[Ads-l] "fracking"

Fri Aug 7 18:13:19 UTC 2020

Amazon reviewer, 2012:

"This mission was fracked up when the ambush jumped."

JL

On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 9:11 PM James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> <
JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com>"
>               <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> Subject:      "fracking"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> For anybody on the list who would like to start a barfight...
>
> (I am not taking sides.  There are serious environmental problems with
> fracking; whether the natural gas industry will overcome these problems I
> cannot predict.)
>
> from
> http://channels.isp.netscape.com/pf/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/1001/20120126/1739.htm
>
> No energy industry backing for the word 'fracking'
> JONATHAN FAHEY
> AP Energy Writer
>
>
> NEW YORK (AP) — A different kind of F-word is stirring a linguistic and
> political debate as controversial as what it defines.
>
> The word is "fracking" — as in hydraulic fracturing, a technique long used
> by the oil and gas industry to free oil and gas from rock.
>
> It's not in the dictionary, the industry hates it, and President Barack
> Obama didn't use it in his State of the Union speech — even as he praised
> federal subsidies for it.
>
> The word sounds nasty, and environmental advocates have been able to use
> it to generate opposition — and revulsion — to what they say is a nasty
> process that threatens water supplies.
>
> "It obviously calls to mind other less socially polite terms, and folks
> have been able to take advantage of that," said Kate Sinding, a senior
> attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who works on drilling
> issues.
>
> One of the chants at an anti-drilling rally in Albany earlier this month
> was "No fracking way!"
>
> Industry executives argue that the word is deliberately misspelled by
> environmental activists and that it has become a slur that should not be
> used by media outlets that strive for objectivity.
>
> "It's a co-opted word and a co-opted spelling used to make it look as
> offensive as people can try to make it look," said Michael Kehs, vice
> president for Strategic Affairs at Chesapeake Energy, the nation's
> second-largest natural gas producer.
>
> To the surviving humans of the sci-fi TV series "Battlestar Galactica," it
> has nothing to do with oil and gas. It is used as a substitute for the very
> down-to-Earth curse word.
>
> Michael Weiss, a professor of linguistics at Cornell University, says the
> word originated as simple industry jargon, but has taken on a negative
> meaning over time — much like the word "silly" once meant "holy."
>
> But "frack" also happens to sound like "smack" and "whack," with more
> violent connotations.
>
> "When you hear the word 'fracking,' what lights up your brain is the
> profanity," says Deborah Mitchell, who teaches marketing at the University
> of Wisconsin's School of Business. "Negative things come to mind."
>
> Obama did not use the word in his State of the Union address Tuesday
> night, when he said his administration will help ensure natural gas will be
> developed safely, suggesting it would support 600,000 jobs by the end of
> the decade.
>
> In hydraulic fracturing, millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals
> are pumped into wells to break up underground rock formations and create
> escape routes for the oil and gas. In recent years, the industry has
> learned to combine the practice with the ability to drill horizontally into
> beds of shale, layers of fine-grained rock that in some cases have trapped
> ancient organic matter that has cooked into oil and gas.
>
> By doing so, drillers have unlocked natural gas deposits across the East,
> South and Midwest that are large enough to supply the U.S. for decades.
> Natural gas prices have dipped to decade-low levels, reducing customer
> bills and prompting manufacturers who depend on the fuel to expand
> operations in the U.S.
>
> Environmentalists worry that the fluid could leak into water supplies from
> cracked casings in wells. They are also concerned that wastewater from the
> process could contaminate water supplies if not properly treated or
> disposed of. And they worry the method allows too much methane, the main
> component of natural gas and an extraordinarily potent greenhouse gas, to
> escape.
>
> Some want to ban the practice altogether, while others want tighter
> regulations.
>
> The Environmental Protection Agency is studying the issue and may propose
> federal regulations. The industry prefers that states regulate the process.
>
> Some states have banned it. A New York proposal to lift its ban drew about
> 40,000 public comments — an unprecedented total — inspired in part by
> slogans such as "Don't Frack With New York."
>
> The drilling industry has generally spelled the word without a "K," using
> terms like "frac job" or "frac fluid."
>
> Energy historian Daniel Yergin spells it "fraccing" in his book, "The
> Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World." The glossary
> maintained by the oilfield services company Schlumberger includes only
> "frac" and "hydraulic fracturing."
>
> The spelling of "fracking" began appearing in the media and in oil and gas
> company materials long before the process became controversial. It first
> was used in an Associated Press story in 1981. That same year, an oil and
> gas company called Velvet Exploration, based in British Columbia, issued a
> press release that detailed its plans to complete "fracking" a well.
>
> The word was used in trade journals throughout the 1980s. In 1990,
> Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher announced U.S. oil engineers would
> travel to the Soviet Union to share drilling technology, including fracking.
>
> The word does not appear in The Associated Press Stylebook, a guide for
> news organizations. David Minthorn, deputy standards editor at the AP, says
> there are tentative plans to include an entry in the 2012 edition.
>
> He said the current standard is to avoid using the word except in direct
> quotes, and to instead use "hydraulic fracturing."
>
> That won't stop activists — sometimes called "fracktivists" — from
> repeating the word as often as possible.
>
> "It was created by the industry, and the industry is going to have to live
> with it," says the NRDC's Sinding.
>
> Dave McCurdy, CEO of the American Gas Association, agrees, much to his
> dismay: "It's Madison Avenue hell," he says.
>
> ___
>
> Jonathan Fahey can be reached at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey.
>
>
> _____________________________________________________________
> Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org