Persuasive Speech Outline: Hydraulic Fracturing

PERSUASIVE SPEECH OUTLINE

Jared Ishmael

Persuasive Outline

Communication Studies

MW 8:30

Topic: Hydraulic Fracturing

Introduction

A. Attention Getter: Right now all across America, rural landowners are getting outstanding offers from energy companies wanting to lease their property. How come? It is because these people are unknowingly sitting on the "Saudi Arabia of Natural gas". Moreover, an energy company known as Halliburton found an innovative way of tapping into it, known as hydraulic Fracturing.

B. Thesis statement: Hydraulic fracturing is a menace to our way of life and should cease to continue if we value the well-being of ourselves and the well-being of our Earth.

C. Preview of Main Points:

1. Initially, I would like to discuss the process of what hydraulic fracturing is and the process that takes place.

2. Second, I would like to discuss the devastating effects hydraulic fracturing has on our ecosystem.

3. Lastly, I would like to engage the audience in what they can do to get involved and active in the action to help cease all hydraulic fracturing before it ever gets any worse.

II. Main body

The fracking process is when workers drill down several thousands of feet into Marcellus shale depots underground into a drilled well where a steel casing is inserted into the well bore.

Then gallons of water mixed with "frak fluid" and proppants continuously until the target area can't take all the constant pressure and eventually breaks. Thus cracking open areas in a well filled with natural gas. The cracks are held open with the proppants. Marcellus Shale formations are located around the northeastern side of the United States. This rock is said to be known to hold a great deal of amount of natural gas, as much as 500 trillion cubic feet. Only an estimated amount of 50 trillion cubic feet is all that can be recovered from the Marcellus

shale.
According to recent studies done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it is estimated that 70 to 140 billion gallons of water is"EPA Conversations - by IdeaScale | Popular." Web. 26 Sept. 2014 . used to fracture 35,000 wells in the United States each year. "Frack City, USA (Greeley, CO): What is Fracking? Why is it Bad?" Insert Name of Site in Italics. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2014 .
Conventional oil and gas wells use about 300,000 pounds of proppant. Coalbed fracture treatments use anywhere from 75,000 to 320,000 pounds of proppant. Shale gas wells can use more than 4 million pounds of proppant per well. "EARTHWORKS | Hydraulic Fracturing 101." Web. 25 Sept.2014. Mixed with more than 5000 gallons of toxic chemicals.

Halliburton, Cabot and Oil, Key Energy Services are all big companies that have one thing in common. They all invested in a new innovative design known as Hydraulic Fracturing. Their rush into this new idea and blind greed allow them to overlook the great deal of harm they are causing more than the good they believe they are doing. The drilling for natural gas has become a catastrophic disturbance in our ecosystem. It pollutes our water and air with toxic chemicals. Chemical names range from the unpronounceable to the unknown, to the well-known. 90% of the toxic chemicals are left in the ground, the other 10% returns to the surface and evaporates into our air or left for the previous owners of the leased land to dispose.