Meanwhile, in Illinois, Part 2
Jul. 13th, 2012 07:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23A continuation of what was going on when I went back to my hometown.
- - -
One thing most people don't know about Central Illinois is its oil. I grew up with dozens of pumping oil wells and the 24/7 burning flame of gas flares. i don't know any different, but if you weren't born there, you are probably surprised to see a little bit of Dallas in the middle of the Prairie State.
There was an oil boom in Central Illinois in the 50s. It was what you would expect- jobs in the oil fields flourished and some local families became rich for years. My family did not become superrich, but have gotten supplemental income for years.
Now, the oil boom is back thanks to a new process called fracking. I don't know that I can explain fracking very well, but it seems that water is used to induce pressure which then brings previously untapped oil and natural gas resources to come released. (There are helpful websites provided by people like Exxon Mobil and other oil producers. Just google it).
Fracking is a god-send. Central and Southern Illinois has been an area that has had high unemployment and low job creation even before the economy went south. Now, farmers who were working their fingers to the bone could see an unexpected light at the end of the tunnel.
Still, one can't help wonder where all of this unexpected good luck came from. (Okay, I have been reading Jared Diamond, but one needs to head south and see the results of that other innovation strip mining and what happened from it).
There are as many websites that warn against fracking as those for it. Like many high stakes gambling games, there appears to be a potential side effect to all this 'get rich quick-ness'. You see, it seems that fracking can leave the ground water on these family farms undrinkable and unusable due to the process. This not only mean the money dries up when the oil is gone, it leaves the farm family with land that once was their gift to future generations and makes it worthless.
My grandma (I mentioned the supplemental income above) has been approached by the oil companies aggressively. To her credit 9and to my mild surprise), she has resisted the lure of easy and quick money.
I will admit to a certain extent, I don't know both sides of the story as well as maybe I should. Maybe BP and their pals are closer to the 'friends of the Gulf Shore' image that their ads portray and less of the image most Americans have of them (which rates them below loan sharks and Congress). Still, this appears to be one of those phenomenons that we will look back 20 or 40 years and wonder why we ever made this mistake.
- - -
One thing most people don't know about Central Illinois is its oil. I grew up with dozens of pumping oil wells and the 24/7 burning flame of gas flares. i don't know any different, but if you weren't born there, you are probably surprised to see a little bit of Dallas in the middle of the Prairie State.
There was an oil boom in Central Illinois in the 50s. It was what you would expect- jobs in the oil fields flourished and some local families became rich for years. My family did not become superrich, but have gotten supplemental income for years.
Now, the oil boom is back thanks to a new process called fracking. I don't know that I can explain fracking very well, but it seems that water is used to induce pressure which then brings previously untapped oil and natural gas resources to come released. (There are helpful websites provided by people like Exxon Mobil and other oil producers. Just google it).
Fracking is a god-send. Central and Southern Illinois has been an area that has had high unemployment and low job creation even before the economy went south. Now, farmers who were working their fingers to the bone could see an unexpected light at the end of the tunnel.
Still, one can't help wonder where all of this unexpected good luck came from. (Okay, I have been reading Jared Diamond, but one needs to head south and see the results of that other innovation strip mining and what happened from it).
There are as many websites that warn against fracking as those for it. Like many high stakes gambling games, there appears to be a potential side effect to all this 'get rich quick-ness'. You see, it seems that fracking can leave the ground water on these family farms undrinkable and unusable due to the process. This not only mean the money dries up when the oil is gone, it leaves the farm family with land that once was their gift to future generations and makes it worthless.
My grandma (I mentioned the supplemental income above) has been approached by the oil companies aggressively. To her credit 9and to my mild surprise), she has resisted the lure of easy and quick money.
I will admit to a certain extent, I don't know both sides of the story as well as maybe I should. Maybe BP and their pals are closer to the 'friends of the Gulf Shore' image that their ads portray and less of the image most Americans have of them (which rates them below loan sharks and Congress). Still, this appears to be one of those phenomenons that we will look back 20 or 40 years and wonder why we ever made this mistake.
