Energy Expert: Fracking is Beneficial to the U.S. | Amanpour and Company

The upcoming election will determine the country's response to the climate crisis. The issues of fracking, emissions, and energy demand are of particular interest to Daniel Yergin, who has served as an advisor on energy in the last four administrations. His latest book examines how energy shapes America’s position in the world, as he explains to Walter Isaacson.

Originally aired on October 9, 2020.

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Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.

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[LexValidus]

"If cigarettes were dangerous we wouldn't have sold a few billion til now."
"If plastics were toxic we wouldn't have created our economy around it."
"If guns were dangerous we wouldn't be the country with more guns than people."

Sure buddy. That logic is perfect. No fallacies there at all.

[joyleenstrozier]

Amanpour and Co, Fracking is bad for our health

[mbagdescanning]

I came to Amanpour and Co to hear intelligent conversation and what I hear is pure BS. Fracking has been proven to be dangerous and is not cleaner. Why is this guy not being challenged more? You ask the right questions and he gives answers not true and you let him talk and talk... He is dismissing the water problems and methane. WTF?

[MarciaMatthews]

How is pumping chemicals into earth and polluting the water beneficial?

[BobQuigley]

fracking has lost $360 billion -never once made money

[cidaliaborges]

No it's not your destroying the environment

[DD-srxm]

How is that an answer? “If it were dangerous, how could we have produced 13 bio barrels.” What? The problems from this sort of activity are always slow to materialise and take even longer to rectify.

[Cheetorblz]

How about bringing an expert with opposing views? It would be nice to believe this guy but if I don't hear the other side I am not able to make a decision. Maybe that is the goal? Make me unsure? Saying solar is no good because it is controlled by china is not a good argument against.

[njosborne]

WATER is LIFE is WATER is LIFE is WATER is LIFE is WATER is LIFE is WATER is LIFE
Petrochemicals, ARE death, I let me repeat that, Petrochemicals, ARE death
And economy that is built upon petro chemicals is built upon death.
There is a glut of oil on the market there is so much oil that there is no place to put it on land!
I started cleaning up petrochemical spills in 55 gallon drums, almost 60 years ago at $.50 an hour.
I was the youngest to achieve practical chemistry license from California in ‘63.
As a ergonomist with agriculture degrees, I have managed many parks and hundreds of acres of forests, and Buildings of brick and mortar, steel and glass.
I am well experienced with fracking from many sides.
Fracking is a extremely bad for habitat in general and dangerous for life on this planet, specifically!
From an energy standpoint it is extremely unsound and the risk is hardly worth the reward.
They must artificially be propped up to be “affordable”. This means that the taxes that you and I pay are going directly to the pockets of these billionaires‼️
How bad will it become? In some places it has been stopped.
Because it has ruined underground caverns (which once were our aquifers).
The results are roadways collapsing.
There’s So, very much more.
We must be debating a Green new deal, and not this bull crap!

[keiram]

Perhaps a better book to read on the subject:

“The Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending Armageddon.”—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon
With a new afterword
It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible—food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation.

[lorihenderson]

Fracking is destroying the environment

[dopatap]

I read Blowout and I'm not sure fracking is so great.

[robertpaulson]

If you ever fly over East Texas it is frack wells as far as the eye can see - The landscape looks like a quilt

[tulip]

The interviewer from Aspen institute sits in his mansion complete with ionic columns throwing softballs to 'objective' expert from Brookings Institution.
It makes for a nice commercial.. if only for a kind of lifestyle, but for some reason (I don't know why?) the expert is not very convincing. I mean the forgone conclusion for these meatheads is that we need to keep all these cars going? Thank you to the elite think tanks to tell us where the merry-go-round is headed. No doubt they have calculated all of the costs and externalized what is inconvenient.

[bunyip]

If the USA wants to retain a position of power and relevance in the world - they should lead the drive for weaning themselves away from a carbon based fuel dependent economy. Yes, fracking etc makes you energy independent now.... but it is a finite resource. Norway as an example, has been very clever and forward thinking with the money they have gained over decades of oil sales from their off-shore reserves. Norway has invested multi-billions in developing hydro-power systems and associated infrastructure projects. They recognised early that the oil will eventually run out, and have future proofed their country for electricity generation. Their taxation system is slanted towards clean energy (e.g. Tesla Model S costs about the same as a Volvo V90).
Now Norway will not likely ever be an adversary to USA... but China is. China is the worlds leading supplier of solar panels. China has a huge industry in battery production. Chinese companies are greedily gobbling up producers of the raw materials needed for clean energy solutions (Copper in Zambia, Platinum in Zimbabwe as examples). Whilst The USA squabbles with internal politics and has their elected leaders under the thrall of Oil Company funded lobbyists.... the Chinese continue their "long game" approach to becoming the worlds dominating power.

[matthewbittenbender]

I agree that renewables tech and infrastructure has improve for the Green New Deal tl become a reality. That said it was never going to be an overnight deal. How could it? We’ve ignored renewable development for decades Abbas continue to give subsidies to fossil fuel corporations that earn tens of billions per quarter.

Producing competing petroleum exports may help with foreign policy against Iran and Russia but there are better ways. Getting ahead of the renewables production curve gives the US a advantage in the new economy as Producer of tech, instead of a consumable, polluting commodity. A green new deal is a road map to that end, not a socialist dream as it’s been painted out to be by some.

[shawnthesheep]

How has the water contamination issue been dealt with?!?! 😡

[Oneshot]

I expected better from Amanpour. Only vid from her I've ever given a thumbs down to.

[satorimystic]

Just because we CAN do something, doesn't mean we SHOULD! Ignoring the real costs to the environment, air, soil, water ... LIFE!!?? Ignorance and Apathy?? 🤔

[ronaldronald]

Talking about the flawed reasoning of vested interests...
The simple fact is carbon based energy is being faced out. Investments in it equals throwing away money like betting on a horse that already lost the race.