Introduction

Ominous plumes of smoke curl away from grimy smokestacks, menacing tendrils stretching toward the sky. Cars scurry back and forth along cracked concrete highways, streaking through omnipresent noxious smog. Fear, panic, and chaos erupt as the innocuous digits on gas station billboards creep higher, higher, higher. And all the while, America’s insatiable hunger for energy devolves into more and more of an indelible addiction. No longer just a commodity, energy is a substance that has already begun to grip the United States in a destructive stranglehold. It drove the country to bloody war. It continues to suck billions of dollars out of the economy. It will incite disasters that will plague the world for years to come. As the push to seek out new energy sources intensifies, newly-developed risky technologies spread across the country, disrupting lives, destroying habitats, impeding the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The United States’ attempt at abandoning the oncoming train wreck of energy dependence materialized in the form of a push toward natural gas. Heralded as clean and reliable, extraction and development exploded in recent years with the development of hydraulic fracturing. However, a potential menace hides in the growing dependence on natural gas. Beneath the superficial benefits hide dangers, dangers that threaten people and the environment alike. This form of energy extraction is not the cure for America’s addiction. For the future of the country, this path must be avoided. Because of the inherent risks and unknown long-term effects of hydraulic fracturing (known as “fracking”), the United States should not pursue natural gas development.