Speech On Fracking

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Speech We categorically believe that fracking is not the answer to the UK’s energy needs. I will be discussing health and environmental issues and my partner will be talking about the economic disaster it would undoubtable be. My argument will use the US as a case study for what could hypothetically become in the UK if fracking does in fact take off. Just a few years ago, fracking was sold to us as the ideal pathway to utilising our vast reserves of natural gas, a “perfect bridge fuel.” Gas executives promised that fracking would help rural communities, create jobs, cut carbon pollution and pose no threat to air and water quality, it sounded almost too good to be true, and it was. Now, several years after the start of America’s fracking…show more content…
Fracking is inherently risky, there is extensive evidence to suggest that fracking can contaminate groundwater and that it causes significant air pollution. For the first time in history, smog has become a major issue in many rural communities in the US, with some villages in Wyoming experiencing worse smog than downtown Los Angeles and an increase in lung cancer cases of over 500%. Since 2005, 1.2 trillion litres has been wasted in the fracking process creating toxic waste which cannot be recycled and must be disposed of very carefully to avoid danger to humans and the environment. In addition, one in six deep injection wells examined have an integrity violation leading to the leaking of toxic waste into the environment – more than 17,000 violations in the US alone. Such is the desperation for energy in the US, fracking has had to be made exempt from parts of at least seven major national statutes, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act in order for it to be made legal. If fracking is so safe, why must it be made exempt from so many critical
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