Is our national security being threatened by earthquakes? In Cushing Oklahoma there are oil storage facilities that can supply the entire United States for three days. These tanks represent the largest oil storage facilities in North America and there have been small earthquakes occurring in recent years that threaten these facilities.

What is causing these earthquakes you might well be thinking; the answer is fracking! Yes fracking the process of injecting water, sand and additives to force more oil out of the ground than standard drilling methods do. In doing this near known or unknown faults lines this process can cause the movement of a fault because it lessens the friction along the fault line causing it to slip, thus causing an earthquake.

So far the earthquakes in the area of Cushing have been only on the level of about 3.0 on the Richter Scale and one that was only three miles away at 4.5. This is many magnitudes larger than the 3.0 and it is now posing a real danger to Cushing’s oil tanks. Chris Pixler Cushing’s Fire Chief said “We’re fairly new to earthquakes in Oklahoma. We’ve always been good at preparing for fires and tornados, and now we’re making some changes we felt were necessary in terms of getting information out to citizens about earthquake safety.” So far there has been no reported damage of any kind to these facilities, but if the earthquakes get bigger in intensity then there well could be a national problem.

In an article by Bloomberg they said that “If even a couple of Cushing’s tanks had to shut down, or a pipeline were damaged, the impact could ripple through the market, probably pushing prices up. That outcome is especially likely if a spill were to knock Cushing offline for a period of time—a scenario no less dangerous than a potential terrorist attack.” So now we have to worry about fracking causing an earthquake that could shutdown or destroy any of the oil facilities in Cushing.

Back in March I talked about fracking and earthquakes, Shake, Rattle and Roll with Fracking. And now that it is threatening our oil supply I am even more troubled about the use of fracking. Officials have now ordered well drilling that involves fracking to be shutdown if they are within three miles of the Cushing oil storage facilities. This speaks volumes about how our public officials see fracking as the cause of these earthquakes.

It is time to say that we need to be more careful where fracking is in relationship to known fault lines and any production wells using this process that are near them should be immediately shutdown. We can not afford to have anything cause a disruption to the facilities in Cushing Oklahoma, as they are too important to our national economy. Plus I hate to think how it would and could change the price of heating oil and gasoline if something were to have.

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike