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Comment by bertjk | Hacker News Reader

Fracking. Before fracking people were worried about "peak oil", and being dependent on unfriendly governments for our basic energy needs. Then with fracking we realized we are actually sitting on huge available oil reserves, and peak oil quickly became a quaint outdated concept.

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Not that it changes your point, but the other day I met a republican who said he doesn’t think climate change is a thing but peak oil, now that’s something to worry about.

The longevity of this plus the “no anthropogenic climate change” nonsense is astounding. Armchair climate sceptics are happy to seriously stick to talking points that are so out of date that even the oil industry doesn’t use them anymore.

So you met a person, they told you their Party Affiliation, then went to tell you how it isn't "real".

Sorry I don't believe your paraphrasing of this person's real thoughts and ideas. I'm sure these people exist, but it doesn't mean anything. I could equally go find someone crazy saying the world is going to end this year.

> I'm sure these people exist, but it doesn't mean anything.

One of those people is the current President of the United States.

Along with most of the people who voted for him.

>I could equally go find someone crazy saying the world is going to end this year.

Given current events, one doesn't have to be crazy to believe this

That may be part of it, but as your parent comment mentioned, the Republicans weren't only worried about peak oil and being dependent on unfriendly governments, but also about climate change. Of course, none of these three problems went away, the point where fossil fuels will be exhausted just got pushed further into the future, and the fact that it will take more and more effort and environmental damage to get to the remaining resources is also undeniable.

But yeah, I guess your answer still applies indirectly: Fracking -> stronger interests by US oil companies -> money to the Republican party -> fossil fuel friendly regulations.

Speaking to the grandparent comment, fracking is precisely what earned US "energy independence" for the first time ever, in 2011.

> earned US "energy independence"

In a very myopic way.

With the benefit of hindsight, yes. A lot of money was lost in the fracking boom after the price of oil crashed

Fracking has nothing to do with energy. When you look at EROI oil from a gusher is around ~100:1. For solar 10-25:1, wind 20-50:1, Fracking is 10:1 and most of that doesn't end up as diesel

It's useful for the plastics and petrochemical industry, but it's not going to make the country energy independent, even including battery costs wind still trounces.

Isn't LNG a byproduct of the fracking process - and natural gas has taken over a good chunk of coal's role in our electricity generation?

Extracting LNG may or may not be via fracking, and may come from conventional or unconvential fields.

The largest LNG gas fields currently producing are not being "fracked", eg:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pars/North_Dome_Gas-Cond...

The US is now the largest exporter of oil in the world.

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