
Fracking is an issue that is being heavily debated in the United States. This is because of It has a high amount of attributes that are positive, while also having a decent amount that are negative. I am interested in this topic because I find the science behind the actual act of fracking interesting. This research has affected my values because it has changed the way that I have looked at fracking. The more research I did, the more I realized that fracking is not as bad as many people were trying to make it out to be. Personally I have no experience with fracking, I do not know of any wells that are in my vicinity, and I personally don't know anyone that was affecting by the fracking industry. I do not have any real qualification to write about this, just the fact that I find it interesting. I do not any and prior knowledge that would help me create a valid argument, and I do not have any personal experience with fracking, or the industry of fracking.

One of the first sources I found was the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) page on hydraulic fracturing. This article claimed that fracking was a very clean energy source, that if done correctly should not cause an issue to the environment, the drinking water around the fracking well, or the people in the vicinity. Its evidence was in the research that was done by the US government, finding that as long as regulations are followed there should be no negative impacts because of hydraulic fracturing. Mainly this articles values are in the fact that fracking is not a negative thing. That even though there are claims that fracking caused drinking water to become contaminated, there is no evidence to back this up. Being on a government website, I have concluded that most likely this is a credible source that has correct and nearly unbiased data. There could be small biases based on the fact that fracking being a positive thing would benefit the government.

The main argument of the second article is that fracking is the clean power solution to the current greenhouse gas issue. Because it does not release the dangerous fumes that are attributed to gasoline and petroleum it is the safer and cleaner alternative. It would also help contribute to the rise of the economy because it lowers the cost of energy in the USA. With the amount of fracking wells in the USA it was the largest producer of natural gas in 2014. Through many studies it has been shown that fracking lowers carbon emissions, and does not pollute the surrounding soil and water as commonly thought. This article's values are that fracking is a beneficial thing to the US economy. These claims are also backed in fact through data that can be found that hydraulic fracturing has created hundreds of thousands of jobs across the US. The author of this article is slight biased in the fact that she is an influential person in the NCPA (National Center for Political Analysis), so because of this she does look at fracking form more of a political sense, than an environmental standpoint.

My final article was From the Washington Post about something that president Obama said in his state of the union speech in 2014. In his speech he said that, "If extracted safely" fracking is a key to ending the current greenhouse gas issue that is prevalent in the United States. Fracking can lower the current amount of carbon emissions that are being produced from the burning of petroleum, and other sources of fuel. Much of what he said though was based around the idea of, "If done correctly." The values of this particular article is that fracking could be the answer to the clean energy crisis, but there are also many things that we need to be weary of if the drilling infrastructure increases in size, such as safety and correct disposal of chemicals. The author, Brad Plumer is a senior editor at Vox.com. He is very prominent in the political news section of the internet, and has written many articles for online newspapers. This is important because people that have better credentials usually have more correct information.

This research question is one that could be heavily debated because many people claim that fracking is a terrible answer to the greenhouse gas and energy crisis because there are a few risks and safely hazards. Many of the sources that I found agree that fracking is a much better answer than many of the other sources of fuel that we are currently using. But they also agree that it can be risky in the fact that if not done correctly it could cause improper runoff and it could contaminate drinking water, but these should all not be an issue if all regulations and safely precautions are correctly followed. Coming into this topic, I thought that there were many more negatives than the ones presented to fracking, researching this topic has shown me that it is actually something that could be beneficial to the environment and economy. 
