Hydraulic Fracturing And The Energy Boom Of The 1900 S

Since the energy boom of the 1900’s, new technology has become available to tap into natural gas deposits that have been out of reach since the beginning of time. The technology called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking for short, has erupted and could very well be the major economic boom of the century. â€Å"Hydraulic fracturing is a process that s been used to extract oil and natural gas since it was first introduced by Standard Oil in the 1940s.† (Hassett and Mathur 2014) The original process used by standard oil caused the company to boom and grow putting the company all over the map. As of today, fracking technology has advanced to the point where a new form of hydraulic fracturing is now available. This new form is called horizontal†¦show more content†¦With shale natural gas now on the horizon in the United States of America, many supporters of the horizontal hydraulic fracturing industry are looking at the economic benefits of fracking shale. The curren t horizontal drilling abilities provided â€Å"23.608 quadrillion Btu [of just shale natural gas alone] in 2011† (Hassett and Mathur 2014). This number in terms of energy production marked the â€Å"USA [as] the second largest natural gas producer† (Hassett and Mathur 2014) as of the year 2011. Since 2011, the production of natural gas in the United States has been raised even higher as more and more states lift their moratoriums on fracking and new natural gas hotspots are discovered. In the State of Pennsylvania, a huge shale natural gas deposit has been found that could hold an even larger chance for growth in energy production in the United States. This natural gas deposit called the Marcellus shale deposit actually â€Å"stretches 1,000 miles from New York to Virginia and is 300 miles across at the widest point† (Grottenthaler 2011). Most of this formation of shale natural gas lies in the Pennsylvania portion of the shale natural gas deposit containing roughly â€Å"$500 billion in recoverable gas† (Finkel 2011). Not only is this great for the economy in Pennsylvania, it is also a great sign for the economy in the rest of the United States as well. According to many experts on the