Fracking is not sustainable (you're not going to be able to frack forever, we've already tapped a lot of the 'cheap gas' wells, future wells will eventually get prohibitively expensive, it already is very expensive and not even that profitable[1], and got a lot more expensive this year thanks to it requiring a specific type of sand that's now 3x the cost[2]) and is harmful to freshwater, not only by using a ton of it (average of 45 millions of gallons of freshwater per fracking well) but also because it mixes tons of chemicals in with the water it uses, making the wastewater toxic[3]. It also leaks a lot of methane[4], which is 80x worse for warming than CO2 emissions in the short term (CO2 stays in the atmosphere longer).
"To determine the potential impact of fracking in the U.K., a group of Manchester scientists ranked it and other energy sources, such as coal, wind, and solar, after considering environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Of the nine energy sources examined, the scientists found that fracking ranked seventh in sustainability.
To make fracking as sustainable as energy sources higher up on the list, such as wind and solar, there would need to be a staggering 329-fold reduction in environmental impact, according to the researchers."[5]
[1] https://www.barrons.com/articles/why-are-natural-gas-prices-...
[2] https://sports.yahoo.com/sand-fracking-now-3-times-114500960...
[3] https://cen.acs.org/environment/water/Wastewater-fracking-Gr...
[4] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/frack...
[5] https://futurism.com/fracking-among-most-harmful-forms-energ...
