Bernie Sanders KNOWS fracking causes earthquakes, so we need to ban it.

For over 60 years, drillers have used a technique called "hydraulic fracturing"--a.k.a. fracking--to increase oil and gas production from non-porous layers of rock.  The technique involves pumping a fluid mixed with sand into a well at high pressure.  The only exit is into the oil-bearing formation.

Bernie Sanders, like every other Dem candidate, knows nothing about energy, including drilling for oil and gas.  But like every other Dem candidate, he KNOWS fracking is dangerous.  He claims it causes earthquakes, is "highly explosive" and "is contributing to climate change."

How does he know this?  How much research has he done?

None.  He's just echoing socialist/communist talking points, which are designed to crush U.S. oil and gas production.  One of the ways to do this is to ban fracking.

Of course if you're like most Americans you're justfiably skeptical of that statement.  Sounds too much like "tinfoil hat" stuff, eh?  Well consider this:

If U.S. energy production--oil, gas and coal--crashes, what do you think that would do to the world price of oil?  You bet: it would increase by some large amount.

And who would benefit from that?  You?  No, Russia, Saudi Arabia and all the oil-exporting nations.

Fracking is a danger to our water supply. It’s a danger to the air we breathe. It causes earthquakes. It’s highly explosive. And it’s contributing to climate change. We need to ban it nationwide. pic.twitter.com/acF22iQLRy

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 7, 2019

Now let's look at Bernie's claim that fracking causes earthquakes:  As I'll show you, this claim isn't just ordinary horse-shit, it's outrageous, abducted-by-flying-saucers horse-shit.  But it sounds SO plausible that people who don't know jack about what's below their feet believe it:

The anti-fracking loonies focus on the fact that Oklahoma--which has lots of fracking--has experienced lots of tiny earthquakes over the past six years or so.  AHA!  It must follow that the earthquakes are caused by fracking!

For those of you with a good education that's called "post-hoc reasoning."  Comes from the phrase "Post hoc, propter hoc," which is Latin for "Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself."

Nah, it refers to a logical fallacy that holds that if "B" happens after "A," then A must have caused B.

Now:  For decades seismologists have been able to tell the depth at which any given earthquake originated.  The earthquakes in Oklahoma originate at depths of five to 20 miles below the surface.

No company has tried to fracture formations below about two miles deep, because the pressure at those depths is greater than existing fracking technology can achieve.  And underground pressure always increases with depth--which means that fluid injected at any depth can't migrate downward more than a few thousand feet at most.

Oooh, knowledge demolishes horse-shit theories!  But never fear, citizen:  If you demolish one moonbat theory, they just come up with another that's just as nutty.  In this case they neatly pivot to "disposal wells" or "injection wells."

As most Americans probably know (sarc alert), in many oil formations the oil produced also contains gas and...saltwater.  So to produce oil, operators buy equipment that separates the gas and water from the oil.  The gas can be used, but the saltwater isn't useful so the operator must pay to dispose of it.

This is done by using old wells that no longer produce oil.  The saltwater from producing wells is put back into a formation that once produced oil--and saltwater.  Since the formation originally contained both oil and saltwater, putting saltwater back in doesn't damage the rock formation.

Moonbat: "BUT...but...you're ruining the precious drinking water!!"

No.  Water wells are typically less than 100 feet deep, whereas disposal wells are at 5000 feet or deeper.  Regulators wouldn't allow a shallow disposal well.

But who cares about facts when Democrat pols can scare you into voting for their policies, right?


Finally:  People who live in New York City and DC don't care much about the cost of energy, mainly because they don't depend on cars like those of us who live out in flyover country do. If gasoline were to reach six bucks a gallon due to the policies of Sanders, Warren or the rest, residents of NYC wouldn't be terribly affected. Oh sure, their food costs would increase, since virtually all food in NYC got there by oil-powered truck.  But when compared to average monthly rent of around $4000 per month, the extra cost of food would hardly be noticeable to them.

For those of us who live in low-cost, relatively-low-tax flyover country, it's a different story.