Fracking

RESUMEN La fractura hidráulica o fracking es una técnica que permite la extracción de gas y petróleo del subsuelo en yacimientos no convencionales. Sin embargo, esta extracción genera impactos negativos en los ecosistemas. Por esta razón, se aborda la contaminación que genera esta técnica y sus afectaciones a nivel de paisaje en tres posibles escenarios, así como la aclimatación y posibles respuestas de las especies vegetales.

ABSTRACT Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is a technique that allows the extraction of gas and oil from the subsoil in unconventional deposits. However, this extraction generates negative impacts on ecosystems. For this reason , the contamination generated by this technique and its effects at the landscape level are addressed in three possible scenarios , as well as the acclimatization and possible responses of plant species.

Hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') has enabled the recovery of previously inaccessible resources and rendered new areas of the underground 'productive'. While a number of studies in the US and UK have examined public attitudes toward fracking and its various impacts, how people conceptualise the deep underground itself has received less attention. We argue that views on resources, risk and the deep underground raise important questions about how people perceive the desirability and viability of subterranean interventions. We conducted day-long deliberation workshops (two in each country), facilitating discussions among diverse groups of people on prospective shale extraction in the US and UK. Themes that emerged in these conversations include seeing the Earth as a foundation; natural limits (a greater burden than the subsurface can withstand versus simply overuse of natural resources); and ideas about the fragility, instability and opacity of the deep underground. We find that concerns in both countries were not limited to specific, localised impacts but also addressed ecosystem links between surface and subsurface environments and broader questions about the use, identification and value of natural resources.

Hydraulic fracturing is an energy extraction process that is increasingly attracting controversy. This article seeks to outline how the media report hydraulic fracturing (or " fracking "), and to explore its place within the reporting of energy concerns generally. To this end, it draws on an environmental communication perspective to understand the media reporting of the issue and the processes that shape it. This review reveals that media reporting of fracking is partitioned broadly according to discussions of the economic benefits or the environmental risks associated with the process. Further, these observed patterns in the reporting appear to mirror the recognized claims made about the issue, and the influence from protests and online media alongside national polity on energy production and security. While there is evidence that the practices of journalists and the geographic, economic and political contexts of their news production environments shape the amounts and the types of news reporting, the publics' perceptions appear, somewhat knowledgeable, but largely ambivalent or undecided on the issue at present. Therefore, it is argued that future research must continue to examine the reporting of hydraulic fracturing, its context, production, and its wider reception to develop our understanding of the role of the media in national conversations on fracking, energy, and the environment.

Merely “surreal” might describe the interview given by Aqua America’s CEO, Nick DeBenedictis, to Crissa Shoemaker DeBree did the fact that he is lying not portend such devastating consequences for so many people. The security of the nation’s water supply is an important, but often silent, priority for water companies, said the head of Aqua America. The worldview evinced in DeBenedictis’ brief interview with DeBree is not, in fact, surreal; it’s not even “merely” self-deluded. Rather, it epitomizes the “up is down,” “true is false,” “the sky is pink” (thanks Josh Fox) propaganda promoted by the hydraulic fracturing corporations and their associates in order to justify the construction of 200,000 fracked wells, their attendant compressor stations, water withdrawal depots, freshwater impoundments, and “produced water” deep injection disposal wells. For DeBenedictis, the sky is pink—and water is the green of a big fat dollar bill.

The logistic function is used to forecast energy consumed worldwide and oil production in the U.S. The logistic substitution model is used to describe the energy mix since 1965 presenting a picture significantly different from the one covering the previous 100 years. In the new picture coal gently gains on oil and hydroelectric gains on natural gas even if it is three times smaller. Finally, renewables—wind, geothermal, solar, biomass, and waste—grow exclusively on the expense of nuclear, and are poised to overtake it by the late 2030s. By mid-21st century, coal, oil, and natural gas still remain the main players of comparable size. Hydroelectric has almost doubled in size. The only significant substitution is that of renewables having replaced nuclear albeit remaining at less than a ¼ the size of the other three energy sources. U.S. oil produced by fracking is forecasted to cease by mid-21st century, while oil produced by traditional methods should continue on its slowly declining trend. US oil production is likely to represent less than 1% of the oil consumed worldwide by mid-21st century.

Río Negro avanza aceleradamente en la transformación de su economía en un enclave petrolero: de la mano del fracking los hidrocarburos han ganado importancia en el devenir provincial. Se supone que la radicación de inversiones y la expansión de la producción hidrocarburífera tendrán un efecto multiplicador sobre otros sectores de la economía, así como un impacto positivo en las finanzas provinciales.
Nuestra principal hipótesis de trabajo es que –tal como ilustran otras experiencias cercanas– la expansión del fracking pondrá en serios riesgos a distintas actividades productivas que son la base de una economía relativamente diversificada, y a partir de las cuales pueden proyectarse escenarios alternativos social y ambientalmente más sustentables.

The possibility of extracting shale gas using hydraulic fracturing on a large scale has invoked a public and political debate about the creation of an appropriate regulatory regime for such activities at the European level. The issues of shale gas extraction and the use of hydraulic fracturing were brought onto the EU policy agenda by the European Council. The policy image created by the European Council was a positive one, which linked shale gas production with the security
of energy supply. The resulting policy process developed around a different policy image that highlighted the uncertain risks related to hydraulic fracturing in regard to human health and the environment. This re-definition of the policy image was
primarily the result of the European Parliament’s involvement in the policy process as well as the expansion of the political conflict over this issue. While the potential risks of hydraulic fracturing dominated the policy process, the overall outcome
of the policy process was a mild reform of the existing legal basis. From this, it follows that issue re-definition certainly resulted in changes in the dynamics of the policy process but had limited effects on the outcome of this process.

Fraturamento hidráulico, ou mais conhecido como fracking,  refere-se a uma técnica de extração de gás natural realizada principalmente em reservatórios considerados não convencionais. Os recursos associados a esses reservatórios são denominados dessa forma
pois não estão dispostos “livremente” para extração, como ocorrem nos reservatórios convencionais, ao contrário, exigem o uso
de técnicas específicas para liberar o gás e possibilitar sua extra-
ção. É nesse contexto que entra em ação o fracking, a técnica de
extração de recursos não convencionais mais utilizada no mundo
inteiro e que ficou mais conhecida a partir do “boom de gás
natural” que ocorreu nos Estados Unidos nos últimos anos

The ever-increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere due to human activities are
causing a major environmental impact and need to be controlled promptly using innovative technologies.
CO2 storage in sub-surface reservoirs such as coal seams with potential for recovering methane is perceived
as an efficient technology. However, the storage efficiency of this methodology has not been verified
experimentally for various coal types. Although testing has been carried out using coal specimens up
to about 100 mm in length, the results have not yet been verified with samples over 500 mm in length.
Theories of coal adsorption need to be verified with these types of samples to understand the effect of
swelling, shrinkage and storage at a substantial scale. A state-of-the-art core flooding apparatus has been
developed to investigate the change of pore pressure along a coal core sample with the adsorption of CO2.
The unique core flooding apparatus can accommodate specimens of 203 mm in diameter and up to
1000 mm in length. The pore pressure development along the coal sample due to CO2 injection is monitored
at 3 intermediate points, and tests show a reduction in permeability with increasing injecting pressures.
By testing a reconstituted coal sample of 832 mm, the permeability was observed to decrease
exponentially with the injection of CO2 as well as with increasing effective stress. Due to CO2 adsorption
coal sample swelled by 0.12%, 0.16% and 0.05% corresponding to injection pressures of 900 kPa, 1900 kPa
and 3900 kPa and axial loads of 3.2 T, 6.4 T and 12.8 T respectively.

En los primeros años de la década del ’90 se inició un proceso simultáneo de privatización y federalización de los hidrocarburos, la empresa estatal YPF fue convertida en una sociedad anónima y sus acciones –en principio en poder de la Nación y las provincias productoras- fueron vendidas hasta ser controlada exclusivamente por la compañía española Repsol, aunque el Estado mantuvo el derecho a participar de las decisiones del consejo directivo y el poder de veto mediante la acción de oro; en tanto el dominio del gas y el petróleo pasó de la Nación a las provincias. En ese marco de transformaciones, donde los hidrocarburos dejaron de estar sujetos a las necesidades del país para convertirse en un commodity, surgieron conflictos territoriales en comunidades indígenas, que a nivel nacional protagonizaban un proceso de emergencia política. La intensificación de la actividad y la ampliación de su frontera extractiva, avalada por una política estatal de dejar hacer, se montó sobre la base del desconocimiento de los derechos colectivos de los pueblos originarios, la judicialización y criminalización de las demandas, y el discrecional cumplimiento de normas ambientales. El territorio se transformó entonces en un desierto libre de obstáculos para el desembarco y desarrollo de los proyectos corporativos.
Veinte años después, en un marco de caída de los niveles de extracción de gas y petróleo, secuela del saqueo, y del incremento de las importaciones de combustibles fósiles –para atender la demanda interna-, en Argentina se empezó a hablar del gran potencial de hidrocarburos de yacimientos no convencionales como alternativa para superar el desabastecimiento de combustibles fósiles, siendo YPF la principal protagonista a partir de sus anuncios en torno a la formación Vaca Muerta (formación de esquistos o lutitas). Sin embargo, más allá del triunfalismo, la falta de inversiones de esta empresa para revertir la caída de la producción y el crecimiento de las importaciones –que en 2011 llevaron a que el saldo de la balanza comercial energética fuera negativo- desembocaron en la ruptura de la alianza estratégica con Repsol, mantenida desde el segundo gobierno de Carlos Menem (1995 - 1999) a la de Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. En la primera mitad de 2012, a través de la Ley de Soberanía Hidrocarburífera, el 51% de las acciones de YPF fueron expropiadas y la empresa se transformó en el mascarón de proa de la política petrolera (energética) del país.
YPF es ahora la principal impulsora de la explotación de los yacimientos no convencionales, haciendo caso omiso a los alertas por los impactos ambientales asociados a la técnica de extracción –fractura hidráulica o fracking- y el costo socioeconómico y cultural de la ampliación de la frontera extractiva –que avanza sobre territorios indígenas y tierras dedicadas a la producción de alimentos. También es la principal lobbista del sector para satisfacer las demandas las corporaciones. A diferencia de los años duros del neoliberalismo, donde el Estado dejaba hacer y participaba de una ínfima porción de los beneficios –a través del cobro de regalías-, en el contexto abierto con la sanción de la Ley de Soberanía Hidrocarburífera, éste recuperó protagonismo y amplió su participación en el negocio aunque sigue considerando un commodity al gas y al petróleo.
En el nuevo escenario las resistencias al extractivismo no se han aplacado, por el contrario, se manifiestan en la movilización de pueblos originarios, organizaciones sociales, sindicales y políticas y de asambleas socio-ambientales –nacidas muchas de la oposición al agro-negocio, la mega-minería o la instalación de fábricas para la producción de pasta de celulosa. En algunos casos se produce una confluencia de los diferentes sectores, en otros, prima la desconfianza; pero de una manera u otra, las luchas contra los no convencionales son una realidad y enfrentan el desafío de construir propuestas para conquistar la Soberanía Energética, ya que el problema no es ni el gas ni el petróleo sino la voracidad del sistema capitalista.

El mundo enfrenta una crisis ambiental de magnitud en la que el patrón energético dominante, centrado en un 72 % en combustibles fósiles (carbón, petróleo y gas), tiene una responsabilidad central por la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI). No solo la contaminación, sino también la inequidad del acceso y la captura corporativa son partes fundamentales del modelo energético global, sobre cuyas espaldas se construye el modelo de acumulación.
Como respuesta a este complejo cuadro, en los últimos años el concepto “Transición Energética” ganó presencia en las agendas de organismos de diverso tipo. Sin embargo, los abordajes más difundidos sobre la transición enfatizan, casi de modo exclusivo, en un recambio desde fuentes fósiles hacia otras de carácter renovable. Esa mirada, que consideramos parcial, no cuestiona el actual modelo, donde la energía es considerada una mercancía y no un derecho. En igual sentido, las visiones estrictamente técnicas, tampoco ponen en cuestión otro aspecto como lo es el destino de la generación energética. En suma, estas perspectivas dejan de lado la reflexión sobre la cuestión energética en relación con el modo de producción en el cual cobró forma y al cual contribuyen a reproducir.
Aun así, desde finales de la década de 1970 existen sectores que, al calor de luchas sociales de distinta índole, han intentado pensar a la transición como una problemática mucho más amplia que el mero reemplazo de fuentes. En esa senda comenzaron a contemplar las consecuencias que dicha transición podría y debería tener en términos ambientales, laborales, étnicos, de género y, finalmente, a nivel sistémico.
El rol de las y los trabajadores en ese proceso es central, dado que son sus empleos los que desaparecerán o serán reconvertidos en caso de avanzar hacia una transición. Es por eso que de la mano de sindicatos se alumbró la idea de Transición Justa, dialogando con propuestas y debates con sectores diversos como el movimiento socioambiental, indígena y campesino. Desde su origen en el Norte Global la noción se extendió por todo el mundo y en la actualidad genera profundos debates en pos de otorgarle un sentido. América Latina no está exenta de ellos.

This thesis is the first to focus on grassroots political opposition to fracking development in a city-region. It examines the political space opened by activists in Greater Manchester between 15th November 2013 and 12th April 2014, situating their political struggle in a broader urban terrain of protest. Data collection was conducted between 28th August 2013 and 20th October 2014. The thesis looks beyond simple interpretations of community opposition, toward theoretically grounded understandings of anti-fracking dissent. Paradoxically, in this case a local struggle emerged primarily from social movements unrelated to the development site itself, whose actors converged on the issue of stopping fracking in the cityregion and engaged disadvantaged communities neighbouring the exploratory well. Research illustrates how activists drew on the tactics and organisational practices of radical urban uprisings to open-up and sustain an anti-fracking camp outside the exploratory well for five months, and examines ways that their dissent challenged what was being contested, who could engage in the struggle and which grievances were recognised as legitimate.  Understanding the complexities of the struggle contributes to existing research on the politics of contemporary urban environmental movements by examining how solidarity and an emancipatory politics can emerge from disparate groups that have seemingly discordant perspectives. This has practical as well as theoretical relevance, because the Greater Manchester anti-fracking movement successfully presented a united front against ‘fracking’, despite internal conflict between actors. Using ostensibly horizontal and less-obvious vertical organisational modes of practice to organise the anti-fracking movement, activists sustained a protest camp and limited access to the exploratory well while it was in operation, before leaving of their own volition. This means that analysis contributes to a politics of hope, offering lessons for similar struggles that emerge from disparate, autonomous groups.

The energy revolution in Germany will pose a challenge due to the ongoing use of natural gas and oil energy resources. In 2014 natural gas covered around 20% of primary energy consumption. Self-sufficiency is falling steadily and was 7% in the year 2015. The domestic, conventional natural gas resources will be depleted in 10 years time due to continued consumption according to predictions. One way to achieve greater independence from importing foreign raw materials is in the development of oil and natural gas from unconventional deposits using fracking. Primarily, the unconventional natural gas resources could, according to recent calculations, secure a supply for decades to come and serve as a bridging technology because of their low effect on global warming.

Fracking is a technology for the development of different energy commodities such as natural gas, oil and geothermal energy from the earth's interior. It is mainly used in the extraction of natural gas from shale and sandstone. A conventional extraction is not implementable with these types of stone. Because of the low permeability of the stone, a hydraulic stimulation is required to produce cleavage planes in the rock that make it possible to break up the raw material. For this purpose, the frac fluid, consisting of around 80 – 95% water, 5 – 20% proppants and 1 – 3% of various chemicals is squeezed at high pressure into the formation. This technique is mainly used in the US and has led to greater independence from the natural gas market.

However, we can observe that the general public has taken a critical stance towards fracking. This stance is primarily based on environmental risks associated with the contamination of groundwater. Contamination may result in particular from influx at the ground surface and from inadequate drilling integrity. Regulatory and precise drilling parameters can primarily prevent this. Moreover, toxic additives are not added to frac fluids, to avoid toxicological effects by a possible discharge into the environment.

Overall, the use of fracking technology is possible from a geoscientific perspective, if a detailed geological survey is carried out and existing legal regulations and site-specific safety standards are observed.

En la lógica de expansión del Estado neoliberal, las geografías nacionales adquieren un rol protagónico en la articulación de conflictos relacionados con la explotación de los recursos naturales y la desposesión comunitaria orquestada por los intereses económicos poderosos. Los territorios son escudriñados por diversas tecnologías, como los sistemas de información geográfica y de percepción remota, las cuales proporcionan información sobre zonas estratégicas, ricas en recursos naturales (entre ellos, shale oil/gas), a fin de reconfigurar el espacio del capitalismo contemporáneo (Gregory, 1993) en aras de articular el derecho del despojo.
En esta nueva geografía del poder se impulsa la fracturación hidráulica como técnica combinada de perforación vertical y horizontal, que lleva aparejada la inyección de gran cantidad de agua a presión, la cual se mezcla con sustancias de estimulación para fracturar las rocas del subsuelo de baja permeabilidad, a fin de obtener y extraer hidrocarburos de estos yacimientos no convencionales (Matesanz, 2013), lo que trae aparejados riesgos importantes en torno a la calidad del agua, de la atmósfera y la salud, así como a la posibilidad de mitigarlos.

This study documents and analyses the social impacts of fracking and natural gas developments across five locations in England. The primary data were derived from anthropological fieldwork, including interviews and observations, conducted over a period of four years, between 2016 and 2020.

The objectives of this study were to:
- document the lived experiences of those who lived, worked and protested in the vicinity of gas developments;
- establish, analyse and compare the social impact of gas exploration projects across five different locations in England;
- identify the affected and other relevant communities as well as any distributional inequalities across different groups of stakeholders;
- explore the relationship between natural gas developments and social, psychological, health and political outcomes;
- underscore the relevance of social impacts for determining any potential unconventional gas developments and political decision-making in the UK.

This is the Draft Table of Contents for my forthcoming book (Lexington--hopefully December 2016): Eco-Nihilism: The Philosophical Geopolitics of the Climate Change Apocalypse.

I post it here to give my readers--for whom I'm tremendously grateful--a preview of the book's themes and argument.

That talk is never disinterested complicates the relationship between the environment and the claims people make about it. Talk about place, and one's self in it, is particularly complex when the environment poses risk or is otherwise problematized. This study, a secondary analysis of interview data, seeks to extend discursive work on place-identity by examining the ways in which 14 residents of a small English village talk about themselves and their locale. The locale accommodates an active quarry, and many residents had lodged complaints to the quarry about dust, noise and vibrations from blasting. Attention to the interactional context of the interviews illustrates the ways in which (simply) interviewing people about their locale can threaten self- and place-identity. When asked about life in the village, interviewees oriented to two main dilemmas in protecting self- and place-identity: (1) how to justify continued residence in a challenging environment and (2) how to complain about the locale whilst maintaining positive place-identity. Discursive responses to these dilemmas drew upon typical identity processes, such as self- and place distinctiveness and the formulation of out-groups, as well as upon constructions of localized power-sharing and morally obligated tolerance of risk. We suggest that research on problematical places, and of environmental risk, needs to be sensitized to how it may constitute a threat to self- and place-identity, and how this may mediate formulations self and place, as well as of environmental risk.

RESUMEN: Un tema controversial que ha ganado terreno con la reciente reforma energética es el fracking, una técnica empleada para la explotación de gas natural o gas shale almacenado en reservorios no convencionales; así como el posible impacto que puede tener en el ambiente, la salud pública y las ventajas económicas que implica su utilización sobre las técnicas convencionales utilizadas para la extracción de hidrocarburos. En este artículo se abordan la experiencia y perspectivas de los países con mayor cantidad de reservas de gas shale, identificando los casos de éxito y los problemas ambientales o sociales que presenta cada uno de ellos, concluyendo con el panorama actual de la explotación
de gas natural en México.
ABSTRACT: Fracking is a technique employed for the exploitation of natural gas or shale gas located in unconventional gas wells and is it gaining ground after the recent reforms of the Mexican energy sector. This technique's impact on the environment, public health, as well as the resulting economic benefits must be considered when compared with more conventional hydrocarbon extraction methods. This article discusses the experiences and perspectives of the countries with the largest shale gas reserves. The success stories as well as the environmental or social problems experienced in these territories are highlighted, concluding with the current situation of natural gas exploitation in Mexico.

RÉSUMÉ: Un thème controversé qui a gagné du terrain avec la récente réforme énergétique est celui de la fracturation, « fracking » en anglais, une technique utilisée pour l'exploitation du gaz naturel ou du gaz de schiste stocké dans des réservoirs peu conventionnels, ainsi que le possible impact qu'il peut avoir sur l'environnement, la santé publique et les avantages économiques que son application implique par rapport aux techniques conventionnelles utilisées pour l'extraction des hydrocarbures. Dans cet article, on aborde l'expérience et les perspectives des pays possédant une quantité plus importante de réserves de gaz schiste, en identifiant les réussites et les problèmes environnementaux ou sociaux que présente chacun d'entre eux. Finalement, en conclusion on examine le panorama actuel de l'exploitation du gaz naturel au Mexique.

La reforma energética constituyó en México una enmienda constitucional tan relevante que fue necesario expedir y modificar un conjunto de leyes relacionadas con la minería, los hidrocarburos, el agua, la generación de energía eléctrica y la inversión extranjera. El discurso oficial argumentó que la reforma facilitaría el abasto confiable de energéticos y la población podría acceder a gasolina, gas y energía eléctrica a bajo costo. La reforma aprobó la transformación del sector energético mexicano al consentir la participación de la inversión extranjera en la industria del petróleo y otorgar permisos a empresas de capital privado para la exploración y extracción de hidrocarburos. Además de la exploración en aguas profundas del Golfo de México, se proyectaron actividades en territorios de propiedad comunitaria (indígena y campesina) subastadas en licitaciones públicas internacionales. El objetivo de este trabajo es mostrar que estas disposiciones lejos de favorecer un proyecto energético alternativo, fortalecen el paradigma de extracción y vigorizan la dependencia de los combustibles fósiles.

A thorough understanding of social and psychological factors as well as public understanding of risk is central to taking informed decisions about shale gas exploration and extraction in Lancashire and the UK. On the basis of existing evidence and the research conducted for this report, it is evident that the failure to consider these aspects of shale gas development significantly understates its actual and potential impacts, which may alter the planning balance in favour of development. From a social point of view, assessing shale gas exploration and extraction as a low-impact activity is unsupported by evidence. A social impact assessment should be fundamental in all political and local decision-making about shale gas development that prioritises public health and social well-being.

Este libro identifica algunas de las problemáticas sociales presentes en Colombia y pone en evidencia la configuración de la infografía como un instrumento importante para la apropiación del conocimiento y la construcción de la realidad. Por un lado, presenta información sobre la desnutrición en la infancia de la Guajira; el racismo, el asesinato
de líderes sociales y el abandono de mascotas en Colombia. Por otro lado, reflexiona sobre la biodiversidad en riesgo; los efectos de la industria textil; el agua como recurso limitado; los océanos de plástico y el fracking.

Update: If you'd like to watch an accurate, funny, and brief take on Eco-Nihilism, please go to #wisecrack on Youtube: Did South Park Turn Anti-Capitalist, where the central argument from Eco-Nihilism is quoted at several junctures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_MglOKUFRg.

I may not have made South Park directly--but Wisecrack--close enough!!

Wendy Lynne Lee

This is the preface for Eco-Nihilism: The Philosophical Geopolitics of the Climate Change Apocalypse.

Lexington Books (Rowman and Littlefield), February 2017.

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739176887/Eco-Nihilism-The-Philosophical-Geopolitics-of-the-Climate-Change-Apocalypse.

Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 novel, The Road,  tells the story of a dying father’s heroic effort to protect his child from starvation, violence, and disease as they struggle to cross the devastated landscape of a post-apocalyptic America. We don’t know what’s happened to bring about so tragic and terrorizing a circumstance, but we’re nonetheless drawn to the stark images McCarthy evokes and, though we work feverishly to deny that such a tragedy could befall us, we can imagine it.

Indeed, for Syrian refugees, Niger Delta villagers, Northwest Kenyan pastoralists, Chukchi Sea coastal fishermen, Ecuadorian rainforest dwellers, Mexican fishermen, Pennsylvania farmers, indigenous Sengwer, the citizens of Kiribati Island’s thirty-two atolls, and many more, fables like The Road reek of a reality already poisoned nearly beyond repair and foreshadow future crises—environmental, economic, geopolitical, social, and moral—for which the prospect of recovery seems little more than fiction.

Such crises are as predictable as are the implications of an economic system, namely, neoliberal or conquest capitalism, whose objectives and governing logic are, I’ll argue, inherently incompatible not only with the just, the good, or the beautiful—but with life itself. Conquest capital devours and digests values, ethical, civic, and aesthetic, reducing each to that single value without which it can neither replicate itself nor grow: exchange. In so doing it generates a state of affairs that can only rightly be described as pathologically nihilistic: capitalism destroys its own existential conditions through the wholesale commodification of the finite ecosystems upon which it depends. It cannot do otherwise and be capitalism. Hence, to continue down this road guarantees a future disfigured by the violence consequent on abject desperation and subjugation not only to domination by multinational corporations, but ultimately to more prosaic though terrorizing prospects—like thirst.

Las Fracturas Hidráulicas se han estado usando desde los años ´40 como una técnica para incrementar la producción de hidrocarburos del reservorio. Esta técnica envuelve el bombeo de fluidos a caudales y presiones suficientemente altas como para quebrar o romper la formación. El propósito de crear esta fractura es el de proveer un camino permeable a través del cual los fluidos del reservorio puedan fluir más libremente.
El presente documento describe la tecnología relacionada con la estimulación hidráulica conocida como fractura hidráulica y su importancia en el incremento de la tasa de éxito en los pozos de hidrocarburos no convencionales.
Esta técnica ha sido utilizada en pozos no convencionales con éxito, países como Estados Unidos han incrementado hasta en un 70% sus reservas y han pasado a liderar la exportación de dichos productos. En Chile, desde el año 2012 en la región de Magallanes se inició una campaña de perforación de pozos no convencionales que utiliza la hidrofractura con la cual espera aumentar las reservas de gas para nuestro país.

This paper studies the regulation on obtaining unconventional hydrocarbons through fracking in Mexico. To this aim, the energy constitutional reform approved in 2013 and the legal framework derived from it are analyzed. It is explained that, in terms of the narrative used to obtain energy resources, communal water rights have been put at risk. It is concluded that under the discourse of achieving energy security the constitutional reform underpinned the hegemonic paradigm of fossil energy production and consumption.

Modern society has brought with it many comforts and conveniences, yet when it comes to the United States’ health and nutrition, the advancements haven’t always been positive for your overall health. Doing things better, cheaper and faster may work well for manufacturing microprocessors but it doesn’t work well with the mind, body or spirit. The invention of factory farming, refined and processed pre-packaged food and fast food has come at a high price – your health. You can find your own way to good health by learning the basics of holistic health including what is safe and what is dangerous in modern food. With knowledge comes the empowerment to debunk misnomers from food and nutrition studies born out of conflicts of interest and to see through devious marketing from large food and beverage manufacturers focused only on one thing (and it’s not your health.) Consuming a diet filled with the “food like stuff” that has become a basic of today’s Standard American Diet (SAD), results in excess weight, illness, dis-ease and mental fog from the dangerous components of our food.

As an unique individual, biochemically and spiritually, it’s important to find what works best for you. When you know the basics, you can seek out and find what foods, including amounts and combinations, work best for your individual body. It’s vital to experiment to find the right combination of food, exercise and spiritual nurturing so you not only feel great, you are the best, most dazzling version of you. Empowerment through knowledge will allow you to find your own way to a life of vibrant health and a trim, healthy body. Awareness of good nutrition is freedom from fad diets, counting calories and points, reading unhelpful nutritional labels and from confusion over misleading nutritional information in the media. Changing what you know and the way you eat and treat your mind, body and spirit will transform your life.

El artículo discute la reforma constitucional energética en México aprobada en 2013 y reglamentada en 2014, con el fin de analizar tres argumentos centrales: la apología de la extracción, la acumulación de derechos de agua y el despojo por contaminación. El análisis enfatiza la seguridad energética y la integración económica de América del Norte como dos elementos que permiten explicar el tránsito del modelo estatal mexicano de extracción de hidrocarburos. Bajo esa idea, el trabajo advierte que la fracturación hidráulica se perfila como un mecanismo de despojo hídrico impulsado por la profusa demanda de combustibles fósiles. Este despojo se caracteriza por la contaminación del agua para garantizar el proceso de acumulación, obstaculizando los aprovechamientos comunitarios y los derechos territoriales.

Unconventional oil and gas extraction is fueling a wave of resource development often touted as a new era in US energy independence. However, assessing the true costs of extraction is made difficult by the vastness of the industry and lack of regulatory transparency. This paper addresses efforts to fill knowledge gaps taken up by civil society groups, where the resources produced in these efforts are used to make informed critiques of extraction processes and governance. We focus on one civil society organization, called FracTracker Alliance, which works to enhance public understanding by collecting, interpreting, and visualizing oil and gas data in broad partnerships. Drawing on the concepts of civic science, we suggest that the informational practices of civil society research organizations facilitate critical knowledge flows that we term " civic informatics. " We offer three case studies illustrating how different characteristics of civic informatics enable public-minded research as well as build capacity for political mobilizations. Finally, we suggest that empirical studies of civic informatics and its facilitators offer insights for the study of " engaged " Science and Technologies Studies (STS) that seek to generate new models of science at the intersection of praxis and theory.

Identification of risk, the potential for occurrence of an event and impact of that event, is the first step in improving a process by ranking risk elements and controlling potential harm from occurrence of a detrimental event. Hydraulic Fracturing has become a hot environmental discussion topic and a target of media articles and University studies during development of gas shales near populated areas. The furor over fracturing and frac waste disposal was largely driven by lack of chemical disclosure and the pre-2008 laws of some states.

Carbon capture and storage can simply be defined as capturing of waste CO2 from industrial sources at various stages (ex. pre-, post- combustion etc.), transporting it to a storage site (through pipelines etc.) and then depositing it underground so that the CO2 will not re-enter the atmosphere for a geologically significant long time. Because of the low prices of fossil fuels and lesser statutory restrictions in developing countries (which are primarily dependent on this form of energy), aided by slow development and high cost of alternative energy projects, the CO2 emission into the atmosphere has been ever increasing. The long lasting effects of such high levels of CO2 in atmosphere can portray an image of an impending catastrophe but a better approach would be to avoid those and look into the solutions to minimize the CO2 levels in atmosphere. This introductory chapter offers an insight into the technologies and the techniques that have been developed for carbon capture followed by transporting methods (and their problems) and ends with discussing the various storage technologies.

El fracking es una técnica de extracción de hidrocarburos del subsuelo, cuyo uso se ha expandido de forma notable en los últimos años en Estados Unidos y que podría extenderse a Europa, que tiene una incidencia territorial clara y unos impactos de tipo ambiental, económico y social. En relación a esto, se pueden dar casos de disputa y conflicto entre diferentes usos del suelo y diversas actividades económicas; estando en el caso del fracking el posible conflicto de tipo socioambiental con usos tradicionales radicados ya en el territorio como puede ser la agricultura. En particular, en el caso de España, la proliferación en la última década de solicitudes y concesiones de Permisos de Investigación de hidrocarburos a diversas compañías ha abierto un debate en diferentes comarcas rurales sobre la fractura hidráulica y sus consecuencias.

Palabras clave: Fracking, conflicto socio-ambiental, permisos de investigación, hidrocarburos no convencionales, energía

Hydraulic fracturing is a process applied for the exploitation of certain hydrocarbon and geothermal resources, to increase the fluid conductivity to a production well. The process entails environmental  risks that are managed under specific regulations in most jurisdictions where economic resources of this type are found. For the purpose of this thesis, the process of unconventional resource development (chronological phases) associated with hydraulic fracturing operations was subdivided into 32 aspects, each subject to regulation.

This study looked at the structure and form of regulation from jurisdictions across the world by identifying “regulatory statements” (a single-purpose legal requirement) and deconstructing those statements using the institutional grammar tool, in order to allow inter-jurisdictional comparison. The regulatory statements were categorized under a regulatory form typology to identify whether each statement was prescriptive, process-based, principle-based or performance-based. This analysis determines whether the jurisdiction tells the participant “what to do”, “how to do it”, “how to do it and where to get to” or just “where to get to”.

Twelve jurisdictions were selected from North and South America, Australia and Africa, each with active, or the potential for, commercial unconventional resource development. Initial selection criteria for jurisdictions included: a constitutional democracy, comprehensive environmental protection legislation, a history of petroleum development, and a high potential for unconventional resource development. Final selection of jurisdictions focussed on a suite that provided a range of scales across commercial development of the resource; and, development or otherwise, of hydraulic fracturing legislation. Over 1,900 rules were identified, categorised and analysed establishing a range of trends.

This study found overwhelming application of prescriptive regulatory statements (what to do) at 88.5% occurrence, process-based statements (how to do it) at 8.2%, principle-based statements (how to do it and where to get to) at 2.8% and performance-based statements (where to get to) at just 0.5%.

The application of principle/performance statements were more frequent in those jurisdictions where there was minimal or no commercial development of unconventional resources, with Brazil and New South Wales at 13% and 11% respectively. Those jurisdictions with substantial unconventional resource development and a large number of operators used prescription almost exclusively, including Alberta, British Columbia and Colorado. Those aspects of regulation addressing public interfacing with the operators such as setback, access to water resource and seismic effects tended to show little use of performance regulation whereas complex areas centred around the well itself, involving engineering judgement, had a greater application of principle/performance statements.

El éxito que suscitó la extracción de gas de lutitas a gran escala en Estados Unidos de América (EUA) al final de la década de 1980 derivó en la llamada revolución del gas, una ola de exploraciones que consolidó la industria gasífera norteamericana. Este modelo de aprovechamiento intensivo fue matizado bajo el discurso de garantizar el abasto interno y, eventualmente, alcanzar la seguridad energética. Simultáneamente, los proyectos de integración económica que condujeron a la firma del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte incluyeron estudios prospectivos de yacimientos transfronterizos de gas, cuestión que colocó a las reservas mexicanas como uno de los objetivos de la agenda estadounidense. De ese modo, la explotación de hidrocarburos en México transitó por diversos momentos, que derivaron en la apertura a la inversión trasnacional mediante la reforma constitucional aprobada en 2013. Este trabajo tiene por objetivo mostrar que la estimulación artificial de yacimientos a través de la fracturación hidráulica, se perfila como un mecanismo de despojo hídrico y de contaminación de las aguas comunitarias. Aunque la obtención de hidrocarburos favorecida por inyecciones en el subsuelo se remonta a la segunda mitad del siglo XIX en la costa este de EUA, el desarrollo de fórmulas mezcladas con agua genera un profundo debate. Es, además, una técnica empleada que garantiza la demanda de gas sólo para los sectores industrial, eléctrico, de servicios y transporte, los cuales se han favorecido históricamente.

This paper points out critical reflections on water rights and the extraction of hydrocarbons in Mexico, particularly after the reforms of 1995 and 2014. The essay analyzes the construction of the normative framework that, under the discourse of guaranteeing energy security, facilitated accumulation of fossil resources to the detriment of community water rights.

The growing movement toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) urges corporations to promote the well-being of people and the planet rather than the sole pursuit of profit. In Extracting Accountability, Jessica Smith investigates how the public accountability of corporations emerges from the everyday practices of the engineers who work for them. Focusing on engineers who view social responsibility as central to their profession, she finds the corporate context of their work prompts them to attempt to reconcile competing domains of accountability—to formal guidelines, standards, and policies; to professional ideals; to the public; and to themselves. Their efforts are complicated by the distributed agency they experience as corporate actors: they are not always authors of their actions and frequently act through others.

Drawing on extensive interviews, archival research, and fieldwork, Smith traces the ways that engineers in the mining and oil and gas industries accounted for their actions to multiple publics—from critics of their industry to their own friends and families. She shows how the social license to operate and an underlying pragmatism lead engineers to ask how resource production can be done responsibly rather than whether it should be done at all. She analyzes the liminality of engineering consultants, who experienced greater professional autonomy but often felt hamstrung when positioned as outsiders. Finally, she explores how critical participation in engineering education can nurture new accountabilities and chart more sustainable resource futures.

This paper analyzes the obtaining of hydrocarbons through fracking in Mexico. To this end, the energy policy that supports exploration and extraction in unconventional deposits is discussed. The constitutional energy reform approved in December 2013 and the derived legislation are examined, with the aim of documenting the new state energy model and its relationship with community water rights.

The thesis aims to analyze hydraulic centralization and energy security as articulating elements in the context of water policy in Mexico. The research proposes the critical reflection of these concepts from the perspective of water justice and community environmental litigation. The thesis is organized in five chapters and is structured around four theoretical-conceptual axes: first, the historically accumulated trend towards centralism in water policy and water management in Mexico; second, water justice and community water rights; third, energy security and the hegemonic paradigm of mineral and hydrocarbon extraction and, fourth, community environmental litigation against extractive projects. The central purpose of the work is oriented towards the dialogue between theory and praxis, in this sense; two cases about pro bono advocacy are documented against projects developed in the water and energy fields: 1) the approval and regulation of fracking in Mexico and 2) the installation and operation of the Huasteca Potosina industrial gas pipeline. The notion of community environmental litigation is enunciated as a counter-hegemonic mechanism for the use of the law, which enables the submission of cases in favor of agrarian communities and indigenous peoples.

La técnica de fracturación hidráulica es un método para extraer petróleo de yacimientos no convencionales y que actualmente está siendo objeto de estudio en Colombia para su implementación. Se estiman que hay entre 3000 y 9000 millones de barriles de petróleo en reservas, localizados principalmente en la zona del Valle Medio del Magdalena.

El objetivo de esta investigación fue identificar la viabilidad de la implementación de la técnica en el sentido económico por medio de un análisis costo beneficio. Para esto se utilizó información reportada de costos en el 2016 por la Agencia Estadounidense de Información Energética para tres formaciones geológicas de dicho país. Del mismo modo, se establecieron seis escenarios, tres en función del precio del petróleo y dos por cada uno de los tres escenarios anteriores en función de si se presentaban costos operacionales altos o bajos según las características geológicas del yacimiento.

Los resultados indican que, de los seis escenarios, sólo uno de estos es inviable desde el punto de vista privado, aquel en el que se presentan costos operativos altos y un precio internacional bajo. No obstante, desde el punto de vista económico, aún restando las externalidades por la contaminación del agua y la disposición de desechos, todos los escenarios indican beneficios netos positivos, indicando que la técnica tendría una repercusión positiva en la economía local y del país.
\\
+Este es un documento en proceso, los resultados aquí presentados no involucran de ninguna manera a la Universidad de los Andes, ni los profesores que guiaron su desarrollo. Del mismo modo, los resultados deben ser corroborados con estudios geológicos que limiten el análisis al caso colombiano y eviten extrapolar la información de los Estados Unidos. Finalmente, se debe considerar el costo de las externalidades en el caso colombiano, pues el contexto hídrico es distinto en este país al caso de Estados Unidos.