Solar Incentive Plan Reduces Portlander’s Fracking Footprint, by Annika and Sophia

February 28, 2020

Last week, the Solar Incentive City Ordinance was passed in Portland. We can reduce our use of natural gas by turning off our lights when they are not needed, buying Energy Star appliances, and better insulating our homes. If your electricity comes from solar panels, then you receive tax credits from the government. The people who do not use solar panels have to pay penalties. New solar panels, invented by SolarTec in Portland, Oregon, are also efficient on cars. The government is working to create new engines that don't use any gas, but use water and wind power.

Portland can reduce its consumption of oil and gas and thereby reduce the need for fracking. When most people think of oil and gas, they think of the gasoline in our cars and the heat and power in our homes, and we know we can reduce our usage of these fuels. For example, a Prius has double the mileage than gas run cars.

There are up to 600 chemicals used in fracking fluid including toxins such as mercury, radium, methanol and hydrochloric acid. 72 trillion tons of water and 360 billion gallons of chemicals are used in US gas wells for fracking. During the process, methane gas and toxic chemicals drain away from the soil and contaminate nearby groundwater. Only 30-50% of the fracturing fluid is recovered, the rest of the toxic fluid contaminates the environment. Did you know that methane concentrations are seventeen times higher in drinking water wells close to fracturing sites than in normal wells? That contaminated well water is then used for drinking water by nearby towns and cities. There have been thousands of reported illnesses due to drinking contaminated water. Do we need a disaster to happen to our water supply in Oregon before we do something about it?

According to the American Petroleum Institute, "thousands of products from your toothpaste to your iPod, your cellphone to your computer, and your vitamins to vegetables contain components derived from oil and gas." Fracking is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth, by shooting highly pressurized water mixed with sand and chemicals into the ground. If you go deep enough, oil and natural gases seep through the fractures into the wells. In 2011,
Americans threw out 29 million tons of plastic. Another 2.65 million tons were recycled, meaning the vast majority of these petro­products were just thrown into the trash, requiring more fracking to
replace them. "This has definitely reduced Portland's fracking footprint." says Rufus Finnely, PhD, who works for ROFF, Reducing Our Fracking Footprint, "I hope other cities will follow our lead."







Sources:
http://science.time.com/2011/04/20/more­problems­with­fracking­and­some­solutions/ http://gracelinks.org/191/natural­gas­fracking­introduction
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amall/choosing_to_reduce_my_petro­fo.html http://www.dangersoffracking.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing
http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/934
http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/is-fracking-a-good-idea