over time could save the U.S. millions of dollars.

Although the switch from oil to natural gas will be expensive right off the bat, the cost every year will be significantly less and will save us greatly in the future. As long as the government steps in to help get these businesses going, the outcomes will help the government back in the long run. While many other countries are fighting for the remaining oil on Earth, we will be ahead of the game running on natural gas located in our own country

Besides believing that switching from oil to natural gas will cost too much to switch, others believe that it will end up causing more harm to the U.S.’s environment than oil is right now. They do believe that the new style of fracking is allowing for greater extraction of the gas but Daniel McGlynn, a California-based independent journalist who covers science and the environment, addressed the new style “ Hydraulic Fracturing, or fracking, involves injecting massive amounts of water, chemical, sand and other material under high pressure into shale formations to break the rock and release the gas trapped inside” (McGlynn). These chemicals that are in these speedy processes of fracking pollute the water and release harmful toxic gases into the atmosphere. For many of these critics to adapt to fracking, they would like to see an improvement in chemical pollution into the ecosystem because of the many permanent damages to our planet.

While natural gas causes harm to nature what’s not to say that oil does as much if not more? While oil does provide humans with much of the world’s energy, this crude oil has possesses a huge threat to our surroundings. Oil “causes irreparable harm to the environment…pollut [es] [the] drinking water… is hard to remove from the enjoinment and expos [es] plant and animal life to greater risk from pollution” and when spilled, oil “is only partially able to clean up” Cooper Oil Spills). She describes the affects of oil and they look as bad if not worse than natural gas to our country at this point in time. Natural gas research has recently skyrocketed and new technologies will begin to be found everyday to improve their affects on the planet.

Although natural gas has bad images on the environment, so to do other major energy sources. Because oil is an “old” source most of the research on it has hit a wall but the research for natural gas is on the rise, which could cause that source of energy to be a cleaner and more reliable source in the future. This is why we need to get started with natural gas now so that we can get the stepping-stones behind us and get moving forward “harvesting” the gas to produce energy.

The final argument that switching to natural gas from oil as our major source of energy is that many Americans will loose their jobs in the switch. Society has dug into using oil and if we were to switch to natural gas we would not have nearly enough companies to employ the oil workers. Jannette M. Barth, Economist, Pepacton Institute, and member, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy described her view if we were to switch and write that going to natural gas would result in “failing health and vanished employment opportunities” (Jannette Barth). Because we have invested so much into the oilrigs and companies have begun to get strong, pulling out now could cause total chaos and it would take years to regain that strength in the energy field.

While work in the natural gas companies would be limited at first, oil companies hit their peak in the last few years and with the low numbers of oil, they will begin to decline rapidly in the future. We have seen many times in the past where these oil companies have had to lay off employees and the economy has dropped significantly and if the oil is beginning to run low, we could see this again in the near future. What we could see would be similar to or even worse when in 1999, “11,500 oil-industry jobs disappeared” (Cooper The Politics). These numbers wouldn’t be a shock for just a year or so they would persist for many years and the jobs would continue to vanish and people would be unemployed until a new energy solution came out.

The final reason why we need to move to natural gas is to try to preserve jobs for Americans. Because natural gas is a “new” economy the jobs will be few and far in between but because oil is running low many of those jobs will be nonexistent and natural gas companies will grow with the help of the government. The government could step in to help and receive a direct return with many workers and the people would be able to get a stable job.

If we were to move from oil to natural gas we as a society and country over all could benefit drastically. Many people think that it may cost too much or there won’t be enough or even that we don’t know enough about natural gas to move to it at the moment and that it will cause harm to the environment but many of these are untrue. Because the foreign oil sources are beginning to show signs that they will run out and the fact threat they are over seas causes many other problems with war and disagreement, the switch could give many Americans jobs in the natural gas field and possibly put us far ahead in the world leaders. Natural gas is on the rise and research is allowing it to be a cleaner source of energy that is local and with the governments help, we should be able to afford the switch and the payouts will be unbelievable. So where do you want to be in the energy problem need? Vice President Joe Biden said that “No previous generation has had that debate about whether we're going to lead the world” and the “Innovation and energy will go on whether or not we join, and no nation which expects to be a leader of other nations can fall behind” so we need to get back on top by finding that new reliable source to power society. http://www.lvrj.com/news/biden-america-needs-to-lead-in-developing-clean-energy-sources-128693328.html

Annotated Bibliography:

Adams, Laurel. “$163 million spent on oil pollution research — with no coordination.” //iWatch News//. N.p., 27 Apr. 2011. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. < [|http://www.iwatchnews.org] >.

This secondary news article written by Laurel Adams, a graduate from the University of Delaware in May of 2010 with majors in international relations, Spanish, and Latin American studies wrote about the problems with oil on nature and how much time, effort and money the united states have spent into finding out more. I used this article to give a better picture for how much we spend on oil research per year and how so much is wasted.

Cooper, Mary H. "Alternative Fuels." //CQ Researcher// 25 Feb. 2005: 173-96. Web. 13 Apr. 2012.

This is a secondary encyclopedia article written by Mary H. Cooper, a specialist in environmental, energy and defense issues. This article describes many alternative fuel sources to overtake what we use today. I included this article because it gave me insight to the many new energy sources and the benefits and drawbacks of the sources

Cooper, Mary H. "Oil Spills." //CQ Researcher// 17 Jan. 1992: 25-48. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.

This is a secondary encyclopedia article written by Mary H. Cooper, a specialist in environmental, energy and defense issues. This source describes the problem oil has on our world and the bad effects it posses. I will use this to emphasize my position on why we should switch over to natural gas and slowly move away from the needs of oil.

Cooper, Mary H. "Renewable Energy." //CQ Researcher// 7 Nov. 1997: 961-84. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.

This is a secondary encyclopedia article written by Mary H. Cooper, a specialist in environmental, energy and defense issues. This article gives information of the benefits of renewable sources and the effects of the energy sources we use today on the planet. I included this to give background information on our problem with oil right now.

McGlynn, Daniel. "Fracking Controversy." //CQ Researcher// 16 Dec. 2011: 1049-72. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.

This is a Secondary encyclopedia written by Daniel McGlynn, a California-based independent journalist who covers science and the environment. This article expresses many of the issues with fracking including those affecting people and the environment.

Feldman, Stacy. “Natural Gas Boom Not Worth Costs and Risks, Study Warns.” //Inside Climate News//. N.p., 11 July 2010. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. < [|http://insideclimatenews.org] >.

This is a secondary news article written by Stacy Feldman, who has experience in over twenty years in career management, human resources, and executive search. She wrote this news article about how natural gas is too expensive to switch over from oil in our day in age. I can use this to show the cons of natural gas over oil.

“Fracturing for Natural Gas.” //State Legislatures.// 01 Mar. 2011: 7. //eLibrary.// Web. 14 Apr. 2012.

This is an encyclopedia article posted on ELibrary. It stated the benefits of natural gas over oil. I can use this source to get a perspective on how natural gas is better than oil.

Goodell, Jeff. “The Fracking Bubble.” //Rolling Stone// 15 Mar. 2012: 48-55. //EBSCO//. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. < [|http://web.ebscohost.com] >.

This web article is a secondary source written by Jeff Goodell, the author of "Big Coal” and writer of "Obama's Pipeline Limbo". The article addresses some of the many companies who use fracking and what they do to get the natural gas. This source will be used because it has information regarding the new technology of fracking and provides many benefits that it will give us.

Griffin, Rodman D. "Alternative Energy."//CQ Researcher// 10 July 1992: 573-96. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.

This encyclopedia source is a secondary article written by Rodman D. Griffin. This source shows the progression of sources we’ve used in the past and what we need to use in the future. I used it, like the others, to get background on our state in energy and what we should do in the future.

Hiar, Corbin. “Natural gas: The ‘atomic bomb’ of the energy debate.” //Midwest Energy News//. N.p., 19 Apr. 2012. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. < [|http://www.midwestenergynews.com] >.

This secondary news article written by Corbin Hiar, previously an editor at The Huffington Post and as a reporting editor at PBS wrote about the current debate regarding the energy issue between oil and natural gas and gave many facts why, with advancements in fracking, natural gas could become the energy of the future due to its more abundance in the united states and how much cheaper it is than oil. I will use this source and the facts within to allow for the reader to get a better understanding of how much better natural gas can be in the future if we can get a jumpstart on it now.

Mooney, Chris. “The Truth About Fracking.” //EBSCOhost//. N.p., Nov. 2011. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. < [|http://web.ebscohost.com] >.

This is a secondary encyclopedia source written by Chris Mooney, a science and political journalist, blogger, podcaster, and experienced trainer of scientists in the art of communication, in which he states the basic truths about fracking. He addresses the push and pull factors and what need to be done to more toward a better energy source. I will use this article to gather information with the benefits s well as the drawbacks to fracking and natural gas.

Patch, Buel W., Kennedy P. Maize, and Mary H. Cooper. "Oil Imports." //CQ Researcher// 23 Aug. 1991: 585-608. Web. 3 May 2012.

Than, Ker. “The Mysterious Origin and Supply of Oil.” //LiveScience//. N.p., 10 Oct. 2005. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. < [|http://www.livescience.com] >.

This secondary news article is written by Ker Than, a freelance reporter who got his masters degree from New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. In this source he explains how much oil is left on the planet and when will it all be gone. I used this to show how we need to switch from oil to natural gas because of the location of the remaining oil reserves.

Weeks, Jennifer. "Energy Policy." //CQ Researcher// 20 May 2011: 457-80. Web. 9 Apr. 2012.

This journal article is a secondary source written by Jennifer Weeks, a Massachusetts freelance writer who specializes in energy, the environment, science and technology. In this article, Weeks describes Obama’s energy policy and explains what needs to change and how it needs to be changed to fix our country. This source will be used to give some background information to our energy problem and shows many possibilities in changing it.

Weeks, Jennifer. "Managing Nuclear Waste." //CQ Researcher// 28 Jan. 2011: 73-96. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.

This encyclopedia article is written by Jennifer Weeks, a Massachusetts freelance writer who specializes in energy, the environment, and science and technology. This article covers the history, controversies involving, and the overview of nuclear waste storage. Although this article is centered around the specs of nuclear energy, I can use it to show how past attempts were close to fulfilling the energy needs but they still showed major flaws.