As our society slowly ventures away from the use of fossil fuels we face many problems on how we will efficiently run our factories, cars and other technologies without the use of fossil fuels. Since fossil fuels are nonrenewable resources they take millions of years to form and reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being formed. We know that the burning of fossil causes many pollution problems such as: the release of CO2, NOx and SO2. These are all negative externalities caused by the burning of fossil fuels since it imposes costs on people who are external to the producer and consumer of the polluting product (Goodstein, 2010). The sources we obtain fossil fuels from are often very dangerous and do not put a price on other natural capitals used in the process such as air and water. Because no one really owns these natural capitals business will exploit and pollute such resources in the absence of government regulations.
Since demand is so high for fossil fuels and supply is low or in a country that we aren't on good terms with we have moved in domestic ways of extracting fossil fuels. We have been able to combine technologies from the gas and oil industry using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to access fossil fuels locked in deep rock formations. Fracking is the process of fracturing rock using high pressure water, sand and deadly chemicals. The efficiency standard would not be a probable pollution standard since cost to communities surrounding fracking operations is higher than its benefits. Cost such as not having fresh water, fracking operations in their backyards, and the loss of trees which are Carbon sinks.
A safety standard should be used when referring to fracking since it emphasizes the human health since every person has the right of being healthy. The whole process of constructing a well site does not use an ecological sustainability standard since trees have to be removed, water will get contaminated.
