Don’t drain the lake

How's this for a winning strategy to create jobs and promote economic growth in Ohio? 

Risk dangerously low water levels and quality in Lake Erie — the shallowest of the Great Lakes — and its tributaries. Jeopardize the $10 billion a year in revenue, the 250,000 jobs, and the tourism, boating, fishing, and recreational industries that the lake contributes to the Ohio economy.

Aggravate pollution — including toxic algae blooms — in Lake Erie and the rivers and streams that feed it. Threaten the supply of drinking water for 3 million Ohioans. 

Shift costs for water and wastewater treatment from big businesses to smaller businesses and consumers. Defy the spirit, and probably the letter, of the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement by eight states, Congress, and Canada to protect the lakes from excessive withdrawals and manage them wisely for future generations.

Sound good? Want to sign up? Contact your nearest Republican state lawmaker.

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Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush

From New York Times Drilling Down articles:

Natural gas companies have been placing enormous bets on the wells they are drilling, saying they will deliver big profits and provide a vast new source of energy for the United States.

But the gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells.

In the e-mails, energy executives, industry lawyers, state geologists and market analysts voice skepticism about lofty forecasts and question whether companies are intentionally, and even illegally, overstating the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves. Many of these e-mails also suggest a view that is in stark contrast to more bullish public comments made by the industry, in much the same way that insiders have raised doubts about previous financial bubbles.

“Money is pouring in” from investors even though shale gas is “inherently unprofitable,” an analyst from PNC Wealth Management, an investment company,  wrote to a contractor in a February e-mail. “Reminds you of dot-coms.”

“The word in the world of independents is that the shale plays are just giant Ponzi schemes and the economics just do not work,” an analyst from IHS Drilling Data, an energy research company,  wrote in an e-mail on Aug. 28, 2009.

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AMP’s Natural Gas Power Plant To Fire Up Next Year

Despite the abrupt end of a previous project that left communities on the hook for millions of dollars, the non-profit American Municipal Power says it's getting broad buy-in from members on its next endeavor. ideastream's Bill Rice reports the city of Cleveland signed on earlier this week.

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Documents: Federal Officials Quietly Question Shale Gas

Over the past six months, The New York Times reviewed thousands of pages of documents related to shale gas, including hundreds of industry e-mails, internal agency documents and reports by analysts. A selection of these documents is included here; names and identifying information have been redacted to protect the confidentiality of sources, many of whom were not authorized by their employers to communicate with The Times.

In this e-mail chain from April 2011, United States Energy Information Administration officials express concerns about the economic realities of shale gas production. They describe irrational exuberance in the market, and they suggest that the land rush in shale plays, or formations, which was especially accelerated and costly in 2008, could be the downfall of some shale gas companies.

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Lawmakers Seek Inquiry of Natural Gas Industry

“Given the rapid growth of the shale gas industry and its growing importance for our country’s energy portfolio, I urge the S.E.C. to quickly investigate whether investors have been intentionally misled,” wrote Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, Democrat of New York, in one of three letters sent to the commission by four federal lawmakers, all Democrats.

The calls for investigations came amid growing questions about the environmental and financial risks surrounding natural gas drilling and especially a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, used to release gas trapped underground in shale formations.

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Energy industry shapes lessons in public schools

Eager to burnish its reputation, the energy industry is spending significant sums of money on education in communities with sensitive coal, natural gas and oil exploration projects. The industry aims to teach students about its contributions to local economies and counter criticism from environmental groups.

These outreach efforts have drawn scrutiny after news in May that Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books, distributed fourth-grade curriculum materials funded by the American Coal Foundation. The “United States of Energy” lesson plan, which the foundation paid $300,000 to develop, went to 66,000 fourth-grade teachers in 2009. After critics raised questions about potential bias, Scholastic announced that it will no longer publish the material in question.

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