Recent Fracking News
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 10:04PM
Democratic state Sen. Michael Skindell of suburban Cleveland introduced a bill Tuesday calling for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to await results of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study of potential environmental hazards.
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 9:54PM An estimated 2,000 people showed up this morning to protest the industry and its controversial drilling process known as “fracking.”
“My backyard is a wildlife habitat,” noted Susan Breese of Susquehanna County (right), who calls herself a natural-born environmentalist. But she says that’s been a lot tougher since a shale-gas well was drilled near her home in 2008.
The main issue for her, and one echoed by other foes, is contaminated water. Hers has more than double the allowable limit of barium and nearly four times the limit for strontium.
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 9:48PM The Marcellus Shale natural gas industry has a huge thirst for water — to hydraulically fracture a single gas well requires upward of a thousand tanker-trucks of water.
And so during the summer, when some streams here in gas-rich northern Pennsylvania naturally turn into trickles, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission pays close attention to ensure that drilling interests don’t suck the state’s creeks dry.
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 9:44PM Federal geologists published new estimates this week for the amount of natural gas that exists in a giant rock formation known as the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from New York to Virginia.
The shale formation has about 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas, according to the report from the United States Geological Survey. This is drastically lower than the 410 trillion cubic feet that was published earlier this year by the federal Energy Information Administration.
As a result, the Energy Information Administration, which is responsible for quantifying oil and gas supplies, has said it will slash its official estimate for the Marcellus Shale by nearly 80 percent, a move that is likely to generate new questions about how the agency calculates its estimates and why it was so far off in its projections.
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 9:37PM Interspersed with the expressions of love, hope and resolution were substantive points of anxiety. No one knows how much contaminated water will escape and where it will go. Even if we stop it here other towns might surrender and we could see a truck kicking up dust and leaking sand every 60 seconds, seven days a week. The noise level will make conversation impossible; no more sitting on the porch of the hotel or the coffee shop. Property values will plummet by 50 to 75 percent (this from a long-time Realtor). Banks are reluctant to write mortgages on property that is being drilled on. There might be limited short-term benefits to a few, but the boom will be followed by a bust, and when it is all over “people won’t want to live here anymore.”
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 10:23AM On May 5, 2011, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu charged the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB)Natural Gas Subcommittee to make recommendations to improve the safety and environmental performance of natural gas hydraulic fracturing from shale formations.
President Obama directed Secretary Chu to form the Natural Gas Subcommittee as part of the President’s "Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future" - a comprehensive plan to reduce America's oil dependence, save consumers money, and make our country the leader in clean energy industries. The Subcommittee's task is defined as:
"The Subcommittee will work to identify, within 90 days, any immediate steps that can be taken to
improve the safety and environmental performance of fracking and to develop, within six months,
consensus recommended advice to the agencies on practices for shale extraction to ensure the
protection of public health and the environment." (Blueprint, page 13)
The Natural Gas Subcommittee met for the first time on May 18, 2011. Subsequently, it has conducted public meetings on June 1-2, June 13, June 28, and July 13, to gather information and discuss issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing. Details on those meetings can be found in the Resources section of this website. As of July 15, 2011, the Department of Energy has received over 25,000 public comments. A summary of those comments is now available.
The Natural Gas Subcommittee's initial report is expected on August 18, 2011, and its final report on November 18, 2011.
As required, the Natural Gas Subcommittee will report its 90 day findings to the full SEAB Committee and the SEAB will review those findings. Pending consensus, the report will be delivered by SEAB to the Secretary on August 18th, 2011.
The draft 90-day report is now available. On August 15, 2011, the full SEAB Committee will convene a public meeting via conference call to discuss the draft report. Please read the Federal Register Notice for further details of that meeting and how you can participate.
Members of the public may submit comments on the draft report at any time, but comments must be submitted by noon on August 15, 2011, in order to be considered at this stage. Any comments not received by this time will be considered before the Subcommittee's final report is issued in November.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 2:36PM By David Hughes
AbstractNatural gas has increasingly been touted as a “bridge fuel” from high-carbon sources of energy like coal and oil to a renewable energy future. This is based on renewed optimism on the ability of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to access natural gas from previously inaccessible shale gas deposits. A review of the latest outlook (2011) of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveals that all eggs have been placed in the shale gas basket in terms of future growth in U.S. gas production. Without shale gas, U.S. domestic gas production is projected to fall by 20% through 2035. Shale gas is characterized by high-cost, rapidly depleting wells that require high energy and water inputs. There is considerable controversy about the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on the contamination of surface water and groundwater, as well as the disposal of toxic drilling fluids produced from the wells. A moratorium has been placed on shale gas drilling in New York State. Other analyses place the marginal cost of shale gas production well above current gas prices, and above the EIA’s price assumptions for most of the next quarter century. An analysis of the EIA’s gas production forecast reveals that record levels of drilling will be required to achieve it, along with incumbent environmental impacts. Full-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shale gas may also be worse than previously understood, and possibly worse than coal. Even assuming the EIA forecast for growth in shale gas production can be achieved, there is little scope for wholesale replacement of coal for electricity generation or oil for transportation in its outlook. Replacing coal would require a 64% increase of lower-48 gas production over and above 2009 levels, heavy vehicles a further 24% and light vehicles yet another 76%. This would also require a massive build out of new infrastructure, including pipelines, gas storage and refueling facilities, and so forth. This is a logistical, geological, environmental, and financial pipe dream. Although a shift to natural gas is not a silver bullet, there are many other avenues that can yield lower GHG emissions and fuel requirements and thus improve energy security. More than half of the coalfired electricity generation fleet is more than 42 years old. Many of these plants are inefficient and have few if any pollution controls. As much as 21% of coal-fired capacity will be retired under new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations set to take effect in 2015. Best-in-class technologies for both natural-gas- and coal-fired generation can reduce CO2 emissions by 17% and 24%, respectively, and reduce other pollutants. Capturing waste heat from these plants for district and process heating can provide further increases in overall efficiency. The important role of natural gas for uses other than electricity generation in the industrial, commercial, and residential sectors, which constitute 70% of current natural gas consumption and for which there is no substitute at this time, must also be kept in mind. Natural gas vehicles are likely to increase in a niche role for highmileage, short-haul applications. Strategies for energy sustainability must focus on reducing energy demand and optimizing the use of the fuels that must be burnt. At the end of the day, hydrocarbons that aren’t burnt produce no emissions. Capital- and energy-intensive “solutions” such as carbon capture and storage (CSS) are questionable at best and inconsistent with the whole notion of energy sustainability at worst.
Read full report at:
http://www.postcarbon.org/reports/PCI-report-nat-gas-future-plain.pdf
