Natural gas production through the hydraulic fracturing of shale
The hydraulic fracturing of shale to extract previously unrecoverable oil and gas is called fracking, and it is opening up a huge resource
of natural gas in North America. Thanks to anti-capitalist environmental extremists, and an assortment of heavily-biased national news networks,
most Americans don't realize how much natural gas is under foot, and how cheap energy would be if the environmentalists and government regulators would
step aside and let the free market bring these natural resources to the consumers. Concerns about ground water contamination and widespread
earthquakes appear to have been exaggerated by radical environmentalists, who oppose every practical source of energy, and who hate to see capitalism
succeed anywhere in the world. Fracking is just one of several environmental false alarms that have been spread through the sensationalist news
media in the last 30 years.
A brief history of fracking: The plot against
fracking: How cheap energy was killed by Green lies and Russian propaganda. [Scroll down] When the
shale gas revolution first came along, some environmentalists welcomed it, and rightly so. It "creates an unprecedented
opportunity to use gas as a bridge fuel to a twenty-first-century energy economy that relies on efficiency, renewable
sources, and low-carbon fossil fuels such as natural gas," wrote Senator Tim Wirth, a prominent environmentalist. And
so it has proved: the country that adopted shale gas first and most — the United States — is the
country that lowered its carbon dioxide emissions first and most, because gas displaced coal, a much higher-carbon
fuel. But then the vested interests got to work. Renewable energy promoters panicked at the thought of cheap and
abundant gas. Their business model was predicated on the alleged certainty that prices would rise as fossil fuels ran
out, making subsidised wind and solar power look comparatively cheap. David Cameron's coalition government produced
three projections about what might happen to gas prices: that they would rise fast, medium or slow. In fact they fell,
a possibility the government had entirely ignored. It is hard to recall now just how sure almost everybody was in 2008
that natural gas was running out. Its price had risen as gas fields in North America and the North Sea began to run
dry. Peak gas was coming even sooner than peak oil or peak coal. Yet in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas,
something was stirring.
Harris
claims she 'made clear' her position on fracking in 2020 — transcript shows another
story. Vice President Kamala Harris doubled down in her first interview since
ascending to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket that she would not ban fracking if
elected, claiming she made "clear" where she stood on fracking during the 2020 election. "No,
and I made that clear on the debate stage in 2020 that I would not ban fracking. As vice
president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking," Harris said.
Before Harris dropped her bid for president in 2019 and joined President Biden's ticket, she said
in a CNN town hall "there's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking" on her first day in office.
Team
Harris Swears Kamala Won't Kill Fracking, But Will Anyone Believe Them? Vice
President Kamala Harris' campaign has said she no longer endorses a ban on fracking, but political
strategists and energy experts say the sudden policy shift will do little to move the needle with
key voters in November. Harris said in 2020 there is "no question" she would end fracking if
elected president, but her campaign recently told The Hill she no longer wants to outlaw the
practice after videos of her endorsing a ban resurfaced following President Joe Biden's withdrawal
from the 2024 race. The campaign can walk back Harris' old fracking position as it pleases,
but it likely won't be enough to allay the concerns of crucial voting blocs —
particularly more rural, blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania — that Harris may wage war
on the industry or otherwise escalate Biden's climate agenda to their detriment if elected,
political strategists and energy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Enviromoonbat
Conundrum: Lithium From Fracking. Great news for enviromoonbats: a new source
has been found for the lithium that is required in massive quantities for the glorified golf carts
they want to force us into. Now the bad news: it comes from fracking wastewater. [...]
Fracking provides clean and cheap natural gas, but possibly due to its effectiveness, it is haram
in the liberal religion. Nuclear energy provides affordable electricity without allegedly
harmful carbon emissions. Liberals oppose it, because it too is haram. Whether our
moonbat overlords will exploit the Marcellus Shale is doubtful.
Alarm on Energy.
Fifty years ago, in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, the Arab members of OPEC initiated an oil
embargo against the United States. The boycott was retribution for America's support of
Israel during its brief war against Egypt and Syria. What was true in 1973 remains true in
the wake of Hamas's brutal terror attack on Israel on October 7: America's national strength
depends on the availability of cheap, abundant, reliable energy. Our national security, and
that of our allies, depends on energy security. Energy is the economy. We forget
these realities at our extreme peril. Fortunately, some things that were true a half-century
ago are no longer so. Over the past decade or so, the geopolitics of energy have
shifted dramatically in favor of the U.S., due mainly to the shale revolution. Instead of relying
on oil imports, the U.S. has become a huge exporter of both oil and natural gas.
More fracking, please. Natural
gas supply is critically low in Texas. Are rolling gas outages next? As Texas electric plants slowly come
back online during below-freezing temperatures across the state, natural gas has become the latest concern, as that supply is
now critically low. Atmos Energy, the gas utility in North Texas, texted customers an emergency alert on Wednesday
[2/17/2021] asking them to reduce usage.
The
science is settled: Fracking makes America strong and healthy. Despite what anti-oil and gas activists
claim, hydraulic fracturing — fracking — has proven beneficial for the environment, the economy and
human health. Spurring record oil and natural gas production, the technology has helped to improve air quality, reduce
emissions, create well-paying jobs and even save lives. Record U.S. natural gas production stemming from the widespread
adoption of fracking has meant an incredible decline in CO2 emissions and a substantial improvement in overall air quality.
Between 2005 and 2017, U.S.-marketed natural gas production increased by more than 54 percent. Over this same period,
natural gas' share of American electricity generation grew from about 19 percent to over 31 percent, while CO2
emissions from electricity generation fell by 28 percent.
America
has quietly become the global oil superpower. Will the courts stop that too? Yesterday [4/10/2019],
President Trump was in Houston, touting his new plan to expedite oil pipeline construction and permitting for oil and gas
extraction, two vital infrastructure projects that have been hampered by liberal states and held up by activist judges.
While the media has barely covered it and many Americans take our prosperity and energy production for granted, it's worth
reviewing and quantifying the magnitude of what the shale oil boom has done for this country over the past few years.
Chart of the Day shows annual
US oil production from 1920 to 2018. From the previous peak of 3.5 billion barrels in 1970, conventional oil
production steadily declined and fell below 2 billion barrels during the seven-year period from 2004-2010 during a period
when concerns about "peak oil," rising gas prices that nearly tripled from January 2002 to September 2005, CO2 emissions and
dependence on foreign oil motivated Congress to enact the Renewable Fuel Standard in 2005 and expand it in 2007. But then
the technology-fueled Great American Shale Revolution supercharged US oil production, which doubled from about 2 billion
barrels in 2011 to slightly more than 4 billion last year. That eye-popping 2X increase in US oil production in only
seven years is arguably the most remarkable energy success story in US history, maybe in world history.
The
most important scientific breakthrough you probably never heard of. If this post in Watts Up With That? is
correct, an inadvertent, serendipitous scientific discovery is responsible for reshaping the modern world of geopolitics to
America's advantage — and nobody noticed. Fracking is usually credited with being the critical
technology for the reshaping to which I refer: the rather sudden conversion of the United Sates from a huge net energy
importer to (currently) self-sufficient, and clearly heading toward a major net energy exporter. This is far more than
a simple balance-of-trade issue, through that is very important. It even transcends the millions of jobs and economic
prosperity that has blessed the United States. We and our allies are now almost free of the economic extortion of oil
exporters, that started in 1973 with the first oil boycott, gas lines, and soaring prices.
The
Parade of Impending Catastrophes. Fracking is a technique of fracturing rock to release natural gas and oil.
The environmentalists hate it, mostly because burning natural gas and oil adds CO2, the supposed cause of global warming, to the
atmosphere. But fracking helps with the former impending catastrophe of running out of oil. So that is another example
of a new impending catastrophe fighting an old impending catastrophe. It also works in reverse. Running out of oil
would fight global warming.
Why
natural gas from Putin's Russia has to be imported to New England. U.S. exports of natural gas have soared in
recent years. It's one of the most conspicuous examples of how the fracking boom has enhanced our energy
security. Driven by production in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale, the Lone Star State is an energy juggernaut,
providing affordable energy for Texas families while helping our allies meet their demands for cleaner energy. As a
result, the U.S. Energy Information Administration recently announced that in 2017, for the first time since 1957, the U.S.
exported more natural gas than it imported. Yet, even as we become a global energy superpower, political barriers
prevent us from maximizing the benefits of the shale revolution.
More Fracking, Fewer Earthquakes.
Oklahoma has a long history of seismicity, but, since 2013, the Sooner State has seen a significant increase in the number of
earthquakes within its borders. This spate of earthquakes has led to public confusion as to whether hydraulic
fracturing, commonly called "fracking," is the direct cause of these earthquakes, with some state lawmakers even calling for
an outright moratorium on fracking back in 2015, despite roughly 20 percent of the jobs in the state being supported by oil
and natural gas development. A new analysis of Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) data undertaken by Energy in Depth
shows the amount of monthly earthquakes in the Sooner State has decreased 86 percent from its peak in June 2015.
Concurrently, there has been an 11 percent increase in oil production and 81 percent increase in the number of operation
oil rigs in the state over the past calendar year. These numbers help reinforce what the scientific literature has long
shown: Fracking is not the cause of the increases in induced seismicity.
Seven
Reasons America Should Pursue Energy Dominance. Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, the innovations
behind our shale revolution, have been the catalysts for America to become the world's largest producer of natural gas and
petroleum since 2013. For the decade 2007-16, U.S. crude oil production rose 75% to 8.9 million barrels a day. Over
the same period, marketed production of natural gas rose 40%, to 78.7 billion cubic feet per day. America remains a net
importer of energy, but perhaps not for long. In its January 2017 Annual Energy Outlook, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration found that under most scenarios, the U.S. will be a net exporter of energy by 2026, the first time this has
happened since 1953.
Say,
Whatever Happened To 'We Can't Drill Our Way To Lower Prices'? The Energy Information Administration projects
that, next year, U.S. oil production will average almost 10 billion barrels a day, which would beat the previous record of
9.6 billion in 1970. What's more, a quarter of this production is coming from one oil field: the Permian Basin
in West Texas. Those "obscene" industry profits? They've fallen as well. ExxonMobil's (XOM) revenue in 2016 was
about half what it was in 2011. In its most recent quarter, the company earned $3.4 billion — or 78 cents
share. In the same quarter in 2011 it earned $10.7 billion, or $2.18 a share. Oil companies for a time even had to
borrow money to pay dividends. Low oil prices have also led to a sharp drop in the taxes paid by the industry to the federal
government. In 2016, the federal government collected about $6 billion in royalties, rental costs, and other fees from
oil production on federal lands. That's down from $14 billion in 2013. Now Shell is saying that it's bracing for
low oil prices forever.
Enjoying
Record Low Gas Prices? Thank a Fracker! As recently as 2010, American energy producers were pumping
around five million barrels of crude oil a day. Today that number is over nine million, and is expected to top 10
million next year. From there, no one is making estimates. That's because the fracking revolution —
the horizontal drilling for miles into the oil-rich shale deposits that were always there, and the "fracking" protocol mixing
sand, water, and a few lubricating chemicals that allows those shale deposits to be extracted profitably — is
pushing gas prices down and could put OPEC out of business.
Even
Shale's Secondary Effects Are Staggering. Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal well drilling have given American
companies access to vast new reserves of oil and gas, and have dramatically increased the production of hydrocarbons here in
the United States. Since 2010, the U.S. has added roughly 5 million barrels of oil per day, and natural gas production
is up roughly 33 percent over that same time period. The effects of this energy revolution have been felt the world
over — they've brought gasoline prices down for American drivers while remaking the global oil market. But here
in the U.S., they've been an enormous boon to an industry most Americans are likely unfamiliar with: petrochemicals.
Is U.S. Fracking
Killing OPEC? Just three and a half years ago, the price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude peaked
at $110.62 a barrel. At the time, President Obama was pushing Americans to conserve and warning, "we can't drill our
way out of the problem." Turns out, we could. Today, oil prices are struggling to rise above $50 a
barrel, thanks in large part to vast new supplies of crude on the market from American frackers. They've used
technology to dramatically slash costs, so OPEC can no longer control the global market price.
Air
Quality and Industrial Sand (Frac Sand) Mining. Air quality is a high priority with all industrial sand mining companies and policymakers in areas
near industrial sand operations. They aim to protect the public from hazardous levels of small particles of silica dust. These particles, when present
in unsafe concentrations, can cause health problems such as asthma and silicosis. Silicosis is a serious but preventable lung ailment that can affect
workers in industries with high exposure to silica dust. Although air quality is an important concern that must be addressed, the issue is often raised by
mining opponents as a way to impede the permitting of industrial sand facilities. Mining opponents often merely assert these facilities will hurt air
quality, and seemingly no amount of scientific evidence will persuade them to believe otherwise. When not supported by scientific evidence, these
allegations are problematic.
America's
Path to Greatness: Border Adjust Oil. Shale oil is almost a uniquely USA geological phenomenon.
Total worldwide shale oil reserves are estimated to be 4.8 trillion barrels, of which 1 trillion is recoverable, with 77% is
located in the USA. For comparison, conventional worldwide oil reserves are 1.3 trillion barrels. We could be completely
energy independent by 2020 — if, and only if, markets are not manipulated by totalitarian oil producing regimes.
Take
Back Al Gore's Nobel And Give It To The Fracking Industry. U.S. output of so-called greenhouse gases continues
to decline, a new report shows. Even so, global warming activists are likely to be disappointed. The drop has
nothing to do with their pet cause, alternative energy. That's right. The Environmental Protection Agency's
yearly greenhouse gas emissions report noted that after rising slightly in 2013 and 2014, greenhouse gas output fell in
2015 — the most recent full year for which data are available. [...] For all this progress, we can thank the
fracking business, which has given U.S. industry and homes access to massive amounts of cheap, relatively clean natural gas.
Fracking
Protesters Are Putin Puppets. The much anticipated intelligence report which concluded that Russia tried to
influence the recent presidential election had another startling, yet widely ignored, conclusion: The Russian
government promotes anti-fracking propaganda in the United States. [...] The science on fracking is pretty clear.
Compared to burning coal or oil, natural gas is preferable for the planet. (Ideally, U.S. energy policy should focus on
expanding nuclear power instead of fossil fuels.) Concerns over methane or other chemical leaks can be ameliorated with
better engineering practices. Similarly, any worries over earthquakes could be addressed by injecting wastewater into the
ground in places where there are no preexisting faults. Additionally, fracking is clearly in America's national interest.
The
coming Trump administration's yuuge transformational opportunity. [Scroll down] Now here's where it gets really, really interesting from a
geopolitical point of view. The Saudi regime is headed toward a crisis. Their receipts from oil have been cut in half, roughly, so now
they are covering half of their bills, roughly. There have been plenty of rumors flying about the Saudis pushing OPEC to restrict production to
drive up prices. But even without any new discoveries, American frackers can fairly quickly ramp up production if OPEC succeeds in
raising prices, at the expense of market share. And because American engineers and managers never stop finding a better way, fracking is getting
cheaper and better as time goes by. Now the Saudi Royal Family, who number in the thousands, have justified their appropriation of oil wealth for
lives of indolence and luxury by essentially claiming to use it to spread Wahhabi Islam around the world. And in that, they have succeeded.
Now that we don't really need their oil in America, and can start replacing their exports elsewhere with our own supplies, we can tell them to stop
funding the spread of violent jihad's religious infrastructure.
The
Shale Revolution Has Been a Giant Boon to Pennsylvania's Economy. Pennsylvania, currently the second-largest
producer of natural gas in the country, would have lost, according to the USCC report, $13 billion in state gross domestic
product (GDP), $7.2 billion in labor income, and more than 117,000 jobs if this energy revolution never came to be. Of
the total costs, $4.5 billion in lost GDP, $2.3 billion in labor income, and 27,500 jobs would come directly from
the oil and gas industry's extraction process; the remaining economic costs would be the result of substantially higher energy
costs. The study's authors also say without the "energy renaissance," a "significant portion" of Pennsylvania's "downstream"
economy would be "at risk of being lost." This includes $69.9 billion in state GDP, $39.9 billion in labor
income, and over 546,000 jobs in annual employment.
Hydraulic
Fracturing: A Game-Changer for U.S. Energy and Economies. Vast reserves of oil and natural gas have been
known to exist in shale formations throughout the United States for decades, but extracting these resources was not
economically viable until the advent of "smart drilling" technology — the combination of horizontal drilling,
hydraulic fracturing techniques, and computer-assisted underground monitoring. Fracking has transformed the way oil and
natural gas are produced in the U.S.
Fracking
Facts: The Science, Economics, and Legal Realities. Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, has
been employed in the U.S. since the 1940s. While innovation has improved the precision of the process, the essentials
are the same. Utilizing horizontal drilling, a mixture of mostly water, sand, and trace amounts of chemicals are used
to create fissures in underground shale deposits allowing oil and natural gas trapped in hard rock to move toward the surface
where it is collected. Fracking, and the processes associated with it, are blamed for emissions of pollutants,
earthquakes, and even groundwater contamination, though independent evidence consistently shows these allegations to be
false. The evidence supporting fracking bans begins to look slim when attention is drawn to the facts.
Ecological Double Standards.
Fracking-induced earth tremors are akin to vibrations from a dump truck on your street. No groundwater contamination
has ever been traced to hydraulic fracturing. Methane in tap water results from water wells improperly drilled through
gas-prone rock formations and was an issue long before fracking. Air emissions are below what we find in residential
neighborhoods during non-rush hours. But anti-fossil fuel activists assiduously promote disinformation about this
revolutionary technology, as part of their agenda to fundamentally transform the way we produce energy to support our
livelihoods and living standards. They want to replace affordable, reliable hydrocarbons with expensive, unreliable,
subsidized, crony-corporatist, environmentally damaging wind, solar and biofuel sources.
It's
Time to Stop Fighting Fracking. The conventional wisdom was wrong. Thanks to the shale revolution, the
United States has gone from the prospect of natural gas scarcity to real abundance. This new abundance benefits
consumers and our allies and it helps cut carbon-dioxide emissions. Despite these facts, America's most prominent
Democratic politicians and environmental groups want to end the shale revolution by prohibiting hydraulic fracturing.
And they are doing so despite subsidies that favor wind and solar at the expense of natural gas. This new-found
abundance has led to major price declines. From 2000 to 2009, the average price of natural gas in the United States was
$5.82 per million Btu. Today's price: $2.06. Lower-cost natural gas benefits American consumers and American
manufacturing. Last year, the Brookings Institution estimated that the shale-gas boom is saving American consumers about
$48 billion per year.
The
Natural Gas Boom: Questions and Complications. America has been buoyed by an
abundance of natural gas. The bulk of its vast resources of this precious fuel is locked in shale
formations under more than 20 states, unable to escape without drilling horizontal wells through
the most promising layers and fracturing the rocks surrounding the bores with highly pressurized
mixtures of water, chemicals, and sand. Use of this process, decades in the making, expanded rather
suddenly after 2007, and it has become widely known by the rather unappealing term "fracking."
Obama
to unveil fracking rules. The Obama administration unveiled the first major national
safety restrictions for fracking on Friday [3/20/2015], touching off a swift backlash from the
president's critics in Congress and the energy industry. Two oil industry groups immediately sued
to challenge the rules, calling them "a reaction to unsubstantiated concerns," while 27 Senate
Republicans introduced legislation to block them from taking effect. Meanwhile, green groups
were divided on whether the long-awaited regulations go far enough.
Shale
Shock: A New, Better Energy World. We are witnessing a modern energy miracle. For more than 30 years, US crude
oil production fell from 9.6 million barrels per day in 1970 to 5 million barrels per day in 2008. Oil production, an annual
200-billion dollar industry, was in long-term decline. Industry experts proclaimed that we had reached "peak oil" and that world oil
output would soon fall. But beginning in 2008, US production soared, again reaching 9.6 million barrels in June of this year,
recovering all of a 30-year decline in just seven short years.
Timely news and commentary:
Let's
get to energy independence with fracking. The shale revolution has transformed
regions like North Dakota and Texas into economic powerhouses. The industry has directly
created over 2.5 million jobs as of 2021, with each job in the fracking sector generating 2.8
indirect jobs in the community. These aren't just jobs; they're high-paying careers, with the
average salary significantly above the national average, providing robust income streams for
families and substantial tax revenues for local governments. This economic infusion supports
schools, infrastructure, and public services, creating a ripple effect of prosperity. Energy
security is also synonymous with national security. By reducing our dependency on oil from
politically unstable regions, fracking fortifies America's geopolitical stance. The U.S.
transition from being one of the world's largest oil importers to a net exporter has not only
bolstered our national defense capabilities, it has shifted global energy dynamics, giving the U.S.
a stronger hand in international negotiations and alliances. This independence from foreign
oil reduces the leverage of nations like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela over U.S. policy.
Kamala
Harris Is Now Saying She'll Stifle Fracking. Kamala was against fracking before she
said she wouldn't ban it. In 2019, she unequivocally said she would ban it. Recently,
she said she wouldn't ban it. However, her campaign is now backing down, and she will stifle
fracking. This shows how easily she will return to her Marxist ways should she become
president. She never planned to let fracking move ahead.
Fracking
and the Election: It's Not About Pennsylvania. Vice President Kamala Harris's
changing statements on fracking have become an important issue in the current U.S. presidential
election campaign. Only five years ago, Harris pledged to ban fracking, a drilling technique
that has helped make the U.S. the world's top producer of oil and natural gas. Today, the
Democratic nominee says she supports fracking, with many political analysts attributing the shift
to the political importance of winning Pennsylvania's electoral votes. Pennsylvania is a
major center of U.S. natural production through fracking. However, the issue goes well beyond
Pennsylvania; it also has vast implications for the U.S. economy and energy security of the U.S.
and its allies. Moreover, fracking can also be restricted indirectly, without a formal
ban. Indeed, the Biden-Harris administration has limited fracking by indirect means, such as
special taxes on natural gas production and halting new exports of liquified natural gas (LNG).
Thus, the question to Vice-President Harris should not be, will you halt fracking, but will you
continue the Biden-Harris administration policies that curb natural gas production and have made
production more expensive.
Talking
points on Kamala Harris's fracking reversal. Myth: Kamala Harris used to be for
banning fracking, but now she supports fracking. Truth: Kamala Harris is still for
banning fracking — because she is still for the net-zero agenda that requires banning
fracking along with all other fossil fuel activities. [...] To know what to make of Harris's
reversal on a fracking ban, we need to first recognize that banning fracking would have been one of
the most harmful policies in US history. It would have destroyed 60% of our oil production
and 75% of our natural gas production. Fracking is very likely the single most beneficial
technological development of the last 25 years. By extracting cheap, abundant oil and
natural gas from once useless rock, it has made energy far cheaper than it would otherwise be.
Debunking
Kamala's Biggest Lies That the ABC News Moderators Let Slide. Flip-Flopping on
Fracking: "I made it that very clear in 2020: I will not ban fracking." FACT-CHECK:
False. Although she says in 2024 she supports fracking, that wasn't always the case and
Harris didn't make that clear in 2020 either. While running in the Democratic presidential
primary, she said, "There's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking," when asked if she'd commit to
implementing a federal ban on fracking on her first day in office. [Tweet with video clip]
Kamala
Harris Lies About Climate Radicalism, Denying Her Past Support For A Fracking Ban.
Vice President Kamala Harris lied about her radicalism on energy in Tuesday night's debate with
former President Donald Trump. When the moderators with ABC asked Harris the rare skeptical
question about her policy reversals, Harris said she "made that very clear in 2020: I will not ban
fracking." [Advertisement] "I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United
States, and in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the 'Inflation Reduction' Act, which opened new
leases for fracking," she said. [Tweet]
Let's
be honest: shale fracking has saved the West. Imagine what the world would look like
today if US fracking technology and America's wildcat drillers had not delivered the shale
revolution. The liberal democracies would have their backs to the wall. All those books
about the death of the West would be all too credible, including the latest best-seller in France,
La Défaite de l'Occident by Emmanuel Todd, a modern outing of Oswald Spengler's dark classic
in the 1920s. This Gallic Anglo-bashing and Kremlin apologia manages to skip over the
elemental geopolitical fact that America has gone from energy-import basket case in 2008 to become
the world's largest producer of crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas, by a wide
margin. The US has been adding a new North Sea every three years. Feedstock from cheap
domestic gas has driven a secular revival of the US chemical industry, which you can see in the
petrochemical corridor stretching across the Gulf Coast from Galveston to New Orleans.
Kamala and fracking.
Back during her first run for the presidency in 2020 — an effort that went so poorly her
campaign didn't even make it to the calendar year 2020, then-senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) said in a
CNN Climate Crisis Town Hall that she was in favor of banning the practice of hydraulic fracturing,
commonly known as "fracking." There was, to quote her, "no question" she was "in favor of banning
fracking." Fast forward almost five years and in her second run for the White House, now-vice
president Kamala Harris has said, at least via her campaign representatives, that she is no longer
in favor of banning the practice. Why has this happened? What changed? How has
Harris done a complete 180 on this issue? And how can we trust that what she is now saying is
true, or if it's just lip service she's paying to get her through November 5 without losing
the 19 critical electoral college votes of the swing state and fracking powerhouse that is the
commonwealth of Pennsylvania?
The
USA is now producing more oil and gas than any nation ever has. The US Energy
Information Administration (EIA) said in January that US domestic production of crude oil for
September 2023 set a new all-time high of 13,247,000 barrels per day. That fact probably
deserved more notice than it received given that it was the most oil any nation on earth had ever
managed to produce in a single month. Even more remarkable is the fact that US producers
managed to break the record in November, and then exceed the September number again in December,
the most current month for which full data is available. It is likely November's all-time
record of 13,319,000 barrels per day (bpd) has been exceeded at least once again during the first
quarter of 2024, as producers find ways to wring more production out of each wellbore.
Biden's
Gas Pains for America. Afew days ago the U.S. domestic price of natural gas (known as
the Henry Hub spot price) fell to a 25-year low of $1.68 per million BTU (MMBtu). It was only
20 years ago that domestic natural gas was routinely over $6/MMBtu year-after year, with
prices sometimes reaching over $14. Back in the mid-2000s the long-term government forecasts
concluded that the U.S. was going to become dependent for as much as 20 percent of its natural
gas needs by the year 2020, and thus the U.S. needed to start building liquid natural gas (LNG)
import terminals so we could expand our imports — from guess who? Qatar was
offering long-term supply of natural gas for $2 or less, and several American petrochemical
companies dependent on gas for their product line planned major expansions in Qatar to take
advantage of the abundant low-cost supply. But then as funny thing happened: the directional
drilling and fracking revolution occurred, which revolutionized domestic gas (and oil) production,
and drove prices down consistently below $3 by 2015. The fracking revolution was a long time in
development, but no one in Washington knew about it, or they would surely have done something to
stop it cold. By the time the political class discovered what was happening in our domestic
gas fields, it was too late prevent the gas revolution from becoming a fait accompli.
Five
years later, evidence of fracking's safety is stronger than ever. Five years ago, The
Heartland Institute set out to correct some misperceptions about the hydraulic fracturing process
(commonly known as "fracking") that had gained traction in the opinions of a not-insignificant
number of people across the country: It pollutes water! And the air! And causes
cancer! And birth defects! And asthma! And earthquakes! All at once!
Of course, none of these things, as we'll show in a bit, are true, but the unscientific stories
with their sensationalist headlines written and promoted by anti-fracking activists have done much
damage. According to polling, a strong plurality of people in 2023 still oppose this method
of extracting oil and natural gas. In a small (but hopefully significant) effort to combat
these misperceptions, we have decided to update our 2018 paper with the studies and data that have
been published in the past five years subsequent to the original paper's release. Safe to
say, the evidence is still on our side.
Why
Has Biden Declared War on Natural Gas? Natural gas is the world's wonder fuel: cheap,
abundant, made in America, reliable AND clean burning. So why are the Biden administration
and environmental groups against it? There's really no good answer. [...] No country
produces more natural gas than America. Latest reserve forecasts predict we have nearly 100
years of natural gas with existing drilling technologies, and hundreds of years of potential
supply. We're not running out. We are the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. The two
innovations that spurred the natural gas shale revolution of the last 15 years were horizontal
drilling and hydraulic fracturing. These drilling technologies tripled our supply and output
almost overnight.
How
Long Before Environmentalists Start Attacking EVs? We've seen this bait-and-switch
tactic before. Back in 2007, energy producers pumped money into environmental groups to
promote natural gas. The Sierra Club used the funds to mount a "Beyond Coal" campaign touting
the benefits of gas. Joe Romm, a climate advocate at the Center for American Progress,
declared that natural gas "may be the single biggest game changer for climate action in the next
two decades." Then came the fracking revolution, and the resulting abundance of natural gas
caused power plants across the country to switch to gas from coal. Then environmentalists
decided natural gas wasn't so good after all. By 2015, they were at war with it.
Environmentalists tried to stop fracking, opposed new pipeline development, and then started
pushing for bans on gas-fueled appliances. More than 70 cities in California alone have voted
to ban natural gas hookups in new homes. New York became the first to impose a statewide ban.
Holding the
right people responsible for the global energy crisis. The cause of Europe's energy
insecurity, which has rendered it impotent against Putin, is simple: When you restrict domestic
fossil fuel production on the false promise of replacement by unreliable solar and wind, you become
dangerously dependent on foreign production. Europe's vulnerability to Russia was completely
preventable. Europe and its allies have all the natural gas, coal, and uranium they need to
produce low-cost, reliable heat and electricity for generations to come. But anti-fossil
fuel, anti-nuclear policies have neutered Europe. For the last 2 decades Europe has destroyed
its ability to produce and import energy from fossil fuels and nuclear — on the promise
that unreliable solar and wind could replace them. But after trillions in subsidies, it's
clear that they have failed. One major cause of Europe's current energy impotence is its
numerous bans on the greatest natural gas producing technology ever invented: fracking.
Fracking has been banned by France, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and the UK.
MPs
kill UK fracking prospects in huge gift to Putin. While a majority of MPs last night voted against
Labour's motion to introduce a ban on fracking, it is now clear that no company will risk investing in the development
of UK shale gas projects given that the next government is almost certain to pull the plug. By killing the chances
of exploiting Britain's massive shale gas resources, anti-fracking MPs have caused significant economic damage while
ensuring that the UK's energy cost and supply crisis will get worse in coming years. In the absence of Russian gas
supplies, European countries will face an even worse energy crisis next winter after they have depleted gas they have
stored for this winter, the International Energy Agency has warned. While anti-fracking MPs don't seem to realise the
severity and existential threat of the energy crisis to households and businesses they have simply deferred the inevitable.
Germany
is committing national suicide. The German government decided last week to temporarily halt the
phasing-out of two nuclear power plants. This is an attempt to secure Germany's energy supplies after Russia
effectively turned off its gas exports to Germany. But there is much more the German government could do if it was
serious about shoring up its energy security. It could, for example, overturn its 2017 ban on fracking. As a
2016 government report shows, Germany sits on shale-gas deposits of more than two trillion cubic metres —
20 times its annual gas consumption. Fracking could realistically cover 10 percent of Germany's gas needs per
year. Even more encouragingly, the report shows that fracking in Germany could be done without harming public
health or the environment. Fracking could therefore help to provide a long-term solution to the deepening energy
crisis. Germany is staring into the abyss thanks to the energy crisis. German heavy industry may even have
to cut back on production in order to cope with soaring energy costs. Steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal has already
announced it is to shut down blast furnaces in some of its plants.
U.K
Energy Reaches Crisis Point, Britain Announces New Oil and Gas Leases and Lifts Moratorium on Fracking.
There is a particular historical irony in the timing. On the same day King Charles III ascends the throne,
previously Europe's most isolated from consequence — yet loudest voice in chasing the catastrophic climate
change energy policies, the British government is forced to reverse course on years of energy regulations and
restrictions. Britain's new Prime Minister Liz Truss announced, "a new round of oil and gas licensing will come
next week with more than 100 licenses issued. A moratorium on fracking will be lifted and planning permission can
be sought where there is local support," in an urgent emergency effort to lower energy costs for British citizens.
UK
PM Liz Truss vows to 'deal hands on' with energy crisis, and will scrap fracking ban. Newly installed U.K.
Prime Minister Liz Truss told Parliament on Wednesday that she would tackle Britain's "very serious" energy crisis while
still slashing taxes, ruling out imposing a windfall levy on oil companies to pay for her plans to offset the soaring
cost of heating and electricity. Truss rebuffed opposition calls for a new windfall tax, even as she refrained
from explaining how she would fund a plan meant to help the public pay energy bills skyrocketing because of Russia's
invasion of Ukraine and the economic aftershocks of COVID-19 and Brexit.
Hayneville
Shale: Record Natural Gas Production. The Haynesville Shale (technically Haynesville/Bossier) in
northeast Texas and northwest Louisiana is the third largest natural gas play, in terms of production rate and proved
reserves, in these United States. Haynesville gas production set a record high in 2021 and will likely break that
record this month. [...] Haynesville pipeline takeaway expansion has not faced the same sort of political opposition as has
plagued the Marcellus Shale. Texas has a very favorable regulatory environment, so favorable that only 33% of Texas
Democrats support a ban on frac'ing.
Stop
Letting Environmental Groups Funded By Russia Dictate America's Energy Policy. President Biden began his
presidency by unleashing a war on American oil and gas to satisfy the environmental left. Many people don't know that
for years, Russia has funded the anti-fracking propaganda that many environmental groups have picked up. In 2017,
congressional investigators found that a money trail linked Russia to millions of dollars funding U.S. nonprofits to work
against U.S. shale gas in order to influence the U.S. energy market. Specifically, investigators found that NRDC,
Sierra Club, and Climate Action Network were all found to have received millions of dollars of funding in grants from a shady
San Francisco-based company called "Sea Change" that a money trail linked back to the Russians. Indeed, it is an open
secret that Russians have funded anti-fracking and anti-natural gas propaganda in America for decades, as environmental
groups funded the campaigns of Democrats and pressured them to ban fossil fuels.
COVID-19
and the Profitability of U.S. Oil. Donald Trump had to be the most fossil-fuel friendly U.S. president of
recent times. When he became president, Trump quickly reversed Obama's energy policies; the Keystone Pipeline was
approved, imports from the Middle East were cut, and the price at the pump came down. It was claimed that America had
become "energy independent" and was again a "net exporter" of oil. In 2018, the U.S. oil business even surpassed the
record petroleum production peak set in 1970. Inasmuch as American petroleum production had been sliding downward since
1970, how did this come about? It came about because of "unconventional oil," e.g. shale oil. But even before the
COVID-19 pandemic and the installation of a new president hostile to fossil fuel, shale oil had hit a snag: financiers
were losing patience with shale's profit performance.
Is
nuclear energy green? France and Germany lead opposing camps. When President Emmanuel Macron announced
the revival of nuclear energy in an address to the nation last month, residents of a small town in eastern France initially
thought they had misheard him. "For the first time in decades," Macron said in the televised speech, France "will
relaunch the construction of nuclear reactors." Fessenheim had just begun to come to terms with the closure of its
nuclear plant last year, in what the government had said was a "first step" in a "rebalancing" of energy sources. But
while Macron remains committed to increasing investments in wind and solar energy, and to putting an end to the burning of
coal, his remarks in November confirmed that France isn't giving up on nuclear technology, its primary source of energy.
France is behind only the United States in the number of its operational nuclear reactors, and it is first in the world in its
reliance on nuclear energy.
Fracking
could have saved us from this energy crisis. Rising prices and dwindling supplies of natural gas have sparked
fears of an energy crisis. Energy bills are shooting upwards. The government is even having to step in to support
the production of fertiliser — and its vital byproduct, carbon dioxide — which relies on affordable gas
supplies. If only the UK had a bountiful supply of natural gas of its own. Well, it does — but thanks
to eco-warriors and spineless ministers, we're not exploiting it. For decades, thanks to the rich gas fields of the
North Sea, the UK was self-sufficient in natural gas. But supplies have been in decline for years, down from
107.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2003 to just 39.6 bcm in 2019. Now just 48 percent of UK gas comes
from the UK continental shelf, according to the government. In 2018, 72 percent of our imports came through
pipelines from Norway. Gas prices in the UK are also influenced by happenings in the wider world market, particularly
the market for liquefied natural gas from Qatar and Russia. Offshore gas supplies may have declined. But we could
increase domestic gas production markedly if we would only take advantage of our vast, onshore shale-gas deposits.
Green
energy: A bubble in unrealistic expectations? Most Americans don't seem to realize it but the US has
provided 90% of the planet's petroleum output growth over the past decade. In other words, without America's
extraordinary shale oil production boom — which raised total oil output from around 5 million barrels per day in
2008 to 13 million barrels per day in 2019 — the world long ago would have had an acute shortage. (Excluding
the Covid-wracked year of 2020, oil demand grows every year — strictly as a function of the developing world,
including China, by the way.) Unquestionably, US oil companies could substantially increase output, particularly in the
Permian Basin, arguably (but not much) the most prolific oil-producing region in the world. However, with the Fed being
pressured by Congress to punish banks that lend to any fossil fuel operator, and the overall extreme hostility toward
domestic energy producers, why would they?
Pennsylvania
Town Saved By Fracking Fears Biden Will Kill Its Prosperity. [Scroll down] For decades, geologists knew
Devonian black shale existed in this region, but few thought it would be a major source of natural gas, mainly because the
supply was thought to be too low. That all changed in 2003 when energy company Range Resources experimented with
horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing — a new technique commonly called "fracking" — which
flushes large volumes of high-pressure water, sand and chemicals into the ground, forcing trapped gas to escape into a
well. In 2004, the first commercially viable well was drilled, attracting multiple oil and gas producers and suppliers
to the region.
Death
of shale 'exaggerated': US oil patch springs to life. U.S. shale oil production is ramping back up, with crude
prices returning to pre-pandemic levels following recovery of demand, making drilling profitable again for the majority of
companies. The increased activity that surged in March follows a temporary slowdown in February due to freezing weather
and comes after drillers shut in a record amount of production in 2020 because travel shutdowns during the pandemic sapped
consumption of oil-based fuels. The strong rebound shows that some oil producers are refusing to resist the temptation
to drill from higher prices, despite the pandemic worsening financial problems that companies faced from taking on debt to
pay for growth during the shale fracking boom of the 2010s, without providing sufficient returns.
A
key to America's growth lies beneath Pennsylvania's soil. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic,
there's no magic elixir to address the myriad of economic, security, and environmental challenges out there. However,
one commonsense solution to advance America's interest in all three lies beneath Pennsylvania's soil. For about a
decade, the United States has been the world's largest natural gas producer, surpassing Russia in 2011. In fact,
Pennsylvania, which supplies one-fifth of America's natural gas needs, is in contention with Texas for MVP. Of course,
low prices have challenged energy companies and towns whose economies are centered on energy production.
Natural
Gas About to Get Even Cleaner; What Will Fractivists Do? Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have
developed a cutting edge catalyst made up of 10 different elements — each of which on its own has the ability to
reduce the combustion temperature of methane — plus oxygen. This unique catalyst brings the combustion
temperature of methane down by about half, from above 1400 degrees Kelvin down to 600 to 700 degrees Kelvin. What it
means is that natural gas can burn cleaner and emit far less carbon dioxide. Once again science shows that fossil fuels
like natural gas can be and are clean and just fine for the precious environment.
The Editor says...
Environmentalists don't care if the combustion of natural gas emits less carbon dioxide. They still object to the use of natural gas
if it produces any carbon dioxide. The environmentalists' goals can never be achieved in the real world.
So
How's Biden's First Week Going? A Side-By-Side Look At What He Promised Versus What He's Doing. It's been
less than a week since Joe Biden's inauguration. In that time, how has Biden's campaign rhetoric matched his actions in
office? [...] During the campaign, Biden said he would not ban fracking. Understanding this requires some set-up.
Any federal fracking ban would impact activities on federal lands, which are a minority of the overall land from which oil
and natural gas are pumped. Natural gas tends to be a by-product of oil production, and both tend to require fracking
in order to extract profitable quantities of each. The American Petroleum Institute says about 95% of U.S. production
involves fracking. The private vs. federal land issue is an important distinction. Some will use it to argue that
Biden has not "banned fracking" despite taking actions that effectively do in fact ban fracking where a president has the
power to do so. A president does not have the power to ban all fracking all over the country on private or state-owned
land, not without congressional action. But a president does have the power to ban fracking on federal lands, by
issuing orders against the permitting and leasing activities that enable fracking, and in some states such as New Mexico and
the western states, that's quite a bit of very productive land.
The Biden Family
Green New Deal. Some 90% of all US wells are now hydraulically fractured. Fracked wells in shale
formations open up vast supplies of oil, natural gas and petroleum liquids that previously were locked up and
inaccessible. Fracking conventional wells expands and prolongs production, leaving less energy in the ground. Joe
Biden, Kamala Harris, AOC, the Democrat Party and US environmentalists are determined to make climate change, the Green New
Deal, and replacing fossil fuels with wind, solar, battery and biofuel power the centerpiece of their foreign and domestic
policies. They would ban fracking outright — or price and restrict it out of existence through a slow,
painful death of a thousand regulatory cuts. That would cost up to 19 million jobs and billions of dollars in annual
royalty and tax revenues, send energy prices soaring, and end America's newfound status as the world's foremost oil and gas
producer.
Biden:
OK to Frack for Natural Gas — Not OK to Burn It. The "fracking" revolution has unleashed an
incredible American energy boom over the past decade. America is now the biggest producer of oil and gas in the world,
beating Saudi Arabia and Russia. Fracking has contributed to an economic revival in areas of the country once in
freefall. Pennsylvania is now second only to Texas in natural gas production, and Ohio is now fifth. This has
reduced air pollution by displacing coal. Joe Biden wants a counter-revolution, but he does not want you to know about it.
Just
a reminder, Biden really did say he'd ban fracking. Oh, and "get rid of fossil fuels.". Don't worry
fellow Scrantonites, just put down that wrench and pick up a keyboard! You'll find that coding and fracking aren't all
that different. You'll still work with your hands, only instead of being outside in the sunshine using heavy machinery
and wishing for more hours, you'll be inside in a dimly lit cubicle using a computer and wishing for the sweet embrace of
death. Here's a supercut of Biden being very moderate regarding energy and climate change that you might want to keep
handy as well. [Video clip]
Trump
Delivers on His Promise, Posts Video of Biden Criticizing Fracking: 'Here You Go,' Joe. President Donald Trump
delivered on his promise to post a video of Joe Biden expressing his negative views on fracking, highlighting the montage
shortly after the second and final presidential debate concluded on Thursday night [10/22/2020]. "Here you go
@JoeBiden!" Trump tweeted alongside a video featuring both Biden and his running mate criticizing fracking and expressing
their hopes to eliminate fossil fuel. The tweet is also featured on Trump's campaign website.
Joe
Biden Can't Remember Vowing to Ban Fracking. We've Got the Video. President Trump called out Joe Biden
for his support of banning fracking during Thursday night's debate, noting that during the primaries Joe repeatedly said he
wanted to ban fracking. The president pointed out that after he won the nomination, Biden went to Pennsylvania, a
battleground state that relies on fracking and natural gas for its economy, and changed his position. Joe Biden, true
to form, denied it. [...] Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris, similarly denied Joe Biden wants to ban fracking when she
debated Vice President Pence. "Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact," she claimed. Well, here's
the video showing that they're both liars: [Video clip]
Keywords: Backpedaling, flip-flop, 180. Biden
pressed over debate comment that he would 'transition from the oil industry'. After the final debate on
Thursday night, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was pressed by reporters on his comments about fossil fuels,
following his remarks that he plans to "transition from the oil industry." "Eventually we're going to have to [get rid
of] oil, but we're not getting rid of fossil fuels. We're getting rid of the subsidies for fossil fuels, but we're not
getting rid of fossil fuels for a long time," Biden said in response to a CNN reporter. "It will not be gone for ...
probably 2050." The post-debate exchange came as Biden briefly spoke with the press as he walked to his plane.
Biden has been consistent through the campaign on his plans to set the United States on a path to zero-emissions by 2050
while not banning fracking in the immediate future.
The Editor says...
What's that? "Biden briefly spoke with the press as he walked to his plane." What does the airplane use for fuel?
Fact check:
Biden falsely claims he never opposed fracking. Facts First: It's false that Biden never said he opposed
fracking. In two Democratic primary debates, Biden made confusing remarks over fracking that his campaign had to
clarify. In 2019, Biden said "we would make sure it's eliminated" when asked about the future of coal and fracking; in
2020 he said he opposed "new fracking." Biden's written plan, conversely, never included a full ban on fracking or even on
new fracking. Rather, it proposes "banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters" — not
ending all new fracking anywhere or ending all existing fracking on public lands and waters.
PA
Rally: Donald Trump Plays Highlight Reel of Joe Biden Criticizing Fracking. President Donald Trump
debuted a new feature at his campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania on Tuesday [10/20/2020]. "Take a look at this
clip. We had it made up, and I think you'll like it. First time I've ever done it," Trump said.The president
played a highlight video of Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, criticizing fossil fuels and talking about ending
fracking during the Democrat primary.
15
Crazy Things Joe Biden Said at the ABC Town Hall. Aside from many factually-challenged statements, Biden said a
number of truly outlandish things. [...] [For example,] Hire workers in fracking industry to cap wells "and get a good salary
doing it." Biden: "[T]here are well over 100,000 wells that are left uncapped in the region. We could hire 128,000 of
these people who are working in the industry to cap these wells and get a good salary doing it now. (Less than one well
each. What do they do when they're done?)
Pennsylvania
Voters [are] Not Thrilled With Biden/Harris Lies, Fracking Flip-Flop. Throughout the presidential campaign,
culminating in Wednesday's vice presidential debate, both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have consistently flip-flopped and have
been caught lying about their positions on fracking. But Pennsylvania, which is one of the toughest battleground states
this election cycle, is a state where energy issues are very important, which obviously includes the issues of fracking and
natural gas. An anti-fracking stance cannot possible play well there, and that does not bode well for the Biden-Harris
ticket, with both having said in the past that they would ban the practice.
The Biden-Harris
Fracking Plan, Explained. Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris twice claimed Wednesday
[10/7/2020]that Joe Biden would not ban fracking if he took office, but both Harris and Biden repeatedly said they would
support a ban or phase it out during the Democratic primary. Harris said there was "no question" she favored banning
fracking during her failed presidential run. Biden now says he is only for preventing new fracking leases on federal
lands, but he said at a primary debate there would be no room for it in his administration, said at another debate there
would be "no new fracking," told a climate activist he would "love to" get rid of it though it would take time, and also said
he would "phase out" the practice and get rid of fossil fuels.
Joe
Biden in July 2019: I'll 'Make Sure' Fracking Is 'Eliminated,' Now, 'I Will Not Ban Fracking'. The question as
to whether a President Joe Biden would or would not ban fracking has two answers: He would "make sure" that hydraulic
fracturing or "fracking" to produce oil and natural gas is "eliminated" while saying he would not ban the technique. [...] In
an interview last weekend with a local show, This Week in Pennsylvania, Biden said he never has vowed to end fracking.
[...] But Biden's campaign website reveals what oil and gas advocates are warning would happen if the former vice president
becomes president.
A
vote for Joe Biden is still a vote for radicalism, not normalcy. After last month's strange virtual party
conventions, the question on everyone's minds is, who came out ahead? The polling has been mixed, but the candidates'
reactions make it obvious. You can tell just by looking at what Joe Biden has been doing in the time since.
First, he has loudly distanced himself from his earlier, repeated promises to end fracking, which he made both in debates and
in conversations with Democratic primary voters. This evinces a fear that his anti-fracking stance — and
note that opposition to "new fracking" necessarily entails opposition to all fracking — will cost him Pennsylvania
and other states enjoying the benefits of the energy revolution.
Harris
Flip-Flops: Never Mind My "False Choice" Claim Last Year, Let's Not Ban Fracking After All. Alternate
headline: Candidate checks electoral map, discovers why Pennsylvania's called the Keystone State. At least Kamala
Harris didn't try to pretend that this was her position all along, as Joe Biden has for the last few weeks, but that doesn't make
this flip-flop much less crass. CNN's Dana Bash sets this up as comfortably as possible for Harris, who now calls a fracking
ban a "false choice" — even though Harris demanded one while campaigning last year.
Frack-Checking
Joe Biden. Joe Biden has made it clear that he was for fracking before he was against it. [...] Joe Biden's
emergence from his basement bunker soon went off the rails when in Western Pennsylvania he claimed he never said he would ban
fracking. Where does he think his environmental czar, AOC, stands, and what does he think the policy compact he signed
with socialist Bernie Sanders says? What does he think the Green New Deal is all about? And certainly Kamala
Harris, whom Biden picked to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, is as anti-fracking as they come. [...] As PJ Media's
Matt Margolis notes in a video montage, Biden has repeatedly pledged to ban fracking and end the use of fossil fuels, even if
it costs millions of American jobs. Personnel is policy, the saying goes, and his reliance on Bernie Sanders, AOC, and
Kamala Harris for guidance on energy policy shows exactly where he stands.
Fact
Check: Joe Biden Claims 'I Am Not Banning Fracking'. CLAIM: Joe Biden claimed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: "I am
not banning fracking." VERDICT: MOSTLY FALSE. Biden has promised to ban fracking — repeatedly — as has his
running mate.
Trump attacks Harris on fracking: Can it swing
Pa. and Ohio? Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's vice presidential choice of Sen. Kamala
Harris — who has vowed to take the fossil fuel industry to court over climate change and grounded her own run for the
presidency on environmental justice — put energy squarely at the center of the presidential election yesterday
[8/11/2020]. Harris, one of the first senators to back the sweeping Green New Deal, quickly found her energy record under
assault from President Trump, who criticized the California Democrat from the lectern at the White House. "She is against
fracking; she is against petroleum products," said Trump, who last week warned a crowd in Ohio that the "radical left-wing
movement" wants to "ban fracking, which will demolish your state." [...] Harris told a CNN town hall in September 2019 that
there was "no question" that she favored banning fracking, "starting with what we can do on day one around public lands."
Biden said he wants
to ban fracking. On multiple occasions, Joe Biden has showcased his anti-American energy independence,
anti-fossil fuel, and anti-fracking agenda. Earlier this year, Joe Biden said, "no more, no new fracking" in my
administration.
Will
U.S. Shale Ever Return To Its Boom Days? U.S. shale drillers are bringing back shut in production three months
after the onset of the current downturn. But steep decline rates will increasingly take hold, dragging down overall
U.S. output later this year. With oil prices approaching $40 per barrel, many drillers are covering immediate
operational costs. Rystad Energy estimates that "a bit more than 300,000 bpd" of shut in U.S. oil production has come
back online. A total of 1.15 million barrels per day (mb/d) was shut in in April and May, and that output will "return
swiftly over July and August," JBC Energy wrote in a note.
Biden Lies to Pennsylvania
About His Fracking Ban. Joe Biden is on the record stating there will be "no new fracking" if he is
elected. Biden also said "we are going to get rid of fossil fuels." Biden also said if he gets to the White House he
will make sure there is "no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, Period." But Biden covered up those
statements and lied when questioned by a Pennsylvania news station on Monday [4/20/2020].
Biden's
fracking ban will derail environmental and economic gains. In the midst of an international pandemic, and on a
debate stage eerily surrounded by empty seats, Joe Biden couldn't resist revealing his true feelings about America's energy
future. For the second time during the Democratic debate series, Biden recently told the television audience that if
he's elected president he will move to ban fracking. With an economy staggered by the virus outbreak, most Americans
are looking for ways to strengthen our economy, keep people in good-paying jobs, and bolster national security.
Biden
would make America dependent on foreign oil again. Fifteen years ago, the United States was importing most of
its oil — 12.5 million barrels per day, or nearly twice total domestic oil production at the time. Also 15 years
ago, the U.S. was emitting about 20% more in greenhouse gases than it does today. Most Americans are glad that the U.S. has
reduced emissions so much while simultaneously achieving energy independence — and it's all due to fracking.
Unfortunately, both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders want to turn the clock back to the days of higher emissions and greater dependency
on foreign oil. That is the certain practical result of the policies that both men outlined in their Sunday debate.
Fracking
has reduced carbon emissions. In 2018, Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order on climate change that,
among other things, established a goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in North Carolina by 40% below 2005 levels by the
year 2025. It was a weird pledge. Cooper took office in 2017, not 2005. Nor has the governor been successful
in enacting any substantial change in public policy that could plausibly affect greenhouse-gas emissions to any significant
degree. Still, it is quite possible that North Carolina will meet the target Cooper set. If we do, the main cause
will be the fracking revolution in natural-gas production.
Fake News
Is Fracking Endemic In Environmentalism. Fake news is everywhere today; enabled, magnified and spread by social
media. It's particularly prevalent in environmental talk and the fracking debate.
Trump
Wins on Fracking. The United States, with fracking and without the Paris Climate Accord, is leading the world
in economic growth with wages that are rising fastest among lower incomes, soaring household median incomes, fatter pensions
and 401-K retirement funds thanks to a Dow nearing 30,000, and record unemployment, especially among minorities, record labor
force participation as millennials get off their parent's basement couch and others that couldn't find work under Obama's
environmental and regulatory straitjacket find jobs. Those who have jobs have no fear in looking for better ones, as we
have more jobs than skilled applicants to fill them. The 2020 Democrats would take all this away from us, including the
record-setting emissions reductions. One gigaton is a lot of stuff and a number equivalent to the gigadollars Bernie et
all would spend on climate change and free stuff. Paying for anything without the economic growth and energy independence
led by fracking, which Democrats would ban entirely, is impossible. All that would be left is economic desolation.
Proposals
To Ban Fracking Could Hurt Democrats In Key States. Climate change is a top issue in the Democratic
presidential primaries and some candidates have taken relatively aggressive policy stands, including vows to ban hydraulic
fracturing. But some Democrats worry that could push moderate voters in key swing states to reelect President Trump
next November. Fracking is a controversial drilling technology that, along with horizontal drilling, has created a
major oil and gas boom. President Trump often brags about this on the campaign trail, though the boom started well
before he became president. While the president largely dismisses the effects of climate change, Democrats have made
addressing the issue a key element of their energy and environment platforms.
Sanders,
Bloomberg, and Warren are Fracking Idiots. Vermont's Socialist and presidential wannabe, Sen. Bernie
Sanders, in a bill introduced last week that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) helped craft would ban fracking
nationwide by 2025, a death sentence if passed for the American economy. Like fellow political lemmings Elizabeth
Warren and Michael Bloomberg, Sanders has swallowed the lies the greenies have fed him about fracking, as shown in a
statement he released supporting his legislation shortly before the disastrous Iowa caucuses: [...] Not only is none of this
nonsense true, it is actually the reverse of what is true. The American technology of fracking has helped the United
States lead the world in curtailing carbon dioxide emissions and therefore is a leading contributor to climate stability and
to the quality of the air we breathe. We are in more danger from the carbon dioxide released during one of Bernie's
speeches as he crisscrosses the electoral map in private jets.
Disingenuous use of statistics: Yale
Says Fracking Causes Sexually-Transmitted Infections. Here's the premise: The rates of two sexually
transmitted infections, gonorrhea, and chlamydia, were found to be 10% and 15%, respectively, higher in Texas counties where
fracking took place compared to other counties where fracking wasn't being done. Is there anything to this?
Our
oil expansion keeps us safe from Iranian meddling. Right now, the country with the world's biggest oil
reserves — Venezuela — is putting out a fraction of its traditional production, as a corrupt and inept
socialist government has lost the ability even to keep the golden goose going. Meanwhile, Iraq is in turmoil, Iran is
crazy and Saudi Arabia has been looking shaky. Despite all this, oil and gas prices are holding steady, and while
what's going on in the Middle East constitutes a diplomatic crisis, it's nothing like the sort of earthshaking trouble it
would have been a decade or two ago. Why is that? Because frackers have turned the United States from a nation
deeply dependent on imported oil to a net exporter and the world's single largest producer of oil and gas.
Triggering
A Recession Tops The Dems' Presidential Agendas. The 2020 Democratic presidential field is in near unanimous
agreement that fracking has to be banned or at least regulated to death over time. It plays well to the party's base,
especially its green fringe. It's also an endorsement of recession. Joe Biden, currently atop the Democratic
primary polls, recently said he would "love to" ban fracking "right now," and would also "love to make sure we can't use any
oil or gas, period," reports Common Dreams, a website that caters to leftist and socialist devotees. But the
decelerated Delawarean's plan is to "transition away from" fracking rather than killing it all at once. So put him in
the "slow death" category among Democrat candidates. Meanwhile, in the summary execution category we find
Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and former Indianapolis Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Warren even said
that on the day she is inaugurated, "I will ban fracking — everywhere."
The Fracking Decade.
In 2008, the U.S. produced an average of just 5 million barrels of oil per day — the nadir of domestic energy
production since the exploitation of fossil fuels began in the late 19th century. By 2009, the price of West Texas
Intermediate crude was approaching $150 per barrel. The U.S., therefore, was obliged to spend over $1 billion per day
on oil imports from foreign countries, few of which could be considered models of good governance. [...] At the end of 2018,
the U.S. produced nearly 18 million barrels of petroleum products (crude oil, natural gas, and refinery products) per
day. For the first time in 40 years, the U.S. had outpaced Saudi Arabia's output, and estimates showed that it also
surpassed Russian oil production. By 2022, the United States is forecast to become a net energy exporter for the first
time in nearly 70 years.
10
Things Climate Alarmists Don't Want You to Be Thankful For. [#4] Fracking: Hydraulic Fracturing has
revolutionized American oil production, leading the U.S. to become a net exporter of oil for the first time in decades in
2018. According to some estimates, fracking saved Americans $1.1 trillion over the last decade.
Study
Says Fracking is Saving Families $2,500 Annually, Significantly Lowering Greenhouse Gas Emissions. A report
released in October 2019 by the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) estimates increased oil and natural gas
production from hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") saves American families $203 billion annually on gasoline and
electricity bills. This breaks down to $2,500 in savings per family per year.
Climate Stalinism.
Imagine what will happen if a President Elizabeth Warren bans fracking in places like Texas, North Dakota, Ohio, West
Virginia, and Pennsylvania; in Texas alone, by some estimates, 1 million jobs would be lost. Overall, according to a
Chamber of Commerce report, a full ban would cost 14 million jobs — far more than the 8 million lost in the
Great Recession. And the environment itself would be somewhat of a loser in this game — natural gas has done
more to reduce emissions than all the greens' efforts.
Marcellus
Fracking Means Farewell to Dems in 2020. As President Trump's speech at the Shale Insight Conference in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Wednesday noted, Joe Biden's mythical claim that Trump inherited a booming economy from President
Obama falls flat in the face of the reality that this is Trump's economy, fueled by deregulation, tax cuts, cutting of EPA
shackles, and a booming energy industry allowed to use the latest technology to free a seemingly endless supply of oil and
natural gas from the earth under our feet. The conference was staged by some very appreciative energy groups such as
the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, and the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association.
This energy abundance has put downward pressure on energy costs for consumers and industry and made us energy independent and
immune from Middle East instability, quite possibly preventing a global oil recession or major war with the likes of a
belligerent and aggressive Iran.
Proving a Negative.
Remember a few years ago during the Obama administration when oil/gas pricing was high? The popular line among the
Democrats — obsessed as they were about not offending their Green voting bloc — was, "We can't drill
our way out of this [high oil pricing]." Just like subsequent events in other areas have proven them wrong about so
many things ("The stock market will tank if Trump is elected!"), the Democrats were wrong about this too. Dead
wrong. As fracking and other drilling/extraction technologies (such as horizontal drilling and the capability to
rejuvenate old wells previously thought to be "unproductive") have improved, the oil output of the United States has
increased to its highest level in 50 years. In fact, U.S oil production is more than double what it
was as recently as just ten years ago, before the fracking revolution.
Democrats
Want To Make America Energy Dependent Again. In January 2019, Liberty Nation reported that the US had become a
net energy exporter for the first time in more than 70 years. Despite promise after promise from Republican and
Democratic administrations, the US finally kicked its foreign energy addiction and became self-reliant, as well as a global
energy king. How did this happen? The shale-oil revolution, courtesy of fracking. Over the last 12 months,
natural gas prices have crashed 30%. This might not be a positive trend for futures traders and producers, but households are
seeing their energy bills drop by as much as $300 per year. With natural gas prices anticipated to hover in the $2 per
million British thermal units (btu) range for many years to come, consumers in both the US and abroad can expect lower energy
bills. So, what about the environment? Experts say that the long-term impact is unclear, but for now, fracking
has led to fewer carbon emissions and a decline in air pollution.
Democrats'
Campaign Promise: We'll Destroy America's Energy Sector, And Economy. Eight of the remaining Democratic
presidential candidates say they want to ban fracking. Eleven others would limit the process or "regulate it better,"
says the Washington Post. Could these politicians possibly be that ignorant of how ruinous their prohibition lust would
be in the real world? First, let's get it straight why the political left hates hydraulic fracturing. It's not
because it's an environmental threat. They know it's clean process and has been both an ecological and economic boom,
in no small part due to the increased production of natural gas, a cleaner alternative to coal for producing electricity.
No, the left loathes fracking because it is so efficient in taking fossil fuel out of the ground.
US
Fracking Will Continue Its Forward March. The Abqaiq attack in Saudi Arabia by Iran, or one of its proxies, is
the largest oil and petrochemical disruption in over fifty years. Over 5.7 mb/d was lost, and estimates are that it
will take months or weeks to return to full production. The interruption highlights Saudi Aramco's vulnerabilities and
how energy infrastructure can be shut down via military forces or environmental demonstrations like what recently occurred in
Houston, Texas. The world needs U.S. fracking to continue unabated. No other country has the stability and proven
reserves like the U.S. Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia want higher oil prices to balance their budgets. However, the
U.S. shale revolution that has upended global oil supplies and geopolitics is the deterrent to energy attacks. American
fracking has changed the world, and the U.S.-led liberal order in place for over seventy-five years, for the better.
Fracking
Ban Proposed By 2020 Dems Would Kill Millions of Jobs. A proposed fracking ban put forward by leading
Democratic presidential candidates would have a devastating impact on U.S. jobs, energy independence, and even national
security, according to several studies. Reports from the American Petroleum Institute, Independent Petroleum
Association of America, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce painted a stark picture of the economic fallout from ending fracking, a
process which has transformed the United States into the top oil and natural gas producer in the world.
The
crackers and frackers could hold the keys to 2020. [Scroll down] Trump's magic came in rural and
post-industrial counties such as Luzerne and Erie, but most importantly in the populous counties around Pittsburgh, where
shale is king and fracking is seen as the second coming of the steel industry. They may look like ordinary construction
cranes to someone unfamiliar with the history of this region. But if you're from here, they look like something
different. Building the ethane cracker plant, each of these cranes looks like a new colossus rising from the ashes of
yesterday's despair. Building the plant has brought in 6,000 good-paying jobs, with more to come. Ultimately,
there will be 600 permanent jobs at the plant, with industry analysts predicting triple that amount in supporting
industries. Jobs postings are everywhere touting opportunities, no matter the skill level — high school
education, trade school certificate, chemists, engineers, IT, labor. If you reliably turn up for work, there is likely
a career for you in the oil and gas industry.
Fracking
saves low-income Americans' lives. Fracking helped save the lives of roughly 11,000 Americans each winter from
2005 to 2010, according to a recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper. How? By driving down energy
prices and helping them affordably heat their homes. Demographers have long observed that low-income people die at
higher rates during the winter months. This "excess winter mortality" has a simple, heartbreaking cause —
people keep their dwellings uncomfortably cold to reduce their heating bills. Constant exposure to chilly temperatures
makes it more likely that people will contract and succumb to respiratory and heart disease.
Frack
Ban Has Zero to Do with Water Quality. The Delaware River Basin Commission is now totally corrupted. A majority
of members, including Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Wolf and two others, have decided to throw any pretense of fracking ban legality
to the wind to pander to the Delaware Povertykeeper and friends. The DRBC is, of coiurse, considering a fracking ban under
Article 5 of its compact as Plan B in the event they lose the lawsuit brought by the Wayne Land and Mineral Group.
They know the law is against them on the WLMG case. Their argument for the Plan B frack ban is even weaker. The
agency just showed us, though, they don't really care whether they win or lose.
The End
of the Oil Age Keeps Getting Postponed. Oil production in the Permian Basin dates back to the 1920s although
production data from the Texas Railroad Commission only goes back to 1940 when production reached 84 million barrels
annually. The Permian Basin is one of the oldest as well as one of the largest and thickest deposits of sedimentary
rocks in the country, covering the western part of Texas and eastern portion of New Mexico. Annual production grew to
about 550 million barrels in 1957 and then began a decline that took about a decade to get back to the 1957 level. It
continued to increase and didn't peak until about 1975 when it hit 750 million barrels. The 70s were a time of price
and wage controls and a belief that domestic oil production was on the verge of exhaustion. By 1998, oil production had
fallen to less than 400 million barrels annually. Today, as a result of horizontal drilling and "fracking", production
has reached almost 4 million barrels a day meaning that it exceeds its 1975 production peak in a little more than
6 months. Not only has technology unlocked a tremendous amount of output, it has also helped to lower the break-even
cost per barrel from $60 to $33.
The
trillions of dollars wasted on global warming hysteria, properly deployed, could have improved and saved many lives. Energy
costs are much higher in Britain, due to radical green opposition to the fracking of gassy shales. The anti-oil-pipeline campaign
has cost ~$120 billion dollars in lost oil revenues and destroyed ~200,000 jobs in Alberta and across Canada. This is an
enormous financial and job loss for Canada. The funds wasted on baseless global warming hysteria, anti-fossil-fuel fanaticism
and destructive green energy schemes, properly deployed, could have saved or improved the lives of many millions of people.
"Green"
Energy Policies Hurt the Environment, Another Case Study. Britain has a fracking industry — or could
have one, anyway, if it weren't for the Greens' political clout. It finally became too much for Natascha Engel,
Britain's "fracking czar," who quit with a blistering letter of resignation: [...] The United States is the only country to
reduce significantly its CO2 emissions; we did it by substituting natural gas for coal in power generation. But
Britain's Greens won't let that country develop its considerable natural gas reserves.
In This Oil Boom Town, Even a Barber Can Make $180,000.
Driven by shale drilling, a gusher of crude production has transformed the Permian Basin into America's hottest oilfield,
turning what was a remote stretch of towns spread among mesquite trees and scrubland into an industrial zone, seemingly
overnight. A home under construction on the outskirts of Odessa, Texas. Oil and gas workers earning top dollar
have scooped up much of the available housing in the area. Fortunes are being made in this fracking-related gold rush,
and money and workers are flooding in.
New
York State and Renewables. Exploiting shale hydrocarbons involves drilling and fracking. Naturally, there
is some disruption, but the disruption is minor compared to the value of the wealth unleashed. The crackpot greens
magnify and exaggerate every potential problem. They even mislead, as in the movie Gasland, where a man lights his
water faucet on fire. The implication was that fracking caused natural gas to mix with the water supply. But the
area chosen already had natural gas in the water long before fracking was involved. [...] The geopolitical benefits of
fracking are huge. In ten years, the United States' energy balance of trade went from a large deficit to nearly even as
U.S. oil and natural gas production increased dramatically. World energy prices have declined in the face of increasing
U.S. energy production. Our dependence on imports from far-flung oil-producing countries has declined
dramatically. The refining and petrochemical industry, centered in Texas, is booming.
Fracking
Miracle: The Latest American Exceptionalism. Last week, the U.S. achieved the status of net oil and
refined fuel exporter for the first time since 1973. For the week ending November 30, the U.S. exported 9 million
barrels of oil, gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum fuels, versus an aggregate 8.8 million barrels imported.
To provide context and illustrate the magnitude of that achievement, recall that oil imports reached a record of 13 million
barrels per day in 2005, when nobody saw the fracking revolution just around the corner. In fact, the U.S. now stands not
just as a net oil exporter, but also as the world's top producer of oil and natural gas.
Fracking
Revolution Helped Texas Residents and Businesses Save $60 Billion Over [a] Decade. The massive increase in
domestic shale development, led by hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), has caused natural gas prices to plummet in Texas,
according to a recent report from the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA). Consequently, Lone Star State residents and businesses
saved almost $60 billion from 2006 to 2016. The fracking revolution in Texas has led to $7.2 billion in savings over
that period for residential consumers. This is significant because more than four million Texans live in poverty, and
the average Texas resident at or below the poverty line spends around a third of his or her take home pay on energy costs.
Additionally, commercial and industrial consumers saved $52 billion.
Colorado's
Dem Gov Searches For Ways To Nix A Potential Fracking Ban. Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is
considering a special legislative session to limit what he considers the dire effects of a possible hydraulic fracking ban in
a state heavily reliant on energy production. Coloradans are preparing to vote on Nov. 6 on an initiative
prohibiting oil and gas drilling within 2,500 feet — nearly a half-mile — from buildings, which is
up from a current limit of 500 feet. Experts worry a yes vote could result in the destruction of the state's
fracking industry. Fracking is a major part of the Colorado economy, Hickenlooper told reporters Friday [11/2/2018].
Any measures designed to effectively end natural gas extraction will obliterate the state's economy, he said.
5 States
Could Wreck Their Economies In Futile Fight Against 'Climate Change'. Over in Colorado, voters will have the
chance to severely limit the ability of oil and gas companies to extract energy in the state using the state-of-the-art
drilling technology known as fracking. Initiative 97 would ban oil and gas wells within 2,500 feet of homes, businesses
and protected lands. That would effectively ban drilling in about 85% of the state. This is a particularly
ludicrous effort since fracking is responsible for a significant decrease in CO2 emissions over the past decade. The
fracking revolution opened vast supplies of natural gas to drillers, which sharply lowered natural gas prices. That, in
turn, made natural gas (which emits less CO2) more competitive than coal (which emits more). As utilities switched, CO2
emissions dropped. Banning or limiting fracking will make such gains more difficult.
Fracking
ban cripples New York as Pennsylvania thrives. New York's Southern Tier and Pennsylvania's Northern Tier were
once so similar that they were dubbed the "Twin Tiers." But over the past decade, these neighboring regions have started to
look more and more like distant cousins. While the Southern Tier's decades-long economic decline has continued, the
Northern Tier is thriving — and the difference between the regions' respective paths couldn't be clearer. In
the Southern Tier — which has been denied the opportunity to develop its potentially vast Marcellus Shale reserves
by a statewide ban on fracking formally implemented by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2015 — the landscape is dotted
with abandoned factories, farms in disrepair, and empty storefronts. Just across the border, where shale development
has been allowed, fracking has made Pennsylvania the country's second-largest natural gas producer, and farms and businesses
are thriving.
Missing the
red for all the green. Although Germany's entire defense budget is $42 billion, it is as Donald Trump
provocatively observed, only twice as much — approximately $21 billion — as it pays to Russia
in gas purchases. The facts are stark. "About 35% of Germany's gas is imported from Russia, and fracking is
banned at least until 2021. A former Chancellor of Germany sits on the Gazprom board." At a time when Putin
is the international bad guy it's disturbingly hard to deny that much of his bankroll originates in Europe. Merkel is
certainly intellectually aware of the facts. In light of her country's energy dependency on Russia she warned that "all
of Germany's energy policies must be reconsidered." But Merkel is captive to Germany's politics, bound by its "Energiewende
policy involving phasing out nuclear power by 2023 and increasing its reliance on solar and wind power." Although
fracking may provide a a [sic] technical escape from dependence on Russia it is a political impossibility.
Fracking
[is] Not Adversely Affecting Air Quality in Colorado. An air quality assessment released in March 2018 by the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) finds a new oil and natural gas development near Battlement Mesa
in Garfield County is a "low risk" for "long-term harmful health effects due to [volatile organic compound] exposure."
Air Resource Specialists collected air samples between October and December 2017 on behalf of Garfield County Public Health
to measure the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) both upwind and downwind of the Battlement Mesa wellpad.
A
New Low in the Media's War on Fracking. Rolling Stone just dropped a bombshell — or so it
claims in its article, "'The Harms of Fracking': New Report Details Increased Risks of Asthma, Birth Defects and Cancer."
Highlighting what it deems an "authoritative study," Rolling Stone concludes that fracking is "contaminating the air
and water — and imperiling the health of millions of Americans." Dig into the details, though, and it becomes
clear that the study is not scientific. There remains no proof that fracking is dangerous to the general population.
The
Connection Between Russia and 2 Green Groups Fighting Fracking in US. New Yorkers who are missing out on the
natural gas revolution could be victims of Russian spy operations that fund popular environmental groups, current and former
U.S. government officials and experts on Russia worry. Natural gas development of the celebrated Marcellus Shale
deposits has spurred jobs and other economic growth in neighboring Pennsylvania. But not in New York, which nearly 10
years ago banned the process of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, to produce natural gas. Two environmental
advocacy groups that successfully lobbied against fracking in New York each received more than $10 million in grants from
a foundation in California that got financial support from a Bermuda company congressional investigators linked to the
Russians, public documents show.
The
Study You Won't Be Hearing About: No Impact On Groundwater From Fracking. Protests by environmentalists against
hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) have been going on for years now, along with the Hollywood efforts of serial fabulists such as
Josh Fox. One of the biggest concerns surrounding the process is the possibility of contamination of groundwater. While
a previous study in Pennsylvania by the state Department of Environmental Protection revealed zero instances of this happening
(except for surface spills during transport of hydraulic fluids), critics discounted the study and the protests continued.
Now a different study conducted in Ohio on the Utica shale play has been completed and published. They were looking for
evidence of natural gas methane (CH4) in the drinking water near fracking sites which might be traced back to the drilling process.
This
collusion should worry all. In light of current investigations of interference in the U.S. political process,
it turns out that Russia has, in fact, been meddling for years — not only in the electoral system, but also in the
legislative process, and in our internal cultural debates over a wide range of policy issues. According to
congressional investigators, a primary focus of their influence-buying has focused on the environmental movement. The
committees discovered that Russia has covertly funded opposition to U.S. domestic energy production by funding the
environmental opposition. That includes underwriting organizations that work to ban fracking, and even efforts to
push ballot initiatives at the state and local level.
Environmental
group may have to register as foreign agents. U.S. environmental activists who are working to halt the
production and use of fossil fuels could be required to register as foreign agents if Congress gets serious about enforcing
an existing law. There was some potential movement in that direction last October when Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced legislation that would put some teeth into the Foreign Agents Registration
Act. The law, which was first passed in 1938, calls for individuals and organizations to provide full disclosure when
they are working to advance the public policy interests of a foreign government.
The Russian Collusion
Story the Media Ignores. Last week, a congressional committee released a jarring and persuasive report on
Russian meddling in American politics. Despite a media feeding frenzy over anything tangentially connected to questions
of Russian interference, this report went largely unnoticed. The U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee's
"Russia's Social Media Meddling in U.S. Energy Markets" details Russian funding of U.S. environmental groups, which used
resources to protest the process of fracking and the existence of the Keystone pipeline. Russia, the world's largest
oil producer, figures to watch the U.S. surpass it within five years. Killing fracking and the pipeline stand as two
ways for Russia to avert this fate. Rep. Lamar Smith, the chairman of the committee, describes the "mechanics of
Russia's scheme to use nonprofit entities to influence U.S. public policy and public opinion" with regard to oil and gas and
the fracking process.
Russian
trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change, fracking and Dakota pipeline. Russian trolls used
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to inflame U.S. political debate over energy policy and climate change, a finding that
underscores how the Russian campaign of social media manipulation went beyond the 2016 presidential election, congressional
investigators reported Thursday [3/1/2018]. The new report from the House Science, Space and Technology Committee includes
previously unreleased social media posts that Russians created on such contentious political issues as the Dakota Access pipeline,
government efforts to curb global warming and hydraulic fracturing, a gas mining technique often called "fracking."
Key
Republicans call for probe to see if Russia funded anti-fracking groups. Two key House Republicans have called
on the Trump administration to investigate whether Russia is trying to undermine the U.S. energy industry by funding
environmental activism as part of a "propaganda war against fossil fuels." Russia's goal is to "suppress the widespread
adoption of fracking in Europe and the U.S.," according to a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from House Science,
Space and Technology Committee chairman Lamar Smith and energy subcommittee chairman Randy Weber.
How
Environmentalists Keep Heating Bills High. [T]he shale gas revolution lowered the price of natural gas by about
two-thirds (from $10 to $3 per million cubic feet). This, in turn, has meant big savings in electricity and home heating
costs from where they were a decade ago. We calculated the benefits to poor households from these lower prices and
estimated that shale gas results in $10 billion in consumer savings each year. The annual budget for the LIHEAP program
is about $3 billion. So shale gas is saving poor families three times what LIHEAP does. Yet the left-wing
politicians who say how shameful it is to cut energy assistance are the ones who want America to stop producing shale gas by
banning fracking and other modern drilling technologies that make natural gas so cheap.
Environmentalists
Freak Out Over Trump's Repeal Of Rule Which Never Went Into Effect. The green energy, "keep it in the ground"
folks are off to a bad start in 2018. It turns out that another one of Barack Obama's signature "achievements" in energy
regulation, the one which would heavily regulate fracking on federal lands, is going away. Given what a dirty word
"fracking" has become in liberal circles, this is causing all manner of outrage on the left. There's only one catch
here... the rule in question never even went into effect for even a single day.
Obama
Fracking Rule to be Overturned by BLM in January. A federal appeals court refused on Wednesday [12/27/2017] to
reconsider its decision to overturn an Obama administration rule on fracking, holding that the issue was moot: The
Trump administration is planning to throw out the rule altogether in January. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said
that the Obama administration's rule "unnecessarily burdens industry compliance costs and information requirements that are
duplicative of regulatory programs of many states and some tribes. As a result, we are proposing to rescind, in its
entirety, the [Obama administration's] 2015 final rule." The original decision in 2016 ruled that the Obama administration was
guilty of federal overreach, that the BLM was never given the authority assumed under that administration to regulate fracking.
In January the oil- and gas-development industry will not have to worry about this regulatory roadblock. Instead, it will
have to worry about how to handle the new oil and gas production flowing out of America's amazing energy resources.
Anarchists
Bragged in April about Sabotaging Railroad Tracks to Block Fracking. ISIS shouldn't be the only terrorist group
under suspicion for the Amtrak derailment in Washington this morning. [...] The anarchist group "It's Going Down" last April
bragged online about sabotaging railroad tracks in the Pacific Northwest to block fracking equipment from getting to its
destination. The group has since deleted the post, possibly in reaction to today's Amtrak disaster.
More Fracking, Fewer Earthquakes.
A new analysis of Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) data undertaken by Energy in Depth shows the amount of monthly
earthquakes in the Sooner State has decreased 86 percent from its peak in June 2015. Concurrently, there has been an
11 percent increase in oil production and 81 percent increase in the number of operation oil rigs in the state over the
past calendar year. These numbers help reinforce what the scientific literature has long shown: Fracking is not the
cause of the increases in induced seismicity.
8 Really Bad
Laws That Went Into Effect Today. [#5] Fracking ban in Maryland: After a two year moratorium, Maryland
this year passed a complete ban on fracking, which goes into effect today. The law is not based on sound science but on
rank fearmongering. A 2015 study from Yale found that fracking does not contaminate drinking water, a popular bugaboo
for fracking opponents. The Obama Environmental Protection Agency also found fracking had a negligible effect on
drinking water. Other lies about fracking have also helped to motivate opposition to fracking — fracking
does not make it possible to light your drinking water on fire. Fracking fluid can't seep into groundwater and poison
your tap, Fracking doesn't increase air pollution. It doesn't cause cancer. And the natural gas freed by fracking
is decidedly better than coal.
Lawmakers
Cite Evidence Russia 'Colludes' With US Green Groups to Block Fracking. Forget about allegations of Russian
interference in U.S. presidential elections for a moment, or even "collusion" between Russian officials and Trump campaign
operatives. The real action is in the European and U.S. energy markets, according to a letter from two Texas
congressmen to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that details what they call "a covert anti-fracking campaign" with "little
or no paper trail." The Daily Signal obtained a copy of the June 29 letter to Mnuchin from Reps. Lamar Smith
and Randy Weber, both Republicans who chair energy-related House panels.
Pitting
Wind and Solar Against Nuclear Power. US electricity consumption has been essentially flat since the financial
crisis of 2008-9, thanks to a weak economy and aggressive investment in energy efficiency. More generation serving the
same demand means lower prices for all producers, and fewer annual hours of operation for the least competitive of
them. At the same time abundant, low-priced natural gas from soaring shale production has made gas-fired turbines both
a direct competitor in the 24/7 "baseload" segment that coal and nuclear power formerly dominated, and the go-to backup
source for integrating more renewables onto the grid.
Duke
University Study: Fracking Isn't Contaminating Ground Water. We have another study from Duke University
that shows groundwater isn't being polluted by fracking, despite the cries from the environmentalists that the process, which
is used to tap into natural gas resources. It's been the crux of their narrative against this sector of the economy
that's rapidly growing throughout the country.
More Fracking
Lies from the EPA. [Scroll down] Most oil and gas wells are fracked in some way. It is a common
well completion procedure. The process has been in common use for over 60 years. The EPA "Science Advisory Board"
has employed the Gasland canard: ["][F]racking could impact drinking water throughout the drilling process.["]
Fracking is a well completion operation. Frack jobs are performed in the well completion procedure. This is the only phase
of the "drilling process" in which frack jobs are performed. As such, it cannot "impact drinking water throughout the drilling
process." In the Gasland canard, "the drilling process" includes everything from wellsite preparation, to drilling, to completion,
to production, to wastewater disposal, to plugging & abandonment, to wellsite reclamation... And then any pollution in the entire process
is attributed to fracking.
Tapped
out: science shuts down an anti-fracking myth about drinking water. For years, anti-fracking activists have
cited Pavillion's plight over and over again as proof that hydraulic fracturing must be banned. Josh Fox, director of
the anti-fracking movie Gasland, has probably done more than anyone to spread this assertion. Fox even got
himself arrested at a 2012 congressional hearing on the Pavillion case. I got to watch that happen: I was a
witness at the hearing for the oil and gas industry[.] It was all a myth. Not even President Obama's Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) believed it was true. In fact, the so-called contamination in Pavillion — announced
to the world in 2011 — was almost certainly caused by the EPA itself.
Hillary's
In League With Groups To Destroy Energy Independence. This week, Politico reported that Hillary Clinton is aligned with the
same groups who are pushing to end the use of coal and shale energy in the United States. These policies will be destructive to states
like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Colorado and severely impact energy rates and jobs across the country.
Despite
claims to the contrary, science says fracking not causing increased earthquakes. People in seven states, from
South Dakota to Texas, were awakened Saturday morning, September 3, by Oklahoma's most powerful earthquake in recorded
history. The 5.8 tremor was centered near Pawnee, OK. Several buildings sustained minor damage and there were no
serious injuries. That we know. What we don't know is what caused the quake — but that didn't stop the
alarmist headlines from quickly blaming it on "fracking."
Science
Advisory Board to EPA: Show Your Work. Anti-fracking activists who have been eagerly awaiting the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) Science Advisory Board (SAB) findings on hydraulic fracturing must feel like those kids who rush
downstairs to open their presents on Christmas morning, only to find out Santa gave them socks. Instead of determining
hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, to be dangerous, as the activists hoped, SAB essentially confirmed the
conclusions of EPA's draft study, which found no evidence hydraulic fracturing has had widespread or systemic impacts on
groundwater resources but wants EPA to show more data to back up these claims.
Colorado
Supreme Court Bars City Fracking Bans. The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed decisions by lower state courts to
overturn two cities' fracking bans, ruling on May 2 against Fort Collins' five-year fracking moratorium and a voter-supported
ban on hydraulic fracturing in Longmont. Colorado's high court called the laws "invalid and unenforceable" and
determined state law preempts local ordinances on issues related to fracking and oil and gas production.
Fracking — the widely used practice of injecting a high-pressure mix of water, sand, and chemicals underground to
break open formations and recover oil and gas — currently accounts for two-thirds of all natural gas production in
the United States, according to the Energy Information Agency. Fort Collins passed its moratorium on fracking in 2013.
Longmont's ban was enacted in 2012.
Chart of the Day II.
Thanks in large part to the substitution of abundant, cheap shale gas for coal as an energy source to generate the nation's
electricity, CO2 emissions from the US electric power sector fell to a 29-year low during the January to April period —
522 million metric tons. The last time CO2 emissions were that low ("green") during the four-month period between
January and April was in the year 1987. Who ever imagined we'd be "going green" thanks to fracking?
U.S. Natural Gas Exports Begin. In a
development few could have foreseen as recently as a decade ago, the United States recently exported its first shipment of liquefied natural gas
(LNG). A tanker bound for Brazil departed Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass LNG export facility in late February. Cheniere originally intended the
Sabine Pass facility to receive imported LNG. The U.S. natural gas boom, resulting from hydraulic fracturing, prompted Cheniere to "reverse-engineer"
the Louisiana terminal for the export of LNG. Cheniere is the first U.S. company to receive a federal permit to export LNG. "Ten years ago, the experts
thought the United States needed to import natural gas," said Dan Simmons, vice president of the Institute for Energy Research. "Now, we are a natural gas
exporter. "It is difficult to understate [sic] the impact of the hydraulic fracturing revolution on the global natural gas market," Simmons said.
"The biggest problem for producers is not too little natural gas in the United States, but too much, leading to super low prices."
US
Oil Reserves Now Top Saudi Arabia. The world of energy, which is to say the course of the world economy, has
been turned upside down with the fracking revolution. Less glamorous than information technology, perhaps, but the
extraction of the formerly inaccessible reserves embedded in shale is having a profound effect on the world's political
economy, and in particular on the United States' preeminence, strategically and economically. Nothing could better
symbolize the change than the revelation that the United States is now calculated to have more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia.
Frack Sand
Stocks Saw a 2nd Straight Month of Large Gains in June . [M]uch of the gains have to do with oil prices remaining in the range of $45 to $50 a
barrel for the month. While this isn't a great price for producers, it's enough that some are starting to think about doing a little work to bring on
a few new wells. Considering the large number of wells that have been drilled but not yet completed -- wells that will need frack sand -- there
is a large backlog of work that these sand producers will need to fill. The question is how quickly the market will want to bring these wells on line.
Anti-fracking
movement reeling as 'scare tactics' fail to resonate. The latest setback was delivered by U.S. District Court
Judge Scott Skavdahl of the District of Wyoming, who ruled late Tuesday [6/21/2016] that the Interior Department exceeded its
authority with its 2015 rule governing hydraulic fracturing, a widely used extraction technique used to separate oil and
natural gas from rock. States have been the primary regulators. The process has revolutionized world energy production
patterns but has faced determined resistance from environmental groups arguing that fracking is either unproven or unsafe.
Obama
administration's fracking rules struck down by federal judge. In the latest rebuke of the Obama
administration's expansive view of executive power, a federal judge has struck down the Interior Department's effort to
regulate fracking for oil and natural gas. Judge Scott Skavdahl of the District Court of Wyoming already had put a hold
on the regulations last year, and in a decision released late Tuesday, he ruled that Congress did not give Interior the power
to regulate hydraulic fracturing, indeed it had expressly withheld that power with some narrow exceptions.
Study:
Water Quality Unaffected by Fracking. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) recently concluded a
three-year study that found no side effects of hydraulic fracturing on water quality and no evidence the fracking process is
causing methane to leak into wells in the observed area. The study examined 191 water samples taken from 23 wells from
2012 to 2015 in five Ohio counties: Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison, and Stark. "The good news is that our
study did not document that fracking was directly linked to water contamination," said Amy Townsend-Small, according to a
report by the Ohio Times Reporter. "Some of our highest observed methane concentrations were not near a fracking well
at all," said Townsend-Small. The UC study's results were consistent with the findings of a comprehensive survey of
academic literature on fracking conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA survey, released
in June 2015, found little evidence of water pollution resulting from fracking.
Colorado's
Tenacious Anti-Fracking Movement Explores "Last-Ditch Options". The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in early May
that state rules promoting oil and gas development trump local attempts to restrict or ban drilling near homes and
schools. As such, residents who live near proposed drilling sites "said they see few options" for stopping new
projects, the [Denver] Post reported. But tenacious Coloradans — who came out en masse
earlier this month for Break Free protests against fossil fuels — aren't giving up the fight.
Local
Anchor: Clinton Presidency 'Should Freak People Out,' Will Hurt North Dakota Economy By Targeting Fracking. The host of a
local North Dakota news show told viewers Friday [5/20/2016] that the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency "should freak people out" because
she will badly damage the state's economy by going after fracking, which will hurt the oil and gas industry and cost jobs. Chris Berg, the
anchor of 6:30 Point of View, a show on CBS affiliate KXJB Valley News Live, discussed North Dakota's economic struggles as Clinton's husband,
Bill, was in Fargo, North Dakota for a campaign rally. Berg explained that the North Dakota Office of Management and Budget released a
revenue report on Friday saying that the state missed its budget forecast even after a revised one was issued earlier this year.
Don't
Let The Nuts Keep America's National Treasure Buried. Thanks to the technological miracle of "fracking,"
America now has the proven reserves to be the world's number one producer of oil, number one producer of natural gas, and
number one producer of coal. Imagine what that would be like for America's own economy to include the world leading
industries of all three of these crucial sources of energy. America would then be the Saudi Arabia of oil, the Saudi
Arabia of natural gas, and the Saudi Arabia of coal, all within just one economy. That would mean hundreds of thousands
of good paying, blue collar jobs in those three industries alone.
Research
university hides results of fracking study which fails to prove it's dangerous. What happens when a university
research department is tasked with conducting a study of the harmful effects of fracking on ground water and other
environmental concerns? Well, that depends on who provides their research money and what the results turn out to
be. In the case of the University of Cincinnati, a lot of their funding comes from groups which have a vested interest
in proving how harmful fracking is so it's hardly a surprise that they lost interest in the study when it failed to produce
any evidence of ground water contamination near commercial fracking sites.
Pennsylvania
voters torn over calls for a fracking ban. A debate over fracking emerged between Sanders and Democratic
presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton over the last month, with Sanders calling for a nationwide ban and Clinton pushing
a middle-of-the road approach that would allow it with caveats — a stance that has been criticized by more progressive
democrats. The outcome of the presidential and senate primaries in a state that now the second biggest natural gas
producer in America after Texas may reveal how residents of heavily drilled areas feel about an industry suffering from a
decline in oil and gas prices.
New
York fracking ban leaves state divided as primary looms. For seven years, fracking roiled New York. Back
in the summer of 2007, when the gas industry started knocking on doors in Delaware County, a faultline ran right through the
home of Mark Dunau and Lisa Wujnovich. In 2014, the state announced a ban, but that faultline still runs through local
and national politics, and even through the Democratic presidential primary. Activists fear Hillary Clinton's pragmatic
approach is too soft on fracking, and support her rival Bernie Sanders' call for a national ban. Clinton supporters,
meanwhile, have begun to worry that opposition to fracking would weaken her in a general election.
5
Factual Errors In The NAACP's $5 Billion Demand For 'Climate Justice'. [#4] Fracking causes earthquakes. "Hydraulic
fracturing, commonly known as 'fracking', does not appear to be linked to the increased rate of magnitude 3 and larger earthquakes,"
according to to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website. There has never been a single injury resulting from earthquakes
potentially induced by fracking or fracking related processes. Magnitude 3 or weaker earthquakes are so weak they can only be
felt by people on the highest floors of buildings. The USGS findings concur with a National Research Council assessment which states:
"The process of hydraulic fracturing a well as presently implemented for shale gas recovery does not pose a high risk for inducing felt seismic
events." Fracking earthquake myths from environmentalists are so widespread that the USGS actually maintains a "Myths and Misconceptions"
section of its website to debunk them.
How Fracking
Reduces Greenhouse Gases. As a nation, the United States reduced its carbon emissions by 2 percent from last
year. Over the past 14 years our carbon emissions are down more than 10 percent. [...] Even more stunning:
we've reduced our carbon emissions more than virtually any other nation in the world, including most of Europe. How can this
be? We never ratified the Kyoto Treaty. We never adopted a cap and trade system, or a carbon tax as so many of the
sanctimonious Europeans have done. The answer isn't that the EPA has regulated CO2 out of the economy. The EPA surely
has started to strangle our domestic industries like coal and our electric utilities with strict emission standards. But
that's not the big story here. The primary reason carbon emissions are falling is because of hydraulic fracturing —
or fracking.
Colorado
Supreme Court strikes down local fracking bans. The Colorado Supreme Court dealt a devastating setback Monday [5/2/2016]
to the state's environmental movement by throwing out local bans on hydraulic fracturing. The courtruled that the outright ban
approved in Longmont and five-year moratorium passed in Fort Collins conflict with state law authorizing and regulating hydraulic
fracturing, an extraction process used by the oil and gas industry.
Public
university admits to burying study finding no damage to water quality from fracking because funders 'disappointed'. A
three-year study undertaken by the state-funded University of Cincinnati will not be released to the public, because it found no damage
at all. This direct contradiction of the goals of many environmentalist groups had to be suppressed. [...] As Russell Cook, a
citizen-journalist, has detailed, the global warming fraudsters inevitably revert to the charge that scientists who question their theory
are in the pocket of the "fossil fuel industry," a charge based on no substance at all and is actually 180 degrees different from
reality. With billions of dollars annually spent of "global warming research" that hands to governments enormous power to tax
and regulate all economic activity (that depends on energy), the gravy train is on the warmist side.
Bernie
Sanders wants to kill fracking boom. If Bernie Sanders becomes president, America's fracking boom will be in
danger. This week the Democratic presidential candidate called for a national ban on fracking, the controversial
drilling technology that has not only led to a massive boom in oil and natural gas, created thousands of new jobs but also
been linked to water contamination and even earthquakes. "If we are serious about combating climate change, we need to
put an end to fracking, not only in New York and Vermont, but all over this country," Sanders said during a speech in
Binghamton, New York this week.
Texas
State Rep. Phil King Fights for Fracking and Against Federal Overreach. Oil and gas deposits don't stop
at city limits. One of our largest natural-gas-producing counties has by itself over 30 municipalities. A
patchwork of inconsistent municipal regulations would undermine Texas' preeminent role in regulating oil and gas
development. Furthermore, few cities, if any, have the in-house expertise [needed] to regulate drilling and
production. That is not to say cities don't have a role. Our legislation affirmed a municipality's authority to
regulate aboveground activity, including fire and emergency response, traffic, lights, noise, and reasonable setbacks.
Bottom line: Texas must have consistent statewide regulations so natural resources can be developed safely, while protecting
the environment, and also in a way that balances legitimate municipal interests with a property owner's right to develop his
or her estate.
Gas
pipeline opponents hope to influence NY presidential primary. Fracktivists, as anti-hydrofracking activists are
called, hope to play a role in New York's presidential primary. They are asking Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie
Sanders, as well as Republican candidates, to take a stand against the Constitution Pipeline and other natural gas pipelines,
that if approved could criss-cross the state. More than 200 fracktivists held a rally Tuesday [4/5/2016] to oppose
natural gas pipelines in New York, and to call on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to ban them.
An
Ungrateful Nation Turns Its Back On Fracking. A Gallup poll taken in early March shows that 51% of Americans
say they oppose fracking "as a means of increasing production of natural gas and oil in the U.S." That's up from 40% just one
year ago. Even more surprising, the drop in overall support is largely the result of a shift among Republicans.
While 66% supported fracking last year, a bare majority (55%) do now. Support was steady among independents (35% vs.
34%) and Democrats (26% vs 25%). Gallup speculates that lower gas prices and a decline in the share of Americans worried
about energy shortages are behind the decline. This makes absolutely no sense.
Clinton,
Sanders Plan To Stop Fracking Would Boost CO2, Liberals Admit. What is an environmentalist to do these days?
You can support windmills, so long as they don't disrupt ridgelines, where the wind happens to blow. You have to approve of
solar power, except when a solar power plant might disrupt efforts to restore migration routes for 100 sheep in the Mohave
Desert. And you once were supposed to support natural gas as a "bridge fuel" between coal and something else, until you
weren't. Now the requirement appears to be that you must oppose fracking at all costs, even though it will likely mean
increasing emissions of greenhouse gases. That's the conundrum Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders now find themselves in.
Hillary Was for Fracking
Before She Was Against It. [Scroll down] In 2014 Clinton also stated with regard to fracking that
"expanding production is creating tens of thousands of new jobs," and "lower costs are helping give the United Stated a big
competitive advantage." While Hillary may no longer admit this about fracking, her past statements of support are completely
accurate. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), fracking has led to reductions in imported energy, down
from 60 percent of what the U.S. used in 2004 to 38 percent in 2013. For 2012 alone, this led to a $284 billion
increase in U.S. GDP, 2.1 million jobs created, and increased the income of every American household by roughly $1,200.
Hillary Clinton's criticism of fracking at the recent Democratic debate is a blatant attempt by her campaign to gain power by
appealing to the misinformed prejudices and emotions of the extreme left.
Norquist:
Hillary's Attack on Guns and Fracking Will Cost Her the Election. Norquist was referring to Clinton's comment
in Sunday's Democrat debate where she said, "So by the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be
many places in America where fracking will continue to take place." [...] While Clinton has always been terrible on the gun
issue, her anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment statement in Sunday's debate was broad and sweeping: "I think we have to try
everything that works to try to limit the numbers of people and the kinds of people who are given access to firearms."
The
End of Saudi Arabia? The present worldwide depression — let's call it what it is, not a
recession — is partly the direct result of Saudi manipulations. Fracking, particularly in the United States,
was on the verge of making the USA independent of oil imports. Europe, Latin America, Oceania, and China were all starting
to frack. As technology got cheaper, Saudi Arabia knew that, left unchecked, one day the world would break free of Muslim
oil extortion, and their cash cow would be kaput. The KSA, which produces little else, would be back to selling sand, and
the Quranically approved as healthful camel urine — but since dromedaries are not unique to the peninsula, even
that market would be lost to them. The Saudis have been at this oil price manipulation game for over 40 years.
Obama
Brags About Low Energy Prices, Then Proposes To Raise Them. We did, in fact, "drill our way" to lower gas prices. Thanks to
fracking, oil companies are now able to produce vast amounts of previously unrecoverable oil. In the past seven years, domestic oil production
shot up a stunning 77%, according to the Energy Information Administration, making the U.S. the biggest oil producer in the world. That's
why gas prices are low today. And why oil imports have dropped so sharply. And none of it had anything to do with Obama, who tried to
hamper oil production whenever he could — blocking Keystone, restrictions on federal lands, EPA attempts to hinder fracking.
EPA science advisers want changes to landmark fracking
report. A landmark study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that concluded fracking causes no widespread harm to drinking water is
coming under fire from the agency's own science advisers. The EPA's preliminary findings released in June were seen as vindication of the method used
to unlock oil and gas from dense underground rock. A repudiation of the results could reignite the debate over the need for more regulation.
Dead
wrong on oil. It would be hard to find anyone in all of America who has been more wrong on the American energy
story than Barack Obama. Oil prices have fallen from $105 a barrel in the summer of 2014 to hovering at $35 a barrel
today. That's a two-thirds reduction in the price and the biggest factor is shale oil brought to you by fracking.
In many areas of the country gas is now less than $2 a gallon and it could fall further in the weeks ahead. The falling price
means, of course, an expanded supply. But now listen to President Obama, who has lectured the nation on energy as if he were
one of the top experts for the last eight years. In a 2008 Speech in Lansing, Michigan, presidential candidate Obama was
all doom and gloom about oil, advising: "We cannot sustain a future powered by a fuel that is rapidly disappearing."
Obama
seeks to overturn court's block of fracking rules. The Obama administration is seeking to reverse a Wyoming
district court's injunction blocking the first regulations imposed on oil and gas producers that use fracking. Justice
Department lawyers filed with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver Thursday evening in an attempt to lift the Wyoming
court's September ruling. The injunction has kept the Interior Department from enforcing its regulations while the court
reviews the merits of state and industry lawsuits opposing the regulations.
Environmental
Impacts of Industrial Silica Sand (Frac Sand) Mining. The rate of silica sand mining in the United States has increased in
recent years, due in large part to the tremendous growth in hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas using horizontal drilling techniques.
Some environmental activist groups and community organizers contend silica sand mining presents significant threats to human health and the
environment. Scientific evidence strongly refutes such claims. Silica sand mining has minimal environmental impact, involves
virtually no public health risk, and is an important part of domestic energy production that has substantial economic benefits.
Study
of Premature Births Fails to Show Fracking Connection. Serious methodological errors render unreliable the
findings of a recent study titled "Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Birth Outcome in Pennsylvania, USA," which
suggested pregnant mothers living near hydraulic fracturing sites could be at a higher risk of giving birth to premature
babies. The study, which was published in the journal Epidemiology, was conducted by researchers at the Johns
Hopkins-Bloomberg School of Public Health. It relies exclusively on retrospective data analysis of pregnancy and birth
statistics of just under 11,000 pregnant women in hydraulic fracturing-rich areas of Pennsylvania between 2009 and 2013.
The data were used to find statistical associations between the distance a pregnant mother lived from a fracking site and whether
or not she gave birth prematurely.
Shaking out the lies surrounding earthquakes and hydraulic
fracturing. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow gleefully teased the earthquakes in Oklahoma as "the story that might keep you up at night." On her October 16
show, she stated that Oklahoma's earthquakes are: "The terrible and unintended consequence of the way we get oil and gas out of the ground. ...from fracking
operations." Yet, when her guest, Jeremy Boak, Oklahoma Geological Survey Director, corrected her, "it's not actually frackwater," she didn't change her tune.
Despite the fact that the science doesn't support the thesis, opponents of oil-and-gas extraction, like Maddow, have long claimed that the process of hydraulic fracturing
is the cause of the earthquakes. Earthworks calls them "frackquakes" because the quakes, the organization says, are "fracking triggered earthquakes." The
anti-crowd doesn't want to hear otherwise.
Can 'waterless fracking' in New York sidestep Cuomo's
ban? The administration of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has shown no signs of backing off the statewide prohibition on hydraulic
fracturing the Democrat announced at the end of last year. But a collection of landowners in one of the most economically depressed
areas in the Empire State hopes the Cuomo administration will give it the OK to drill without using conventional "fracking" techniques, in
the hopes of reaching some of the vast natural gas deposits in the Marcellus Shale formation.
Federal
judge blocks new Obama administration rules on fracking. A judge on Wednesday [9/30/2015] blocked new
nationwide regulations for oil and gas drilling on federal lands from taking effect while a lawsuit moves ahead, pointing
to a law that prohibits the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating hydraulic fracturing.
Oklahoma
Bars City Fracking Bans. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) has signed a bill preventing Oklahoma cities and
counties from banning hydraulic fracturing, also called "fracking," within their boundaries. The bill specifically prohibits
cities and towns from banning operations such as drilling, fracking, water disposal, recovery operations, and pipeline infrastructure.
The law, which takes effect 90 days after the May 29 signing, allows municipalities and counties to enact "reasonable" regulations
concerning road use, traffic, noise, and odors incidental to oil and gas operation. It also allows cities to set fencing requirements
around oil and gas drilling sites and establish setback requirements for how closely wells can be sited near homes or businesses.
NY Fracking Ban Is Literally
Impoverishing Rural Towns. New York's ban on hydraulic fracturing is great news for environmentalists, but horrible news
for those living upstate who are seeing their economic opportunities fade as the state government closes the door on drilling.
A recent report by the state comptroller found that while New York added 538,000 jobs between 2009 and 2014, virtually all of these
jobs were concentrated in New York City. The Southern Tier, on the other hand, has been suffering. This is the region where most
natural gas operations would be occurring had it been allowed by the state government. It didn't, and now people are losing jobs
and hope.
Liberate
American oil. Forty years ago America was in a panic. The world was running out of
oil. Cars lined up around the block at every gasoline station in town. President Nixon took a
commercial flight to California, riding (first class) with the semi-ordinary folk, and leaving Air Force One
in the hangar. Congress enacted a law prohibiting selling American oil abroad. Cheap oil was
gone for good and America was resigned to kowtowing to the shieks of Arabia forever. The man who
turned all that around is Harold Hamm, the chairman of Continental Resources, who made "fracking" a
household word, and turned North Dakota into the Saudi Arabia (without the Arabs) of the new world, and is
largely responsible for moving the United States close to the long-sought goal of "energy independence."
Fracking,
with care, brings big benefits. Fracking — the practice of cracking open
underground oil and gas formations with water, sand and chemicals — has rescued U.S.
energy production from a dangerous decline. Any debate about banning it should take a hard look at
what that would cost the nation and at facts that aren't always part of the discussion. Those
facts are spelled out in a recent report from the Environmental Protection Agency on fracking and
groundwater. One of the harshest charges against fracking, often leveled with apocalyptic
intensity by its foes, is that it indiscriminately contaminates vital drinking water supplies.
The EPA's timely report essentially said that's overblown. The study identified many ways
fracking could cause damage, but found little evidence that it had.
Federal
judge blocks Obama from implementing draconian fracking rules. A federal judge agreed
Tuesday [6/23/2015] to postpone the Obama administration's tough new hydraulic fracturing
restrictions just hours before they were scheduled to take effect. U.S. District Court Judge
Scott Skavdahl in Casper, Wyoming, gave both sides another week to submit arguments and citations
before making a final decision on the request for a stay, which is expected July 22.
Fracking:
You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!. It was only a couple of months ago that articles were
being written about the demise of fracking, mainly by those skeptical of or even opposed to
fracking — or written by people on the payroll of enemies of America's energy
renaissance. We were told that fracking was polluting water supplies — nay, setting tap
water on fire! — and, anyway, that fracking was doomed because Saudi Arabia was ramping
up production, forcing the price of oil to plummet, and driving American fracking companies out of
business. But recent news has been devastating for the anti-fracking posse.
Who
were those "science advisors" behind the NY fracking ban? Last week we talked about
the bombshell EPA report which said that fracking didn't have any demonstrated, systemic effect on
ground water quality. (Well, it was a "bombshell" unless you work at the NY Times, which didn't find
that it merited much of a mention.) One of the places most affected by this information should be New
York State, where Governor Andrew Cuomo relied on "expert scientific advice" to ban the practice indefinitely.
EPA
Buries Its Own Good News About Fracking. Want to see a perfect example of spin as a Washington art form?
Read the results of the federal government's most in-depth investigation ever of fracking. As Institute for Energy
Research president Thomas Pyle pointed out, "It only took four years and 1,000 pages, but the EPA finally confirmed
what we already knew — hydraulic fracturing is safe, and states have been effectively regulating the process."
Americans love good news, but President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency couldn't treat it as such. The report's
"Major Findings" didn't celebrate that your well water is safe.
EPA:
Remember all that horrible stuff we said about fracking? Yeah... never mind. The
Environmental Protection Agency has finished a draft copy of a long awaited study on fracking and
its impact (or lack thereof) on drinking water. The folks in the green energy community who have
been pushing for bans on the practice for years now are up in arms already because the results were
precisely what they didn't want to hear. The alarmist have been pedaling bogus science for quite
a while now.
Fracking
Study Undercuts Environmentalists' Calls for Regulation. It was always a longshot that
the Obama administration or Congress would crack down on the golden goose of hydraulic fracturing.
The chances shrunk further Thursday with the release of a landmark U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
study that found the drilling method had no widespread impact on drinking water.
EPA
Fracking Study: Drilling Wins. Finally, the Environmental Protection Agency has admitted what
the oil and natural gas industry has been saying for more than 60 years: "Hydraulic fracturing
activities have not led to widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water sources." EPA's five-year-long study, requested by Congress, examined more than 950 pieces of information,
including published papers and technical reports. While finding "potential vulnerabilities, some of
which are not unique to hydraulic fracturing," the report basically pronounces fracking safe.
EPA
finds fracking poses no direct threat to drinking water. Fracking does not pose a
direct threat to drinking water supplies, the Obama administration said Thursday [6/4/2015] in a
major study that represents a serious blow to environmentalists and other vocal opponents of U.S.
oil and gas production. The landmark Environmental Protection Agency report, nearly five years
in the making, found that the drilling technique had no "widespread, systemic impacts on drinking
water." The conclusion casts doubt on the wisdom of President Obama's latest regulations for
governing fracking on public lands and undermines the claims of environmentalists, many Democrats,
some liberal media outlets and others who have led the charge against fracking.
EPA
Study of Fracking Finds 'No Widespread, Systemic' Pollution. Hydraulic fracturing has
contaminated some drinking water sources but the damage is not widespread, according to a landmark
U.S. study of water pollution risks that has supporters of the drilling method declaring victory and
foes saying it revealed reason for concern. The draft analysis by the Environmental Protection
Agency, released Thursday [6/4/2015] after three years of study, looked at possible ways fracking could
contaminate drinking water, from spills of fracking fluids to wastewater disposal.
NY fracking ban
poised to take effect, critics say state giving up thousands of jobs. The push to ban fracking — the process
of injecting a combination of water, sand and chemicals into rock deposits underground to release natural gas — is the
culmination of nearly seven years of advocacy spanning two governors and three environmental conservation commissioners.
Though New York has had a fracking moratorium for years, current Gov. Andrew Cuomo rejected efforts to lift it and, instead,
changed it to an all-out ban in December. But critics charge Cuomo's decision risks up to 54,000 fracking-related New
York jobs — jobs that don't exist now since fracking is not allowed, but could have been generated with the approval
of various projects in the future.
Saudi
Arabia continues to turn screws on U.S. Shale. Saudvi Arabia continues to ratchet up
production, taking market share away from U.S. shale producers. According to OPEC's latest monthly
oil report, Saudi Arabia boosted its oil output to 10.31 million barrels per day in April, a slight
increase over the previous month's total of 10.29 million barrels. That was enough for the
de facto OPEC leader to claim its highest oil production level in more than three decades.
The Editor says...
The headline is a reversal of the truth: Fracking is putting pressure on OPEC to produce
more oil and reduce the price for quick sale.
Texas Legislature
Bans Municipal Fracking Bans. The Texas Legislature has responded to a voter
referendum to ban fracking in Denton, Texas, by approving the "Denton Fracking Bill," which would
impose a ban on municipal fracking bans. It effectively squashes the vote in Denton against
fracking. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) is expected to sign the legislation. [...] Anti-frackers
have blamed the process for causing earthquakes and numerous other environmental, health and safety
problems. Industry proponents say fracking is what has made U.S.-based companies strong players
in the world's energy markets.
The Editor says...
For those of you in other parts of the country, Denton is an enclave of left-wing tax-and-spend
big-government liberalism. Very similar to Austin, but without the scenery or the traffic.
Legislators
Vote To Prohibit City Fracking Bans In Texas. Last fall, Denton became the first Texas city to do what many
thought impossible in the Lone Star state: It banned fracking. The ban might not last long, though. The
Texas legislature has passed a bill that prohibits cities from establishing fracking bans. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott
is expected to sign it. Fracking opponents are naturally upset. Meanwhile, the media are playing the news
as a victory for the oil and gas industry. It's incomplete, however, to report that Big Oil is the sole beneficiary.
Fracking's benefits spread wide and run deep.
Links
Between Fracking and Air Quality Questioned. A widely cited study purporting to show
oil and gas operations using hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, cause serious air-quality
issues suffers from "significant flaws," a new report has found. Environmental Health in October
2014 published "Air Concentrations of Volatile Compounds Near Oil and Gas Production: A Community-based
Exploratory Study," by Gregg P. Macey of the Center for Health, Science, and Public Policy at the
Brooklyn Law School. The study garnered substantial media attention.
Critics
blast new Obama regs for fracking on federal lands. A new regulation announced Friday [3/20/2015]
by the Obama administration — requiring fracking companies who drill on federal lands to
disclose what chemicals they use in the controversial process — was blasted as "yet
another attack on American jobs" by GOP lawmakers, who said the mandate could slow the U.S. energy
boom. The Bureau of Land Management rule, which would take effect in June, also updates
requirements for well construction and disposal of water and other fluids used in hydraulic
fracturing, a drilling method that has spurred jobs and economic growth in natural gas and oil
production. It would not apply to privately owned lands, but roughly 10 percent of the
U.S. energy sector's work takes place on land leased from the federal government.
Interior's
new fracking rules get swift GOP backlash. The Obama
administration unveiled the first major national safety restrictions for fracking on Friday,
touching off a swift backlash from the president's critics in Congress and the energy industry.
Two oil industry groups immediately sued to challenge the rules, calling them "a reaction to
unsubstantiated concerns," while 27 Senate Republicans introduced legislation to block them from
taking effect. Meanwhile, green groups were divided on whether the long-awaited regulations
go far enough.
Because it produces energy and encourages capitalism... Obama
cracks down on fracking. The Obama administration is setting new standards for the
controversial hydraulic fracturing process, the first major federal effort to crack down on the
practice that has largely been behind the nation's oil and natural gas boom. The fracking
standards only apply to drilling on leased federal land and land owned by American Indian tribes,
which account for less than a quarter of the country's oil production and 17 percent of its
gas. The vast majority of fracking happens off federal land, regulators said.
Upstate
New York towns consider seceding to Pennsylvania. Plenty of people leave New York state but in a
job-hungry stretch of upstate, folks talk about staying put and seceding to Pennsylvania. Local
officials stung by a recent decision to ban natural gas fracking have raised the idea of redrawing the
Keystone State's border.
Five Ways Liberals
Ignore Science. Hydraulic fracturing is as safe as any other means of extracting
fossil fuels. It creates hundreds of thousands of jobs. It provides cheaper energy for
millions of Americans. It has less of an environmental impact than other processes. It
means less dependency on foreign oil. It helped the economy work its way out of a
recession. So 62 percent of Republicans support science and 59 percent of Democrats
oppose it. Even though numerous scientific studies — one funded by the National Science
Foundation that debunked the purported link between groundwater pollution and fracking — have
assured us that there's nothing to fear.
Obama
pushes new methane limits for gas drilling, industry says 'energy renaissance' at risk. The Obama
administration pushed new regulations Wednesday [1/14/2015] aimed at cutting methane emissions from the natural
gas sector, calling the proposed rules a needed step to address global warming as industry groups warned the move
would threaten "America's energy renaissance." Relying once again on the Clean Air Act, the rules —
the first of their kind — join a host of others that President Obama has ordered in an effort to slow
global warming despite opposition in Congress that has only hardened since the midterm elections.
The Editor says...
So President Obama is making "an effort to slow global warming." How wonderful. I wonder if Mr. Obama knows
that global warming stopped 18 years ago, all by itself. Maybe he knows this, but is just using methane emissions
as a way to tighten the screws on energy production, because he hates capitalism. Or maybe he really doesn't know
that there is no global warming, since it probably hasn't been mentioned on ESPN.
More
"green science" on fracking falls apart under scrutiny. Not that anyone in the
anti-energy community will pay attention to this, but the debate over hydraulic fracturing
(fracking) and energy extraction in general has delivered another blow to the Green Energy crew. In
fact, several of the most commonly repeated stories about the health hazards associated with the oil
and gas energy have turned out to be "claims masquerading as science."
EPA
Moves to Count Methane Emissions from Fracking. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency is proposing a new rule that would require energy companies to report to the federal government
all greenhouse gas emissions from oil well fracking operations and natural gas compressor stations and
pipelines. The EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program currently requires energy companies to report
only those emissions from fracking operations that involve flaring — the industry's practice
of burning off excess natural gas at a well site.
Technology
Is Driving the Fracking Revolution. Although energy producers have utilized fracking
since the 1940s, today's fracking revolution results from recent technological advances and new oil
and natural gas discoveries. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, extracts oil and natural gas from
shale rock by drilling thousands of feet below the earth's surface and then injecting water, sand,
and trace chemicals under high pressure to create cracks in the shale formations, thus releasing oil
and natural gas. By some estimates, fracking could raise average the U.S. household income by
$2,700 per year and create 1.2 million new jobs by 2020.
Cuomo
Killed Lots Of Jobs By Pointlessly Banning Fracking. New York state found that fracking would mean more
than 50,000 jobs for eight economically depressed counties bordering Pennsylvania. In banning it, Gov. Andrew
Cuomo chose green over black gold. [...] Environmentalists and government have been fishing in vain for evidence of
health hazards from fracking for many years, but to Cuomo no evidence equals "uncertainties," hence the ban.
Citing
Health Risks, Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York State. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration
announced on Wednesday [12/17/2014] that it would ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State because
of concerns over health risks, ending years of debate over a method of extracting natural gas.
Fracking, as it is known, was heavily promoted as a source of economic revival for depressed communities
along New York's border with Pennsylvania, and Mr. Cuomo had once been poised to embrace it.
New
York state to ban fracking over health fears. New York state is looking to ban
fracking, citing unresolved health issues and dubious economic benefits of the widely used
gas-drilling technique. [...] "Mounting scientific evidence points to serious health risks from
fracking operations," said Kate Sinding, deputy director of the New York programme at the Natural
Resources Defense Council. "With this announcement, the governor has listened, ... demonstrating
both courage and national leadership on this critical issue."
The Editor says...
Really? What evidence? What illness is caused by fracking? The writer of this article apparently forgot to ask.
This legislation is based on fear about what might happen someday, based on evidence yet to be developed.
Fracking
Drives Global Oil Prices Down. One of the perennial arguments of the anti-fracking crowd has been
that the shale revolution has failed to bring down oil prices. If the huge investment in fracking hasn't
lowered prices for U.S. consumers, what's the good of fracking? Now that argument has gone the way of all
the other objections to fracking. When OPEC failed to cut production last month, one of the main reasons
was competition from swelling production in the U.S. Reportedly, Saudi Arabia blocked production cuts
(which would have raised prices) due to fear of losing market share. It wasn't just Russia or Iran they
were worried about. The biggest new competitor on the block is the U.S.
Plunging
Oil Prices Undermine U.S. Adversaries. Global oil prices continued to plunge on
Monday, aiding U.S. consumers at the pump while delivering a blow to oil-rich foreign adversaries.
Crude oil prices have now dropped below $70 a barrel, about $30 cheaper than during the last summer.
Prices have plummeted in part due to fracking — an oil and gas extraction technique that
has enabled U.S. production to surge.
Hillary
Praises Fracking, Stays Silent on Keystone. At a speech to the League of Conservation
Voters in midtown Manhattan Monday night, before hundreds of deep-pocketed donors, Hillary Clinton
praised the environmental legacy of Teddy Roosevelt, touted the prospect of new green technologies,
and had warm words for Barack Obama's aggressive efforts to combat climate change. Absent from
the former Secretary of State's speech? Any sense of where she stood on the controversial Keystone
pipeline project, or what she would do differently as president to steer the nation towards a more
sustainable future.
Elections
Have Consequences For Hydraulic Fracturing. One of the most important issues this
election cycle was energy development, especially as it pertains to hydraulic fracturing, also known
as "fracking." Because government regulation of oil and natural gas development primarily occurs
at the state level, the results of several statewide elections will significantly affect hydraulic
fracturing. In some cases, the elections will result in a change of policy; in others they may bring
more of the same. Here is a snapshot of some of the likely changes coming for Pennsylvania, Illinois,
and New York.
Another
Day, Another Worthless Report Trying to Kill Britain's Shale Gas Industry. "The people
at the UK Energy Research Centre, they've nothing against this in principle, they're in the business
of finding alternative sources of energy, so they're not people who are coming at this from a
position of ingrained opposition...." Thus Jim Naughtie on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this
morning [11/12/2014], introducing yet another, official-sounding, produced-by-'experts' report
calculated to pour cold water on the nascent UK shale gas industry by alleging that its potential
benefits have been "oversold."
Lower
Oil Prices Slow Fracking, but Kill Solar. Environmentalists should be ecstatic. The
Saudis are doing for them what they have tried and tried and tried to do for themselves, but could
not: Stop fracking. But their green smiles are quickly turning into frowns as more and more
enviros recognize the same lower oil prices that hurt fracking are killing their most treasured
darlings: Solar and wind power.
Frac
Sand Study: Lots of Scare, Little Science. Unfortunately, special-interest groups
have published a study attempting to scare the people of Wisconsin and other parts of the Upper
Midwest about mining sand used for hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as "frac sand," by
presenting only one side of the story. Instead of basing the study on the best available
scientific evidence and discussing both the costs and benefits of frac sand mining, anecdotal
evidence (which is unscientific and unreliable and can lead to cherry picking data) is used to focus
on costs while completely ignoring benefits. This special-interest study attempts to portray frac
sand mining as an industry running amuck, operating without oversight or regulation. It also tries
to paint the industry as a threat to a clean water supply and as a possible cancer risk, but it
doesn't provide even a grain of real science to support these claims.
Fracking
gives US bumper crop of oil, more clout in diplomatic standoffs. Did you know the
United States has become Saudi Arabia? Well, minus the sand and support for Wahhabi fundamentalism,
but plus the oil and natural gas, much more of it than can be found in the Kingdom of the House of Saud.
OPEC, schmopec. America is floating in black gold, and the reason is hydraulic fracturing, or
"fracking" — pumping water underground (far below the water table) and then drilling
sideways to break up shale formations full of oil and natural gas.
The
Truth about Fracking. Fracking works like this: You set up your giant robot and you drill a
five-inch-diameter hole down several thousand feet until you hit the gas shale, and then you turn 90 degrees
and you drill horizontally through some more shale, until you've got all your pipes and rig in place. And
then you hit that shale with a high-pressure blast of water and sand, creating millimeter-wide fractures through
which the natural gas can escape and make you very, very rich in spite of the fact that you're spending about a
million dollars a week on space-age "matrix" drill bits and squadrons of engineers and a small army of laborers,
technicians, truck drivers, machinists, and a pretty-good-sized bill from Hoggfather's, the local barbecue joint
that has added a couple of specialized and custom-outfitted mobile crews just for cooking two massive meals a
day for the fracking hands who are far too busy to take off for lunch.
Seven Facts
for Fracking Deniers. Fact #5: Fracking has led to an increase in domestic oil and gas
production and a major reduction in dependence on foreign oil. Since 2005, U.S. oil production has
increased from approximately 5 million to 8 million barrels per day. Combined with
increased fuel efficiency and a slight decline in miles driven, increased domestic oil production
has cut dependence on foreign oil in half. According to the International Energy Agency, the
U.S. will become the world's largest oil producer by 2015.
Thanks to fracking: U.S.
about to pass Saudi Arabia as largest liquid petroleum producer. The "peak oil" pundits were sure we were on the
precipice of running out of oil. Now, it seems, the sky is indeed the limit. Which is why it makes little sense,
given the state of climate science, that our President is busily engaged via the UN and other domestic agencies, in throttling
back one of the most economically viable growth engines the American economy has at the moment (and for the foreseeable future).
Offshore Fracking In Gulf Of Mexico Is
On The Rise As Companies Seek Out Deep-Sea Riches. Global oil and gas firms are increasingly turning to offshore fracking to extract more fossil-fuel
riches from the bottom of the ocean. The Gulf of Mexico in particular could see fracking activity grow by more than 10 percent over this year and
next, according to Baker Hughes Inc., which operates about a third of the world's offshore fracking fleet, Bloomberg News reported Thursday [8/7/2014].
Deep Water Fracking Next Frontier for
Offshore Drilling. Energy companies are taking their controversial fracking operations from the land to the sea — to deep waters
off the U.S., South American and African coasts. Cracking rocks underground to allow oil and gas to flow more freely into wells has grown into one
of the most lucrative industry practices of the past century. The technique is also widely condemned as a source of groundwater contamination.
The question now is how will that debate play out as the equipment moves out into the deep blue. For now, caution from all sides is the operative word.
Offshore Hydraulic
Fracturing. Offshore, a form of hydraulic fracturing has been in commercial use since the early 1990's. Similar to hydraulic
fracturing that is being used to develop unconventional resources onshore (shale and tight sand), hydraulic fracturing offshore has combined two
mature oil and gas technologies — hydraulic fracturing and gravel pack completions. The result has been a significant improvement
in well life and reliability, productivity, and oil and gas recovery.
Venezuela blames
U.S for global oil price slump. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday [10/16/2014] blamed
Washington for the slump in global oil prices. Washington is "flooding" the market with cheaper shale oil to
bring down prices and ultimately impact Russia and other oil-producing nations, Maduro said at a televised Cabinet meeting.
Does
it take more water to frack an oil well or keep a golf course green? The right
answer, according to a recent study done for the Western Energy Alliance, found that fracking in
states of the Mountain West region uses far less water than a whole host of activities, including
golf courses. Three of the six states in the study report water-usage statewide and in all
three — Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming — all oil and natural gas activities,
not just fracking, use less than one percent of all consumed water. In Colorado, according to the
study, the biggest water users are "Coors Brewing Company, Colorado Steel Company, Cargill, Swift
Company, Kodak, mining facilities, and golf courses."
Colorado
Dems Frack Backtrack is all about November. In April 2013, the Mora County Commission
voted, 2 to 1, and passed the first-in-the-nation county-wide ban on all oil-and-gas drilling.
It was spearheaded by Commission Chairman John Olivas — an environmental activist. Since
then, two lawsuits have been filed against the little county because of the anti-drilling ordinance.
Olivas didn't just lose in the Democrat primary election, he was, according to the Albuquerque Journal,
"soundly beaten" by George Trujillo — 59.8% to 34.2%. Trujillo campaigned on a repeal of
the ordinance and has said he is open to a limited amount of drilling in the eastern edge of the county.
Mora County's ban on all drilling for hydro-carbons, not just fracking, was incited by an out-of-state group:
the Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), which has also been active in Colorado.
A
fracking problem for Dems. Five towns in Colorado have already banned the
controversial drilling method, which pumps a pressurized mix of chemicals, water, and sand, or
wastewater as many call it, into the ground to extract natural gas deposits from deep below the
earth's surface. To hear Floyd Ciruli, a non-partisan Colorado pollster for nearly 40 years
tell it, Democrats are in full-blown damage control over the fracking measures being pushed by its
liberal, environmental wing.
Denton,
Texas, rejects partial fracking ban. The council governing a North Texas city that
sits atop a large natural gas reserve rejected a bid early Wednesday [7/16/2014] that would have made it
the first city in the state to ban further permitting of hydraulic fracturing in the community.
A
leaked document shows just how much the EU wants a piece of America's fracking boom.
The European Union is pressing the United States to lift its longstanding ban on crude oil exports
through a sweeping trade and investment deal, according to a secret document from the negotiations
obtained by The Washington Post. It's not entirely surprising. The EU has made its desire for the
right to import U.S. oil known since the U.S. started producing large amounts of it in the mid-2000s. It
signaled again at the outset of trade negotiations, and its intentions have become even more clear since.
Fracking
Has 'Cut Carbon Emissions More than All the World's Wind and Solar Energy'. Fracking
has led to a greater reduction in carbon emissions than all the world's wind turbines and solar
panels put together, the Council of Europe heard last week. Speaking at a meeting of the council,
which promotes co-operation between all European nations, Chris Faulkner, chief executive of Breitling
Energy, explained how shale gas has led the way in reducing carbon emissions in the U.S.
Doubled
Oil, Natural Gas Estimates Invite Fracking in Bakken, Three Forks. The US Geological
Survey (USGS) ignited the Williston Basin oil boom in 2008 with its assessment of over two billion
barrels of recoverable oil from the Bakken field but gave made no assessment of America's Three
Forks field to the south. The USGS just announced that its 2013 survey doubled its 2008 estimates
for combined shale oil and recoverable natural gas deposits in the Bakken and Three Forks areas of
the Williston basin to 7.4 billion barrels of oil and 6.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The USGS survey results are expected to dramatically increase oil and gas investment in the region.
Science Council
Debunks More Environment Scares from 2013. In 2010 filmmaker Josh Fox released the "documentary" Gasland, igniting
anti-fracking hysteria as an "environmentalist" mass movement. The key moment in that movie, shown over and over again on screens
large and small, was a homeowner in protective goggles turning on his tap water and setting it on fire with a match. The scene
resulted in the widespread mythology that the "new" technology, fracking, involved dangerous procedures leading to leakage of toxic
chemically treated water at high pressure into aquifers, well water, and tap water. [...] In conclusion it should be noted the
tap-water flame so famously highlighted in Gasland was confirmed to be a result of naturally occurring methane in the nearby
Colorado water table, and not related to any fracking activity.
Russia
in secret plot against fracking, Nato chief says. Russia is secretly working with
environmental groups campaigning against fracking in an attempt to maintain Europe's dependence on
energy imports from Moscow, the secretary-general of Nato has said. Speaking at the Chatham House
foreign affairs think-tank in London, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia was mounting a sophisticated
disinformation campaign aimed at undermining attempts to exploit alternative energy sources such as
shale gas. He said: "I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their
sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental
organisations — environmental organisations working against shale gas — to
maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas. That is my interpretation."
Despite Barack H. Obama's efforts... Report:
The U.S. is about to become a "titan of unprecedented proportions" in the oil market.
[T]he United States is on track to become the world' biggest oil exporter by 2020 — and even
better, that other countries with potential shale deposits are now moving more quickly than expected on
adopting the hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques that have helped us get there.
Official
on key EPA fracking advisory board has suspect degree. An official on the
Environmental Protection Agency's hydraulic fracturing scientific advisory board got a doctorate
degree from an unaccredited, shuttered online correspondence school that congressional auditors
targeted a decade ago in an investigation into diploma mills. The advisory board member is listed
as Dr. Connie Schreppel in EPA records, which highlight her doctorate from Kennedy Western
University and a master's from Greenwich University.
How
Fracking has Saved Obama. Without fracking of oil and gas deposits, there would have
been no economic growth in the U.S. over the past five years. Yet the oil and gas industry has been
a favorite whipping boy of the environmental zealots both inside and outside of the administration.
Without those brilliant entrepreneurs and engineers in the private sector who developed the new
techniques to unlock massive amounts of oil and gas at reasonable cost, it is unlikely that
President Obama would have been re-elected.
Oil
and gas boom fuels population growth west of the Mississippi. Energy production is fueling a huge population
growth in the West of the U.S, with Texas home to four of the top 10 fastest growing cities — San Marcos, Cedar Park,
Georgetown and Frisco. The energy industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the U.S economy and the oil
and gas-rich fields of the Great Plains and Mountain West are luring huge numbers of people to them. San Marcos,
Frisco and Cedar Park were No. 1, 2 and 4 in percentage population growth between 2012 and 2013, each growing by
at least five per cent in that time span, new data from the Census Bureau shows.
Census: Texas has 3 of 5 fast-growing
cities. Three of the nation's five fastest-growing cities — and seven of the top 15 — are
in the Lone Star State, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, part of a trend across the West largely fueled by
an oil boom.
Report reveals billions of barrels of shale oil in southern England. Vast areas
of southern England will on Friday be identified by the Government as targets for fracking, with ministers also announcing that energy
companies will be allowed to frack under homes without owners' permission. A British Geological Survey study of the South, spanning
from Wiltshire to Kent and including the South Downs National Park, will be published, mapping out the likely location of billions of
barrels of shale oil. Ministers are also preparing to publish controversial plans to change the laws of trespass to give energy
companies an automatic right to frack beneath homes and private land — even if owners object.
Analysis
reveals vast scale of energy reserves underneath England. Billions of barrels of oil have been found in the ground beneath the
south of England, but far fewer than had been hoped, a report out today revealed. The official analysis by the British Geological Survey
(BGS) estimates that there are 4.4 billion barrels-worth of oil — but no shale gas at all — in the ground under the
Weald Basin in the south east of England. With geologists estimating that as little as 220 million barrels of it could be recoverable,
it is equivalent to just 0.5 percent of what has been pumped out of the North Sea in recent years.
Beverly Hills Bans
Fracking. Beverly Hills has banned fracking. Which makes it "the first municipality in
California to prohibit the controversial technique for extracting natural gas and oil from underground rock
deposits," according to Reuters.
Shale riches helping
South Texas towns help pay for upgrades. South Texas communities seem to have come to the same
conclusion: The Eagle Ford is here and they'll be dealing with it for the long term. Although
no one anticipated the oil boom or was able to plan for it, communities have started devoting more
money to long-term planning. McMullen County Judge James Teal joked this week at the Eagle Ford
Consortium's annual conference that if he had known the Eagle Ford would have been so big, he would have
"probably kept my job in oil and gas."
The fracking divide: Mexico's oil frontier beckons U.S.
drillers in wake of new law . The geological marvel known to Texas oilmen as the Eagle
Ford Shale Play is buried deep underground, but at night you can see its outline from space in a
twinkling arc that sweeps south of San Antonio toward the Rio Grande. The light radiates from
thousands of surface-level gas flares and drilling rigs. It is the glow of one of the most
extravagant oil bonanzas in American history, the result of the drilling technique known as
hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Fracking
initiatives start to fracture Colorado. A gusher of proposed ballot initiatives on hydraulic fracturing
is poised to flood the November ballot as Colorado digs in for a gritty election battle between the oil and gas
industry and environmentalists. Nothing has qualified yet, but it would be no surprise if as many as a half-dozen
proposals reach the Nov. 4 ballot, setting up what could become a national proxy war on energy development
akin to last year's debate on gun control.
White
House takes step toward regulating fracking emissions. The White House took steps Friday [3/28/2014]
toward issuing methane emissions regulations at hydraulic fracturing sites, a move that would slash greenhouse gas
emissions in hopes of meeting President Obama's climate goals but will invite backlash from industry. The
news is a victory for environmental groups, which note that methane — a short-lived, potent greenhouse gas
that has a 20 times greater impact on climate change than carbon dioxide — is the largest remaining
unregulated greenhouse gas, accounting for 9 percent of U.S. emissions.
Not
All the Fracking News Is Good. America is a fracking cornucopia of crude oil, independent of the
rapacious OPEC cartel. And has an inexhaustible supply of natural gas, putting us in a position to become
a major exporter able to use its gas reserves as a geopolitical weapon.
The Editor says...
I didn't see any bad news in the article, except the parts that were bad news for the environmental anti-capitalists.
A Tale of Two Cities. The U.S. metro
area with the lowest unemployment rate is a shale oil boomtown. The one with the highest unemployment rate
houses the world's largest solar plant. Energy policy experts are pointing to that dichotomy as evidence
that job creation potential in the energy industry lies primarily with fossil fuels, despite the administration's
insistence on creating a "clean energy economy." According to data released on Friday by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS), Midland, Texas, has a 2.9 percent unemployment rate, the lowest in the country. [...] In
contrast to the successes of those oil and gas boomtowns, Yuma, Ariz., is facing the highest unemployment rate
of any U.S. metro area at a whopping 26.1 percent. Yuma is the site of the Agua Caliente solar
plant — the largest photovoltaic solar generation facility in the world.
EPA
Inspector General's Report Backs Dropping Texas Fracking Case. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector
General has ruled EPA acted properly when it initially imposed, then later withdrew, restrictions on fracking operations near two Texas
water wells. After defying Texas environmental officials and imposing restrictions on the fracking operations, EPA later declared
there was no risk to homeowners using the water wells and dropped an enforcement action it was pursuing in federal court.
Natural
Gas Fracking is Not Causing a Methane Spike. Natural gas fracking is not causing a spike in U.S. methane emissions,
the latest U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data show. The data debunk assertions by global warming alarmists that
recent declines in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions — caused largely by the increasing use of low-carbon natural gas
power — are being offset by rising methane emissions from natural gas fracking.
Obama
Signs Bill to Expedite Bakken Fracking. President Barack Obama signed legislation expediting the permitting process
for hydraulic fracturing on federal lands in the Bakken Shale basin in western North Dakota. The legislation sailed through
the House and Senate with only one dissenting vote.
European countries to US: Give us your
gas. In light of the recent crisis instigated by Russia, lawmakers have lately been pushing the Obama administration to
expedite the more than twenty outstanding applications from energy companies for permission to export more natural gas into the world market — and a handful of central European countries are decidedly for it.
5 Reasons Putin Thinks He Can Outplay Obama.
[T]he Obama administration has pushed hard against the development of new energy resources in the United States. The greatest threat to
Russian economic growth is the rise of alternative forms of energy, including fracking; the environmental policy of the Obama administration
has kept the Russians at the forefront of the energy market. Christopher Dickey of the Daily Beast writes, "the fracking revolution in
the United States threatens Russian dominance on several fronts." The good news for Putin is that Obama is counter-revolutionary.
Getting to Classical Gas. The
crisis in the Ukraine, though it has abated for now, has made policymakers rediscover the power of energy production, which has a direct
bearing on American strategic strength and leverage on Russia. The more energy America produces, the stronger it is. And the
less it has to rely on pure military power. [...] Obama up until just now was slamming the brakes on fracking. Now a comes a
proposal to fight Russia with natural gas. This unfortunately means more fracking — a political nonstarter in the
Obama administration.
Ukraine Crisis Means Drill,
Baby, Drill. Russia's invasion of Crimea is a tipping point event that will further spur the American oil boom.
The European Union (EU) and United States in 2008 threatened to slap economic sanctions on Russia for invading Georgia. But
after a while the criticism faded and threats of sanctions were quietly dropped, because the EU is almost entirely reliant on Russia
for energy supplies. A similar situation is unfolding today as the EU and U.S. are again making empty threats that they will
stop exports of Russian oil and gas as punishment for invading the Ukraine. But due to the latest humiliation by the Russians,
a consensus is emerging that will demand the United States and its North American partners "drill, baby, drill" for national security.
Natural gas prices climb to 5-year
highs. Natural gas prices, up more than 45% year-to-date on cold weather demand and slumping supplies, surged 11% Wednesday,
hitting their highest levels since 2009. The price on contracts for March delivery jumped to $6.22 per million British thermal units
in early trading before settling at $6.15 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the highest price since late 2009.
The Editor asks...
With all the "fracking" that's taking place, why does the market have "slumping supplies?" In my opinion, it is far more likely that
demand is extremely high, due to an unusually cold winter and the
shift away from coal.
Small Texas Oil Town
Property Soars to $5 Billion Thanks to Fracking. The shale oil and gas boom has skyrocketed property values in the tiny town of
Cotulla, Texas, from $550 million in 2011 to a staggering $5 billion in 2013, reports Newsmax. Cotulla's wealth explosion has
also tripled tax revenues. That means 1,300 new iPads in every students' hands, new school buses, football stadium upgrades, remodeled
education office space, and no more asking parents to pony up extra cash for school supplies.
Yet Another Anti-Fracking Study Bumps
Into Reality. Anti-fracking "studies" keep getting debunked, largely because most of them are op-eds masquerading as research.
Meanwhile, fracking keeps doing the things that The Idiot King doesn't seem to be able to: create jobs and economic growth.
Popular
anti-fracking study discredited by Colorado health department. Research claiming that hydraulic fracturing — fracking — causes
increased cancer risks and birth defects have been discredited by Colorado state public health officials. The researchers with the
Colorado School of Public Health cited "minuscule" statistical differences and ignored other factors in producing a report on the negative
side effects of fracking, according to a statement released by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on Thursday [1/30/2014].
Environmentalists Defend Pedophilia Advocate.
Environmentalists are rallying to the defense of an anti-fracking activist who has advocated pedophilia and incest after a Pennsylvania court
barred her from entering any land owned or leased by a local oil company. Cabot Oil and Gas won a temporary injunction this week prohibiting
Vera Scroggins, director of the anti-fracking group Citizens for Clean Water, from setting foot on any portion of the 200,000 acres of land for
which Cabot holds leases.
NYC Mayor Supports Moratorium on
Fracking in NY — 'Too Much Danger'. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio weighed in on the hydraulic fracturing debate in his
state during a press conference Thursday [1/23/2014] in Washington, D.C. "The one thing I'm firm about is I don't see any place for fracking,"
de Blasio told reporters at the U.S. Conference of Mayors when CNSNews.com asked what his policy would be "as far as developing oil, natural gas and
other traditional energy sources in the state." "The science simply isn't reliable enough; the technology isn't reliable enough, and there's
too much danger to our water supply, to our environment in general," de Blasio said.
It Shale Be Done: Green Light For Fracking. The
government is to open up thousands of square miles to drilling for shale gas reserves, potentially leading to hundreds of rigs dotting
the countryside. The process will begin on Tuesday when Michael Fallon, the energy minister, unveils a report detailing the
environmental and social impact of fracking, the controversial process that frees gas by blasting rock formations with jets of water and
chemicals. The government is also considering changes to fast-track the creation of hundreds of fracking sites by changing the
system for awarding licences to companies that want to drill for gas and oil.
The Progressive Agenda
Crashes into Complexity. Fracking was an oddball technique developed in the late 1940s by some Oklahoma roughnecks
and dismissed by the oil industry as too expensive and too uncertain for serious application. But throw in advances in
seismology and computer guidance and a crazed attempted by government to seize control of energy resources and it suddenly
stopped being a joke.
In Fracking, Sand Is the New Gold. The
race to drill for oil in the U.S. is creating another boom — in sand, a key ingredient in fracking. Energy companies are expected to
use 56.3 billion pounds of sand this year, blasting it down oil and natural gas wells to help crack rocks and allow fuel to flow out. Sand
use has increased 25% since 2011, according to the consulting firm PacWest, which expects a further 20% rise over the next two years.
Federal Agencies Threaten Fracking. Currently, the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) is in the process of finalizing a rule that would impose stricter regulations for fracking on federal and Indian lands. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also looking closely at fracking, conducting a study on the impacts of the technique on groundwater. [...] New
federal fracking regulations are unnecessary (as the states have already proven themselves capable of regulating the process) and would only drive up
costs, limiting the ability of states to manage their own resources. States should be given more control over the federal lands in their states.
Fracking boom frees the US
from old oil alliances. [Scroll down] Saudi Arabia has increased production to match, keeping prices stable, but new fields being
developed in neighbouring Iraq and the rise in importance of gas have also made its role less vital. And now all that Iranian oil may sooner
rather than later end up back on the market. Some suggest Saudi Arabia might cut its production, hiking world prices, as a retaliatory action.
But even were it to do so — and it has given no indication of it — it might itself be the worst victim. Saudi has some slack to reduce
its own income from oil and keep its budget in the black, but not so much.
Andrew Cuomo
facing court battle with energy company over fracking moratorium. When [Andrew Cuomo] was elected Governor of New York, he ran on a
hazy platform when it came to several controversial issues in the state, none more so than the question of fracking. Vowing to take an
"honest look" at the situation, along with the already existing moratorium on the process, he promised that action would be taken one way or
the other. As it turned out, nothing could have been further from the truth.
Greener than 'Green'. The trucks have driven off.
Dozens of workers have moved on. The cranes are gone. What remains are three acres of gravel-covered farmland, five completed wells, and a
steady, low-volume whoosh. This is the sound of natural gas being captured; counted by a "cash register" gauge that measures output and, thus,
royalties; and conveyed via yellow pipes into the broader natural-gas market. The result? Warm bedrooms on crisp nights and hot showers on
cold mornings. Despite the shrill complaints of fracking foes, this productive but tranquil patch demonstrates how much greener fracking
is than other power sources — even "green" ones.
Obamacare flopped,
but at least fracking works[W]hile the biggest big-government project in a generation was stinking up the place last week, the
America that works was doing considerably better. Although "energy independence" has been an official government policy for four
decades, we're on the way to achieve that more in spite of, than because of, the federal government.
Enemies of the people. The process of
developing coalbed methane in the area has been ongoing for many years now. In 2004 a local entrepreneur with a background in coal started
drilling for gas, and latterly another company had taken on the task. Neither could make the process economic. In 2011, however, the
licence passed into the hands of Dart Energy, a coalbed methane specialist, who have found a way to extract the gas profitably. [...] But this
plan reckoned without the intentions of the greens. Despite an incident-free operations history, despite electricity having been generated
without incident, despite Dart being a local business, putting money into the hands of local people, a major campaign was launched to try to
prevent any further development of the site.
Disclaimer:
Unfortunately, akdart.com has no connection whatever to Dart Energy.
New Attack on Fracking. Those opposed to fracking have
used fear as a weapon: Fear of well water being contaminated by natural gas, with pictures of "flaming" water faucets; fear of chemicals
contaminating groundwater supplies; fear of earthquakes, etc. They have now opened a new front in their war against fracking. The new
campaign targets homeowners, attempting to scare them about how noise and truck traffic related to fracking might affect their families and
neighborhoods; or about how they may have been swindled out of the mineral rights under their homes.
Green California Gives Its OK To Fracking As
Safe. If any state were to ban hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, the process that releases oil and natural gas trapped in porous shale
formations, one would think it would be California. [...] Yet [Gov. Jerry] Brown recently signed SB 4, which — while it imposes perhaps the strictest
regulations on fracking in the U.S. — rejected environmentalists' demand to ban what has proven to be a fundamentally safe technology. The most popular
fracking moratorium bill got only 24 out of 80 possible votes in the Assembly.
Canadians Riot Against Fracking. Dozens of anti-fracking protestors
were arrested in Canada after throwing Molotov cocktails and torches into at least five police cruisers on Thursday [10/17/2013]. The demonstrators
were rallying against a shale exploration project in New Brunswick, Canada, home to the Elsipogtog First Nation tribe, the National Post reported.
Many of the protestors were tribe members and New Brunswick locals.
U.S. Fracking Success
Threatens Russian Economy, Strategy. An American shale gas boom has been unleashed by the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to
unlock the energy treasures in the vast porous rock formations that blanket our nation. This, according to Thane Gustafson, a political science
at Georgetown University and one of the world's foremost experts on Russian energy, undermines Moscow's economic and foreign policy goals.
Environmentalist-Funded Study Confirms
Safety Of Fracking. Whether naturally occurring or not, environmentalists claim that fracking would release huge amounts of what they consider
the most potent heat-trapping greenhouse gas, far outweighing the value of producing huge quantities of clean-burning natural gas. Now comes a study,
conducted by scientists at the University of Texas and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — and co-financed by one of
the highest-profile environmentalists in the country — that shows much smaller amounts of methane emissions associated with fracking, far less than
environmentalists and the Environmental Protection Agency have contended.
Fracking and the Poor.
By now even the Obama Administration has recognized that the natural gas drilling boom has led to more high-wage jobs, more secure
energy supplies and lower manufacturing costs. But one of the biggest benefits from fracking and other new drilling technologies
is often overlooked: the windfall to American consumers, especially the poor.
More on Fracking and the Poor.
Last week we reported on a study showing that the U.S. oil and natural gas revolution may be the country's best antipoverty program, and the
evidence keeps coming. A new report from IHS Global Insight estimates that fracking added the equivalent of a cool $1,200 to real
household disposable income on average in 2012.
Target: Natural Gas.
The oil and gas fracking boom increased household disposable income by $1,200 last year as lower energy costs flowed to consumers,
according to a new study from IHS Global Insight. So Americans may want to know that President Obama's nominee to chair the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) thinks natural gas is a "dead end." That nominee is Ron Binz, and in March 2013
he spoke at an Edison Foundation panel on utilities and green technologies. To fight global warming, he argued, government
must adopt a "new regulatory model, because that's where it's going to start."
The new gold rush that
proves the anti-fracking fanatics have got it all wrong. North Dakotans are a conservative bunch who appreciate the solitude, the wide-open
spaces and a simple way of life. But they are sure of one thing — Watford City and the rest of western North Dakota is the land that was
saved by fracking. Only ten years ago, this region was dying on its feet — its farming industry finished, and businesses refusing to move
somewhere so remote and empty.
Why Sand Is The Latest Front In The
War On Fracking (Yes, Sand). The anti-fracking crowd hasn't been successful enough manufacturing unfounded fears about groundwater pollution to
cause any meaningful slowdown in shale drilling and fracking. So they've found a new target for their antagonism — sand dust. Fracking,
of course, requires hundreds of tons of sand, enough to fill dozens of rail cars, for each well. That sand has to come from somewhere, and in recent
years even oil companies like EOG Resources have bought and built their own sand mines, many of them up in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Study Shines Light on Tremors and Fracking in South Texas' Eagle
Ford Shale. So much oil and water is being removed from South Texas' Eagle Ford Shale that the activity has probably led to a recent wave of small
earthquakes, according to a study that appears in the online edition of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. [...] The new study doesn't find much
evidence that the man-made fracturing is causing earthquakes all by itself.
My constituents
are complaining about eco-protesters, not drilling. This isn't a protest about pollution; it's a protest about capitalism. If your sole
concern were for the environment, you'd be delighted about shale. Here is an energy source that doesn't emit soot (as coal does), nor jam estuaries
(as tidal turbines do), nor starve Africans (as biofuels do), nor slaughter rare birds (as wind farms do). It doesn't soak up public subsidies (as both
nuclear and renewables do); on the contrary, it will generate a healthy stream of tax revenue for the Exchequer. Oh, and it will reduce our carbon
emissions, by displacing coal in electricity generators. Why, then, are the greenies so glum?
The
new Luddites are standing in the way of a shale gas revolution. [Scroll down] Ming China is perhaps the most tragic historical example of this.
Despite coming up with printing, gunpowder, the compass, and a host of other innovations, it wasn't China that managed to really apply those new ideas.
China might have had plenty of coal, yet no 19th-century industrial revolution took place there like it did in the West. Why? In China, officialdom
and obstructivism kept getting in the way. Edicts and decrees were drawn up micro managing things. A parasitical state meant that those who produced
more ended up merely supplying more to sustain the state. China, once the world's great innovator, fell behind.
Shale gas is Rearden Metal.
One of the things [Ayn Rand] foresaw was the current nonsensical, dishonest, canting campaign against shale gas. In Atlas Shrugged it
takes the form of Rearden Metal, the miracle technology which is going to transform the US economy if only the progressives will let it. But of
course, Rand's fictional progressives don't want Reardon Metal to succeed any more than their modern, real-life equivalents want shale gas to succeed.
Why not? For the same rag-bag of made-up, disingenuous reasons which progressives have used to justify their war on progress since time
immemorial: it's unfair, it uses up scarce resources, it might be dangerous.
The
new Luddites are standing in the way of a shale gas revolution. [Scroll down] Tim Yeo yesterday suggested that we are better at regulating shale
gas here in Britain than they are in America. Indeed. Which is why right now we have no shale industry to speak of. In the US, meanwhile, where they
are so "cavalier" about these things, shale gas revolution has cut energy costs dramatically, triggering a wider industrial revival. It would be tragic if we let
the looters and the moochers get in the way of shale gas technology.
Fracking Brings Employment and Economic Revival .
Signs of pride and prosperity were evident all over Williamsport and the gorgeous northern Pennsylvania countryside around it. Friendly, happy people greeted us.
New cars, trucks, hotels, and restaurants sparkled in a clean, bustling downtown. New roofs topped barns and houses, while late-model tractors worked the fields.
Formerly dirt roads are now paved. Men and women again have high-paying jobs, young people are coming back instead of moving away, their salaries are supporting
other businesses and jobs, and many are taking college programs in oilfield technical and business specialties, Vince Matteo told me.
Natural Gas Liquids: A Revolution Within the US Shale Boom.
While it is no longer unexpected news that the U.S. is in the middle of an unconventional oil and gas boom, thanks to fracking technology and horizontal drilling that has
opened up previously unrecoverable shale oil and natural gas deposits, what is largely still unknown is that a revolution is underway within the shale boom itself.
It's the development of natural gas liquids (NGLs).
Is this the future of fracking? From the sleepy backwater of Franklin Forks, just ten miles from the New York
county line in rural Pennsylvania, blonde and photogenic Tammy [Manning] and her children have been feted by television companies and environmentalists alike:
portrayed as the 'perfect' example of how one family's lives have been blighted by a greedy energy company whose hunger for profit had put their health at serious risk.
Energy Secretary: Fracking is safe.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told reporters Thursday morning [8/1/2013] that the process of natural gas extraction called fracking was safe and should be used,
provided it was properly regulated. "I still have not seen any evidence of fracking per se contaminating groundwater," he said at a breakfast
hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. Moniz's comments represented a blunt rebuke to many in the environmental community, which has increasingly
turned against fracking.
Fractavists force PA landowners to abandon
gas and oil leasing. One group of landowners who wish to exploit the gas/oil reserves beneath their property are being prevented
from doing so by "environmentalists" who, as always, know best what's good for other folks, and tell them so.
'Gasland' scandal ignited at EPA.
HBO viewers thought they saw Steve Lipsky, a Parker County, Texas, home-owner, holding his garden hose belching fire from his methane-contaminated
water well. The flaming water was terrifying and "Gasland Part II" blamed it on fracking done by Range Resources, a Fort Worth-based
shale gas driller. What viewers actually witnessed was Lipsky holding a hose secretly connected to a gas vent, not a water line.
This fraud came out in a lawsuit filed by Steven and Shyla Lipsky against Range for $6.5 million in the 43rd State District Court of Texas.
The Top 5 Lies About Fracking. Gasland
Part II, the sequel to director/activist Josh Fox's earlier anti-fracking docudrama Gasland, will run on HBO next Monday. It appears
to have rounded up the usual corporate villains and appealing victims of profit-hungry capitalist skullduggery, rather than telling the more
substantial story: that fracking combined with horizontal drilling has unleashed a bonanza of cheap natural gas.
Does fracking cause earthquakes? Press Goes Crackers Over Fracking.
[Scroll down] These tremors are small and often barely detectable. They actually occur all the time as the result of distant quakes around the
world. But [Nicholas] van der Elst says that they have increased in recent years as the wastewater disposal sites have grown.
The study particularly singles out sites in Oklahoma where there are large wastewater repositories from oil and gas drilling. In
one case it also claims to be able to attribute a larger earthquake that occurred one-and-a-half-years later to the aftereffects
of a major earthquake that occurred in Chile a year-and-a-half before.
Fracking is greener than critics
claim. "Fracking makes all water dirty," declares a poster that Yoko Ono recently exhibited at a Manhattan carpet store.
According to another: "Pretty soon there will be no more water to drink." [...] In contrast to this hyperventilation, former Environmental
Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in May 2011, "I'm not aware of
any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water."
California Assembly Rejects Fracking
Ban. The California State Assembly overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would have banned oil and natural gas fracking in the
state. [...] The California assembly vote followed closely on the heels of a comprehensive federal study of water quality near more than
100 natural gas fracking sites in Arkansas. As Environment & Climate News recently reported, the U.S. Geological Survey study found the
extensive fracking in Arkansas has not compromised water quality near any of the fracking sites. Lisa Jackson, who led the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency during the first four years of the Obama administration, has repeatedly testified to Congress that EPA has never found a single
instance of fracking polluting groundwater.
Fracking
phobia fails yet again. The EPA just dropped its study of fracking allegedly contaminating the water in Pavillion, Wyo. The
enviro left had rejoiced at the news a few years ago that the EPA had for the first time implicated fracking as a threat to groundwater.
Now, amid criticisms of its methodology, the EPA has backed down and won't issue a final report.
EPA Strikes Out on Anti-Fracking Campaign.
The EPA has worked mightily to demonstrate that Fracking causes water contamination, yet it has struck out again. While it has backed away
from other locations where it originally claimed damage from Fracking, it was at Pavilion, Wyoming that it tried, with great fervor, to prove that
Fracking caused water contamination. [...] But once again, it couldn't.
The message of shale gas
is: scrap the Climate Act. Who could doubt that the Almighty has a sense of humour when, on the very day headlines were filled with
warnings that our electricity system is now in such a parlous state that we can soon expect power cuts and electricity "rationing", we were also
told that Britain is now sitting on what has been called "by far the biggest shale gas basin in the world". There may have been some
journalistic licence in how the two reports from which these claims derived were written. Even so, the cautious predictions of the British
Geological Survey confirmed that Britain has a potential shale-gas resource as significant as the oil and gas we found in the North Sea, and
enough to meet all the UK's energy needs for many decades to come.
Former Reagan Energy Official Criticizes Obama
Approach. [President Ronald] Reagan paired his conservationist policies with the optimistic belief that human technological
innovation would also provide solutions to the nation's energy and environmental problems. That belief has been validated by the natural
gas revolution, which experts predict will lead to energy independence for the United States by the end of the decade, he [William Perry
Pendley] said. "Reagan would not have been surprised with what's going on today with hydraulic fracturing," he said, referring to the
drilling process for extracting gas from shale rock formations.
The Rise Of Saudi Texas: Shale And Farewell
To OPEC. Production data for April show how fracking has shattered not only the shale rock in formations like Texas' Eagle Ford and Permian
Basin but also the myths of "peak oil" and petroleum as an energy source of the past.
Obama's Perversity.
Presidents can never control everything. The greatest example today is the flourishing of the U.S. energy sector.
We are now a net exporter of hydrocarbon fuels, the cleanest kind: natural gas. This has happened because the market
financed exploration in shale deposits, gambled that a workable technology would be found, and, because of the high price of
fuel, made competitive investments in Montana and Canada that are paying off even now. [...] In the face of fantastic success
stories in clean fuel discoveries today, Obama is still pretending to see artificial scarcities. He still has to save the
earth, which is in no particular danger.
Greens don't like
fracking because they don't like prosperity. You'd think Greens would be delighted by the shale gas bounty under our feet.
Here is a plentiful energy supply which does not emit soot (as coal does), nor jam estuaries (as tidal turbines do), nor starve Africans (as
biofuels do), nor slaughter rare birds (as wind farms do). It does not require public subsidies (as both nuclear and renewables do).
On the contrary, it will generate a healthy stream of tax revenue for the Exchequer. It will diminish our reliance on nasty regimes, from
Tehran to Moscow — precisely the sorts of regimes that Greens march against. Oh, and it will reduce our carbon emissions, by
displacing coal in electricity generators. What, then, is the problem? Some campaigners talk of water pollution; others, a touch
histrionically, of earthquakes. If either was a remotely serious prospect, we'd know by now.
EPA Covers Up The Safety Of Fracking.
As we noted in December 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from environmental groups, tried to manufacture a crisis in which hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking, was said to have contaminated test wells in Pavillion, Wyo. Those claims and others made in the six-decade history of the technology's
use have repeatedly proved groundless.
Obama administration cuts back oil shale
development. Controversy is heating up over an administration plan to drastically reduce the amount of federal lands available for oil shale
development in the American West. The Bush administration had set aside 1.3 million acres for oil shale and tar sands development in Colorado, Utah
and Wyoming. The new Bureau of Land Management plan cuts that amount by two-thirds, down to 700,000 acres, a decision that has prompted industry outrage.
Try as they might... EPA fails to link fracking to
water contamination for the third time. The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is dropping its plans to issue a report on
whether hydraulic fracturing caused groundwater contamination in Wyoming. The agency said it will no longer have outside experts review that
theory. This marks the third time that the EPA has failed to link hydraulic fracturing — more commonly known as fracking —
with groundwater contamination, a major environmentalist objection to the drilling practice.
California
greens try, fail to pass a fracking moratorium. When I first caught wind of the fact that Californians were
getting ready to introduce a proposal to ban fracking, I suspected that they would definitely have a fighting chance of getting the
thing passed — but it turns out that enough of California's legislators are at least somewhat tuned in to the
economic realities of hydraulic fracturing, and enough so to thwart the often overwhelming clout of the state's many eco-lobbies.
Fracturing in California. Few issues divide
Democrats more than energy policy, as we've learned as unions and environmentalists fight over the Keystone XL pipeline. More evidence now comes
from California, where greens have lost an attempt to ban oil and gas hydraulic fracturing. Democratic leaders brought their fracking moratorium
bill to the Assembly floor last week, and their rank and file revolted. The bill lost 37-24, with 12 Democrats joining 25 Republicans
to defeat it.
Fracking: The Death Knell
Of OPEC. At Friday's [5/31/2013] Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in Vienna, the mask of non-chalance
about America's new fracking energy boom came off. After years of dismissing U.S. energy production as insignificant and expensive,
OPEC suddenly said it would "study" the growth in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, a deceptively bland response to the biggest
challenge the cartel has ever faced on its monopoly. The statement concealed the anything-but-tranquil tone of the meeting, in which
members were attacking each other and warning of a split.
Energy firm says UK's shale gas resources could be huge.
One of the energy firms hoping to exploit the UK's resources of shale gas says it may be sitting on significantly more gas than
previously thought. UK firm IGas says there may be up to 170 trillion cubic feet (4,810 cubic km) of gas in the areas
it is licensed to explore in northern England.
Eagle Ford Surpassing Bakken Shale.
Oil production in the the Eagle Ford shale fields of South Texas is soaring and will soon pass that of the rich Bakken formation in North Dakota and
Montana, according to a new report. A large number of energy companies stand to benefit. March shale oil production in Eagle Ford, also
known as Eagleford, rose 77% from a year earlier, to 529,900 barrels per day, the Texas Railroad Commission said Tuesday [5/28/2013].
California Dems push anti-fracking bills,
aim to curb potential oil bonanza. California is on the verge of a new gold rush. Expanded hydraulic fracturing — or
"fracking" — at the Monterey Shale formation is sparking estimates that 15 billion barrels of oil could be accessed, along with
millions of jobs and huge contributions to the domestic energy supply. Even the state's green-friendly Democratic governor, Jerry Brown,
says "the potential is extraordinary." But standing in the way is a flurry of anti-fracking bills.
Britain can't afford to surrender to the greens on shale
gas. Most of us have by now heard about the US shale gas revolution. In little more than six years, shale gas has reduced
America's gas prices to a third of what they are in Europe, increased huge tax revenues, rebalanced the economy, created tens of thousands of
jobs, brought industry and manufacturing back to the country's heartlands, and given rise to a real prospect of American energy self-sufficiency
by 2030. Britain may well have comparable shale resources. Indeed, the Bowman shale in Lancashire is a mile thick, whereas most US
shale plays are just 300 to 500 feet thick — a strangely unpublicised piece of good news.
Illinois edges closer to endorsing gas
fracking. Lawmakers in Illinois could sign off on legalizing fracking as early as this week, but approval of the highly controversial
drilling method won't come without a fight. Opponents of fracking have launched a last-ditch effort ahead of an expected state House vote
sometime this week on a bill to green-light the practice. It's expected to pass both chambers of the legislature and Gov. Pat Quinn has
indicated he'll OK the measure. The governor is a Democrat and Democrats also dominate both houses of the state legislature.
Environmental resistance, seen in every state where fracking takes place, also is a reality in Illinois.
Obama
administration supports fracking and natural gas exports. Last Thursday [5/16/2013], the US Department of the Interior
released a draft proposal that would "establish common-sense safety standards for hydraulic fracturing on public and Indian lands."
Last Friday, the US Department of Energy (DOE) approved a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in Freeport, Texas. Despite
opposition from environmental groups, the Obama administration apparently supports the expansion of the natural gas industry and
the controversial technology of hydraulic fracturing. These events are welcome common sense from an administration that is
typically deep in green ideology.
Oil Shale Development in the United States and Abroad. Hydraulic
fracturing and directional drilling have spurred economic growth in North Dakota and Texas along with other states with productive shale oil wells.
But, oil shale, a different product, has yet to be developed in the United States, while Estonia, a country near Russia and Finland, gets 90 percent
of its electricity production from it.
The Associated Press tells a fear-mongering sob story about how fracking will ruin everything when it comes to Illinois. Southern
Illinois braces for oil rush as 'fracking' regulations considered by lawmakers. After drilling intensively in many states in the
last few years, the industry is now preparing to push into new territory, hoping to tap deposits long considered out of reach.
Study: Fracked gas far more climate-friendly
than coal. Natural gas produced in the northeast's booming Marcellus shale region leads to far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than coal, a competing
source of electric power, according to a new study by Exxon Mobil's research arm. "We conclude that substantial [greenhouse gas] reductions and freshwater
savings may result from the replacement of coal-fired power generation with gas-fired power generation," states the study in the journal Environmental Science
and Technology.
Methane study, EPA
debunk claims of water pollution, climate change from fracking. After a 16-month investigation, state regulators Monday
said that natural gas fracking, contrary to highly publicized claims, isn't to blame for high methane levels in three families' drinking
water in a northern Pennsylvania town. For fracking proponents, it was another piece of good news. The oil and gas industry
still was unwrapping the federal government's acknowledgment that fracking isn't nearly as harmful to the environment as it previously
claimed.
Ready (or Not?) for a Great Coming Shale Boom.
The Cline Shale, thousands of feet underground in a roughly 10-county swath, is just one of many little-tapped shale formations in Texas and across the nation,
geologists say. That means the potential for oil and gas discoveries is theoretically huge, and the reason is technology. The rock-breaking process
known as hydraulic fracturing, coupled with the ability to drill horizontally underground, has allowed drillers to retrieve oil and gas from previously inaccessible
areas.
ND oil production has increased more than 600%.
Oil production in North Dakota has increased more than 600% in the past several years, from 35.7 million barrels of oil in 2005 to 237 million
barrels in 2012. In 2005, North Dakota was the No. 8 oil-producing state in the nation, and in just seven years has moved up to become the No. 2
state for oil output in 2012, behind only No. 1 Texas.
Next Up on the
Fracking Fear-Mongering List: Earthquakes! Not even a nuclear bomb can trigger an earthquake! With all of the
activity at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s and '60s, you'd expect California to drop into the ocean. Yet dozens of nuclear
bombs did not cause any earthquakes on the San Andreas fault. There is even documented proof of government experiments where
nuclear bombs were used in an attempt to trigger earthquakes.
Industry
and Environmental Groups Compromise on Illinois Fracking Bill. Two Illinois legislators have introduced what they call a compromise
bill to regulate hydraulic fracturing in the state. Many environmental activist groups tout the measure as creating the strongest regulatory
framework in the nation, but other activist groups have responded to the bill by saying fracking should not be allowed under any circumstances.
N.Y. Health
Department: Fracking Can Be Done Safely. Hydraulic fracturing is safe for human health and the environment as long as proper safeguards
are in place, the New York Department of Health concluded in a much-anticipated report. "Significant adverse effects on human health
are not expected from routine HVHF," or high-volume hydraulic fracturing, the report said. That conclusion is in an eight-page summary
of research into the effect of fracking on water, soil, and quality of life that was written in early 2012 but kept under wraps until it was
leaked to the New York Times in January 2013.
No Signs of
Water Pollution from Arkansas Fracking, Feds Report . An exhaustive study by the United States Geological Survey has
uncovered no groundwater contamination from natural-gas drilling in the energy-rich Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas. The United
States Geological Survey (USGS) report, Shallow Groundwater Quality and Geochemistry in the Fayetteville Shale Gas-Production Area,
North-Central Arkansas, 2011, analyzed water quality samples taken in Van Buren and Faulkner counties. USGS researchers focused on
chloride concentrations taken from 127 wells and methane concentrations and carbon isotope ratios from a subsample of 51 wells.
European
industry flocks to U.S. to take advantage of cheaper gas. German chemicals giant BASF, which operates the
plant here, has announced plans for wide-ranging expansion in the United States, where natural gas prices have fallen
to a quarter of those in Europe, largely because of American innovations in unlocking shale gas.
New panel to
advise EPA on 'fracking'. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday announced the formation of an
independent body to peer-review that agency's research on hydraulic fracturing, as the Obama administration weighs new
regulations. The Hydraulic Fracturing Research Advisory Panel, a group of 31 academics and experts, was created by EPA's
Science Advisory Board (SAB) to review a congressionally ordered report looking at the potential health impacts of hydraulic
fracturing on drinking water.
"Promised
Land": Anti-fracking Propaganda. The story line in the new theatrical release Promised Land is obviously
intended to leave audiences with a very dim and scary view of fracking and the companies that use this new method of drilling
to tap vast amounts of oil and natural gas that otherwise would be inaccessible. But the depiction in Promised Land is
so fantastic that the intent could backfire. Indeed, by the end of the film, moviegoers may be left annoyed and offended
by the blatant attack on fracking.
U.S. shale gas will be
warming British homes by 2018. Shale gas is a controversial energy source in the United States, but the U.K. will soon
benefit from the U.S.'s natural gas boom. British company Centrica announced a deal with Cheniere Energy Partners on Monday [3/25/2013]
to provide enough gas to heat almost 2 million homes starting in 2018. The deal is the first time major exports of shale gas
will be used in the U.K., according to the Guardian. Shale gas is a controversial energy source in the U.S. because it is recovered
from shale rock formations by fracking, [...]
Fracking
and Frackers Continue Expanding Oil Production. Since the 2008 financial crisis, U.S. petroleum consumption and imports have
declined. Simultaneously, domestic oil production has increased. On Wednesday March 20, the Energy Information Administration
(EIA) ran the headline "U.S. crude oil production on track to surpass imports for first time since 1995." The expectation is that
imports will sink to their lowest volumes since 1995, while crude production for the fourth quarter of 2014 will increase to levels not
seen since 1988.
Frack to the Future.
The real story on fracking, say scientists, is that the risks are small and the rewards immense. Fracking lowered the price of
natural gas so much that Americans heat our homes for less, and manufacturing that once left America has returned. For those
concerned about global warming, burning gas instead of oil or coal reduces CO2 emissions. "Skeptical Environmentalist" author
Bjorn Lomborg points out that "green" Europe promised to reduce emissions, but "only managed to cut half of what you guys accidentally
happened to do when you stumbled on fracking."
Gas
Bonanza for Germany? Berlin Wants to Fast-Track Fracking. Germany's governing coalition wants to quickly put an end
to a virtual moratorium on the controversial shale gas extraction method of fracking in the country, SPIEGEL has learned.
Officials want to have plans finished before the federal election this autumn.
I
drank fracking fluid, says Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper went to unusually great
lengths to learn firsthand the strides the oil and gas industry has made to minimize environmental harm from fracking. The
first-term Democrat and former Denver mayor told a Senate committee on Tuesday [2/12/2013] that he actually drank a glass of fracking
fluid produced by oilfield services giant Halliburton. The fluid is made entirely "of ingredients sourced from the food
industry," the company says, making it safe for Mr. Hickenlooper and others to imbibe.
UK Shale Gas Numbers Could Be
Stratospheric. While Europe dithers over whether the blatant economic success of the US shale gas 'miracle' will
translate to these shores, the UK Government has been slightly more pro-shale active. But, while the threat of (liberal
democrat-instituted) over-regulation still casts a shadow, the pro-shale (mostly conservative) wing of government looks set for
a stratospheric boost.
America's shale prosperity
creates a Texas 'shale billionaire'. In the pre-Eagle Ford Shale era (before 2010), Karnes County, Texas was one of the
poorest counties in the state. Now, the local economy is booming like never before, thanks to the oil bonanza in the nearby Eagle
Ford Shale. In November last year, $70 million in oil and gas royalties were paid to local landowners for just that month's
production, and it's possible that close to $1 billion in royalties were paid in total last year to Karnes County landowners.
Just the Fracks, Ma'am. Natural gas is a
cheap, abundant American resource, and cleaner than all of its viable alternatives to boot. It would be hard for a
reasonable person not to favor natural gas as a component of our national energy mix, but then anti-frackers like Josh Fox, Yoko Ono
and their ilk put little value on being reasonable people. They are the neo-Luddites resisting a modern energy revolution,
standing between the people and the prosperity promised by affordable domestic energy.
The Energy Potential
of Fracking. [Scroll down] Consider Pennsylvania and Ohio, both of which are reaping the benefits of fracking.
In Pennsylvania, this type of gas extraction has been underway since the 1960s, with nearly 100,000 oil and gas wells fracked, and no
instances of contamination of groundwater. The same clean record is true for Ohio, where more than 70,000 oil and gas wells have
been fracked since the 1960s. All this activity helps the state economies, of course.
The Abundance of Fossil Fuels. The use of horizontal
drilling and hydraulic fracking has unlocked vast reserves of hydrocarbons trapped in highly dense shale rock. A Citigroup study forecasts U.S. shale
oil production to rise by at least 2 million b/d by 2020. The United States has almost a trillion recoverable barrels of shale oil. After
decades of decline, U.S. oil production is now on the rise, entiely because of shale oil production. Shale oil could add around 3 million barrels
a day to U.S. oil production by 2020.
EPA caught sabotaging
fracking. [Ed Lasky has] written numerous columns regarding President Obama's War against Inspectors General.
These are the taxpayer advocates within various government agencies who seek to ensure that fraud, waste and abuse of power is
prevented. Hence, Obama determined opposition to them that has gone to such lengths as character assassination, attempts
to form a new $30 billion-dollar agency without an Inspector General, failing to replace Inspectors General when they depart.
Now comes news that again illustrates the reasons Obama has tried to gut the Inspector General program: one is investigating
possible abused or power at the EPA as part of its crusade against energy producers.
Fracking
Could Ruin Everything for Leftist Activists. The US contains well over 600 years of known reserves and that would
allow the US to be a net exporter of oil. If that happens, the "green" economy ruse that the left has sponsored, already reeling
from bankruptcies and cronyism, would collapse. It would show that there is no shortage of oil and "green" energy can not compete
with fossil fuels.
Could
Monterey Shale Save California? The former Golden State is floating in debt, even as it sits on two-thirds of America's
shale oil reserves locked in a formation four times the size of the one that sparked North Dakota's economic boom.
North Dakota Went Boom. This is the Big One that
North Dakota has been waiting for for more than a century.
Fracking and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning. It may be several years before we fully understand and appreciate the benefits our country derives from
fracking. We already know that chemical companies are planning to invest in the United States by building new plants that
will create more jobs by using low-cost natural gas. We know that low-cost natural gas benefits those who heat their homes
with natural gas. We also know that low-cost natural gas is lowering the cost of electricity. We also know that
fracking has resulted in an increase in oil production, which is allowing the United States to forego imports from the Mideast and
Venezuela, which improves our balance of payments and provides more royalty payments and fees to the federal and state governments.
Fracking's rise in U.S. inspires
the world. Fracking is going global. The U.S. energy industry clearly still leads the way on the revolutionary
drilling method that has upended global energy markets, but the rest of the world is beginning to catch up as nations seek to replicate
American success in oil and natural gas development.
NYT Attacks North Dakota Oil Town as
Sexist Nightmare. As some of you may have already heard, the state of North Dakota is currently experiencing a politically
incorrect and politically inconvenient economic boom in the midst of Obama's national economic program of stagnation. Thanks to the
discovery of oil and a government's willingness to get out of the way so industrious, risk-taking individuals can go after it, North
Dakota is now a working, breathing, real-life repudiation of everything Obama and his media worshipers stand for.
Obama's
Second Term Regulations That Will Destroy America. EPA is working to curtail hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") that
is providing access to America's huge oil and gas resources through a variety of mechanisms. One strategy applies guidance
measures which restrict use of diesel fuels in the process, stripping states of the primacy granted to them through the Safe Drinking
Water Act. This is premised upon a broadly criticized study purportedly linking fracking to water contamination. Other
back-door regulatory mechanisms include the Toxic Substances Control Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Air Act,
and potentially, applications of Effluent Limitations Guidelines for both shale gas extraction and coal-bed methane. Fracking is
not only under attack by EPA, but by more than a dozen other agencies as well. Included are the Department of Energy, the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM), the Center for Disease Control, the Department of Agriculture, and even the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Oil production to grow at
fastest rate ever. Driven by the shale boom, the United States in 2014 will hit its highest daily oil production level since 1988 and
will grow oil output at the highest rate ever, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted Tuesday [1/8/2013]. U.S. daily oil
production, which averaged 6.4 million barrels a day in 2012, will surge 23 percent to average 7.9 million barrels a day in 2014,
the administration said.
Is Conservative Despair Justified? As I've said before,
Obama and the EPA will ultimately be splatter on the windshield of [the fracking] progress. There's energy in them thar hills and eventually
we're going to get at it, whether these luddite environmental knuckleheads like it or not. That means wealth, energy independence, jobs, power
and a reboot of Dallas. Obama may be choosing decline, but the rest of the country may well choose prosperity and growth in spite of him.
Leaked Report, Suppressed by
Cuomo, Says Fracking is Safe. Cuomo's reluctance to release a report his administration commissioned is understandable in
light of a potential backlash by environmentalists. But suppressing information favorable to the use of fracking is only harming the
economy of the state which is losing out on jobs and tax revenue.
NYT Puts
Story of Leaked 'Fracking Is Safe' Report Covered Up for a Year on Page A19. One would think that a newspaper which in its
view has largely made its reputation on publishing leaked government documents and revealing government secrets would have been a bit more
excited about being the sole receipient of a report from the State of New York indicating that hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," is
safe. The State had already sat on the report for a year.
US Carbon Emissions in 2012 Will be Lower than in
2007 Due to Fracking. Instapundit points to this bit of happy news culled from John Hanger, a Democrat who is running for
governonr of Pennsylvania, where has been secretary of the state department of the environment and a commissioner of the public utility
commission.
The Editor says...
That's all very nice, if it makes you feel any better, but it doesn't matter
because carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.
The Democrats' War on Science Aids
Our Enemies. [Scroll down] Is this the only reason why a major carbon fuel producer paid off Gore in order to get a
cable channel in the U.S.? I think it's more than an effort to bring Arab political viewpoints into the U.S. I think it's part
of an ongoing effort to keep the U.S. from displacing the Middle East as the major gas producer by propagandizing against hydraulic gas
fracturing — fracking.
Seismic risk of fracking has been
wildly overstated. Hydraulic fracturing to produce oil and gas has become closely associated in the public mind with the risk
of triggering man-made earthquakes. But the risk is not high and it is not confined to fracking. There may be greater danger
from geothermal energy production and pumping carbon dioxide underground as part of carbon capture and storage projects.
EPA offers hints on fracking's future.
Fracking is safe until the Obama administration finishes burying the coal industry. Obama allows fracking to flourish because low gas
prices are killing coal. But when that mission is accomplished, watch out frackers.
Can UAE-Backed Film Shut
Down U.S. Fracking Boom? As the U.S. changes the balance of power by exporting some of its abundant natural gas resources, a Hollywood
propaganda film debuts claiming the technology making it possible will poison America's small towns.
'Promised Land' fares poorly
at theaters. Fracking gets natural gas out of the ground, but it isn't bringing people into movie theaters. Big stars
and political controversy didn't translate into a significant box-office haul as "Promised Land," a new movie exploring environmental
concerns about the gas-production method known more formally as "hydraulic fracturing," fared poorly in its nationwide opening.
EPA offers hints on fracking's future.
The Obama administration has pulled back the curtain on its long-awaited study of the possible correlation between water pollution and fracking, but
the full results and definitive findings of its far-reaching report won't be released until 2014. The review, the most sweeping federal survey
to date, likely will have major implications for the country's natural gas and oil boom spurred by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which has
transformed the U.S. fuel market and is reshaping the global energy landscape.
Let America's Gas Industry Boom.
Researchers at the Energy Department just released a comprehensive economic analysis, finding that the United States can reap massive economic benefits from allowing
the export of natural gas. Will the Obama administration go for the gold — or continue yielding to anti-export hysteria?
Lefty Luddites, green ideologues and Guardianista pillocks opposing our glorious shale gas revolution.
[Scroll down] So we've all heard of the Bakken and Marcellus Shales — the ones which have transformed the US economy, brought natural gas prices
down by two thirds, etc. Well our own Bowland Shale, under Blackpool is up to 40 times thicker. The depressing thing is that in a decade or so's
time when the shale gas revolution has really taken off in Britain — bringing prosperity, jobs and dramatically cheaper energy — no one is
going to remember the names of that rag bag of ideological greenies, wind turbine scamsters, ill-informed celebrities, enviro-loon activists and Guardianista
pillocks who fought so hard to stop it happening.
Ignore The Doom Merchants, Britain Should Get
Fracking. It's green, it's cheap and it's plentiful! So why are opponents of shale gas making such a fuss? In
their mad denunciations of fracking, the Greens and the eco-warriors betray the mindset of people who cannot bear a piece of unadulterated
good news.
Yoko Sets Her Sights on Breaking Up Fracking.
Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon took out a full-page ad in the New York Times Monday [12/10/2012] to protest natural gas fracking in New York
state.
Shale Gas Drilling 'Huge Boost' To UK Economy.
Drilling for shale gas could create "tens of thousands" of jobs in the UK and generate vast sums of money for the Treasury, according to a
UK-based exploration company. Cuadrilla chief executive Francis Egan has told the Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee that the
controversial process will also reduce Britain's dependency on imported gas.
Energy Economics in One Lesson.
America's shale gas boom is so promising that it has some people discombobulated — including, naturally, our politicians. The
same folks who complain about America's trade deficit now want the U.S. government to ban the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG). This
is one way to ruin what has been a very rare piece of good U.S. economic news.
Obama Is Not Improving Ohio's
Economy - Fracking Is. One of the largest deposits that's currently paying off is the Marcellus Shale, in western Pennsylvania
and eastern Ohio. As perhaps the most prominent battleground state in the presidential election, Ohio's economic conditions will have an
effect on the entire nation. And make no mistake — the economy is improving in Ohio, NOT because of Obama. It's due to
fracking.
New
technology means Britain and the U.S. could tap undreamed reserves of gas and oil. Thirty years ago, I was Secretary of State for
Energy in Margaret Thatcher's government, and one way and another I have been a close observer of the energy scene ever since. In all that
time, I have never known a technological revolution as momentous as the breakthrough that has now made it economic to extract gas from shale.
Time to rein in the EPA.
[Scroll down] In another instance, a lead reviewer on a panel evaluating EPA's hydraulic fracturing study published an article titled "Regulate,
Baby, Regulate," writing glowingly of the now largely-debunked film about hydraulic fracturing, Gasland, concluding that the natural gas extraction
process "lacks adequate oversight and regulations." How could this individual possibly provide an impartial review of a process about which he
plainly already feels so strongly? EPA's bias has affected its scientific judgment not only in its choice of peer reviewers but also when it
comes to studying the effects of oil and gas development.
Obama's EPA Plans for 2013. Today the
Obama administration — through no less than fourteen federal agencies, including the EPA, the Department of Energy (DOE), the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) — is currently working to find ways to regulate hydraulic fracturing at the federal level,
so that they can limit and eventually stop the practice altogether.
Perverse environmentalist oil sands ethics. The duplicity and hypocrisy of
environmental pressure groups seem to be matched only by their consummate skill at manipulating public opinion, amassing political power, securing taxpayer-funded
government grants, and persuading people to send them money and invest in "ethical" stock funds. In the annals of "green" campaigns, those against biotechnology,
DDT and Alar are especially prominent. To those we should now add the well-orchestrated campaigns against Canadian oil sands and the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Shale spawns another rail project. Three San Antonio
real estate developers will break ground next month on the Live Oak Railroad, hoping to snag a slice of a South Texas Eagle Ford shale rail boom.
Live Oak Railroad aims to open by late March 2013 south of Three Rivers in Live Oak County, with 28,000 feet of track along the Union Pacific
line. Plans call for it to serve as a liquids terminal for natural gas and crude oil.
Obama Is Right. Disingenuously, he portrays himself as
the "Energy President," while his policy has always been none of the above, unless it is wind or solar, which he calls the energy of the future
when it is truly the energy of the past. With Barack, it is always yesterday's answers to today's problems. That's why he likes
high-speed rail so much. He is singlehandedly destroying the coal industry in America, while restricting drilling for oil in the Gulf and off
our shores as well as on all public lands. The EPA is now in the process of formulating rules to regulate "fracking" nationwide.
It's a safe bet that any new regulations won't increase production.
Reports: Marcellus reserves
larger than expected. Two independent financial firms say the Marcellus isn't just the biggest natural gas field in the
country — it's the cheapest place for energy companies to drill.
Giving in to fears of fracking. In Pennsylvania, Texas, and other areas,
fracking is being done without any adverse health effects or contaminated water supplies, Dr. Ross notes. He says crossing the Pennsylvania/New York
border can feel a bit like traveling between last century's East and West Germany. In Pennsylvania, where the industry is fracking the Marcellus
Shale, the region is booming — salaries are up, unemployment is down and so many people have moved to the region for jobs that they're living
in trailers. But the New York border towns are economically depressed.
Cuomo's De-Fracking. A state moratorium has blocked
hydraulic fracturing since 2010, but a four-year environmental review was supposed to pay off with new rules to allow drilling this November. The Cuomo
Administration has instead announced it will restart the process, with more studies, more hearings and more years of delay.
'Sometimes
we have to step outside the boundaries of the Constitution to get things done'. Environmentalists want to ban hydraulic fracturing in Las
Vegas, N.M., and the surrounding county and they don't plan to let the United States Constitution stop them. "What people don't understand is
sometimes we have to step outside the boundaries of the Constitution to get things done," Paula Hern, a board member with Community for Clean Water Air
and Earth, told the ABQ Journal. "Laws are made to protect corporations and we need laws that protect Mother Earth — earth, air and
water." Hern was defending a "community rights ordinance" banning fracking that the Las Vegas (N.M.) City Council passed but the mayor refused to
sign. "The way it reads, it will supersede everything — our city charter, state and federal laws," said Mayor Alfonso Ortiz.
Obama Is Not Improving Ohio's
Economy — Fracking Is. One of the largest deposits that's currently paying off is the Marcellus Shale, in western
Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. As perhaps the most prominent battleground state in the presidential election, Ohio's economic conditions
will have an effect on the entire nation. And make no mistake — the economy is improving in Ohio, NOT because of Obama.
It's due to fracking.
We're from the government, and...
It is axiomatic that if the federal government had realized five or six years ago that the technological advances in directional drilling and
hydraulic fracturing that have set off the current domestic oil and natural gas boom were coming, they surely would have done something to
stop it. Now the greens and federal regulators are trying to play catch up: they can't openly try to stop the boon of new
domestic energy because its benefits (like cheap natural gas and 1 percent unemployment in North Dakota) are too evident, so they are
trying to slow it up with "concern" about "issues."
Matt Damon's troubled anti-frack
film. Matt Damon and John Krasinski ran into a big problem while making their film "Promised Land"; how they solved it tells
us a lot about Hollywood. Some time ago, the two actors decided to make a movie about fracking — a method of getting
once-inaccessible oil and gas out of the ground that has become the bête noire of many environmentalists.
Matt Damon's Anti-Fracking Movie
Financed by Oil-Rich Arab Nation. A new film starring Matt Damon presents American oil and natural gas producers as money-grubbing villains
purportedly poisoning rural American towns. It is therefore of particular note that it is financed in part by the royal family of the oil-rich
United Arab Emirates.
Environmentalist Movie Funded by Oil-Rich Royalty.
Matt Damon turned to oil-rich Middle East royalty to finance his film attacking domestically produced natural gas. The environmentalist screed,
Promised Land, received a chunk of its funding from the United Arab Emirates, an oil kingdom known for its lavish spending on man-made islands and the
world's tallest building, according to the Heritage Foundation.
Abu Dhabi Media's Hollywood Propaganda. As
Heritage has pointed out, The Promised Land, the troubled piece of lefty Hollywood agitprop aimed at the domestic oil industry is actually
financed by the international oil industry.
Hollywood fracks up. [T]he sad
truth is that this lame-assed, eco-propaganda movie has nothing whatsoever to do with the genuine threat of wind farms but with the almost
wholly imaginary one of fracking. Fracking has been a godsend to the US economy, blessing it with clean, cheap, abundant energy which
has enriched those states lucky enough to have big shale gas reserves, created jobs and increased America's energy security by reducing its
reliance on imported gas from unstable countries. What's not to like about shale gas?
Frack film's flim-flam.
'Promised Land," a new movie from Matt Damon and John Krasinski, attacks fracking — a new way of getting oil and gas out of the ground,
which has become the latest villain of the environmental movement. Last week, I revealed the film's co-writers, Damon and Krasinski, have
gone to enormous lengths to twist the narrative to make American energy corporations the villain. At the time, their efforts could be just passed
off as just another Hollywood leftist fantasy to explain why the world is not how they think it should be. But now a more sinister possibility
has emerged.
A fracking good story. Carbon-dioxide emissions in the United States
have dropped to their lowest level in 20 years. Estimating on the basis of data from the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) from the first five
months of 2012, this year's expected CO2 emissions have declined by more than 800 million tons, or 14 percent, from their peak in 2007. The
cause is an unprecedented switch to natural gas, which emits 45 percent less carbon per energy unit. The US used to generate about half its
electricity from coal, and roughly 20 percent from gas. Over the past five years, those numbers have changed, first slowly and now dramatically:
in April of this year, coal's share in power generation plummeted to just 32 percent, on par with gas.
Global protests
planned over gas drilling process. More than 100 protests against the natural gas drilling process
known as fracking are scheduled to take place around the world on Saturday [9/22/2012], building on public concerns
but also using an overly simplified message to spur outrage.
"Frackdown?" Environmental activists
protest gas drilling. On Saturday [9/22/2012], activists at roughly 100 events around the globe were scheduled to protest a controversial
oil and gas extraction practice called hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Organizers dubbed their activities in North America, Europe and Australia
a "Global Frackdown." More than 50 Code Pink members gathered near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
The Editor says...
You remember Code Pink, don't you? They're the people who
protest Middle East wars, but only while a Republican is in the White House.
The
EPA's Arrogance and Incompetence Keeps America Dependent on Foreign Oil. Instead of moving forward with a "Hydraulic Fracturing
Study" as requested by Congress, the EPA has done what is characteristic of this administration; they've blown it out of proportion —
making it something bigger, requiring additional personnel, and creating more management, at greater expense. [...] Congress requested a report
based on "best available science," not opinion, yet the EPA has included items such as "environmental justice" — which has nothing
to do with science, and "discharges to publicly owned water treatment plants" — which are no longer a part of the hydraulic
fracturing process.
Fracks of life — and
death — for NY pol. One of the state Legislature's leading backers of "hydrofracking" for natural gas has
received death threats from what he believes are environmental radicals opposed to the controversial drilling technique, The [New York]
Post has learned. "There have been repeated threats to me of bodily harm," Deputy Senate Majority Leader Thomas Libous
(R-Binghamton) angrily told The Post. "There have been calls saying, 'We know where you live,' 'We'll come to your
house' — that kind of stuff," Libous continued. Libous said he had notified law enforcement of the threats.
Oil-boom wealth a mixed
blessing for Eagle Ford's school districts. Million-dollar homes and leafy boulevards once were the surest sign that you lived in
a rich Texas school district. Now add drilling rigs, dusty roads and overnight trailer parks. [...] About a third of the 23 districts
the Texas Education Agency added to its annual list of property-wealthy districts are on the Eagle Ford, an oil-and-gas-rich shale formation
stretching through a dozen counties south and east of San Antonio. A new extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing has amped up
the region's economy — and drastically altered its tax base, thanks in large part to taxable mineral rights.
Natural
gas vehicles get a second look in the U.S.. As America finds more reserves of natural gas, the auto industry is sure
to take notice. [...] New methods of extracting the gas are one of the biggest changes affecting the auto industry in years, General
Motors chief economist Mustafa Mohatarem said. "The U. S. now has a 100-year supply of natural gas," he said. "I'd make a
bet it's the next big transportation fuel. The price is so much lower than gasoline — people will find a way to
use it."
The Editor says...
And the government will find a way to tax it as a motor fuel, when natural gas is used as such.
Hydraulic
Fracturing: Critical for Energy Production, Jobs, and Economic Growth. Energy production on private lands in the United
States has been one of the most promising success stories in recent years, at a time when the country has struggled to grow economically.
A large part of the success behind this tremendous oil and gas production and jobs creation is due to an energy-extraction process known as
hydraulic fracturing. Misconceptions about hydraulic fracturing abound. The Heritage Foundation's Nicolas Loris explains how,
regulated effectively, hydraulic fracturing is safe — as well as necessary for energy production and job creation in the
United States.
Fracking Leads To Cleaner Air.
Carbon emissions in the U.S. have hit a 20-year low due to a supposedly environmentally unfriendly drilling technique that has created an abundance of cheap
natural gas. The free market, it seems, does it better than the EPA.
Hydraulic Fracturing Poses Low Risk of
Earthquakes. The production of oil and natural gas through hydraulic fracturing methods creates only a low risk for
inducing earthquakes that can be felt by people, the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, concludes
in a new study. Only a very small fraction of natural resource extraction activities has caused noticeable earthquakes, and these
are related to wastewater storage activities subsequent to, and separate from, the fracking process itself, the report notes.
Experts: Some fracking critics use bad science. [Scroll
down] For example, reports that breast cancer rates rose in a region with heavy gas drilling are false, researchers told The Associated Press.
Natural gas naysayers ignore the
facts. Thanks to technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, the United States is the world's largest producer of natural
gas. But while domestic natural gas and oil production continues to increase, opponents of the new technology continue to become more
desperate. The environmental lobby, which condemns natural gas drilling, once praised natural gas as a "bridge fuel" to a new "energy
economy." Now anti-energy activists are intensifying their rhetoric and taking their anti-natural-gas attack to Washington. On
Saturday [7/28/2012], anti-energy activists are rallying in the nation's capital to "stop the frack attack." But it's hard to
understand what they are complaining about.
EPA
wannabe? Transportation Department goes after natural gas drilling. President Obama's EPA hasn't managed to put a dent
in fracking so far, and so now the Transportation Department is getting into the act. The Transportation Department has
reinterpreted an old rule in a way that undermines the industry.
Texas' fracking disclosure law
leaves questions. According to The [Dallas Morning] News, companies aren't required to specify the amount of chemicals used
on each drill site. The lost detail could mean thousands of pounds of hazardous chemicals could be used in hydraulic fracturing or
sitting idle on drilling sites, The News reported. Overall, more than a billion pounds of chemicals could be pumped underground
North Texas to release trapped natural gas and oil. The newspaper calculated the number based on percentage of chemicals on a
typical site.
Capitol Protesters Think Fossil Fuels are a
Big Fracking Deal. What do you get when you bring hundreds of fervent environmentalists and NIMBYs together on the west lawn of the
Capitol to denounce fracking, every single fuel that originates from the ground, and, for old time's sake, Dick Cheney? You get enviro banjo
tunes, the "Ecological Our Father" at the interfaith prayer service ("Our Father, who art in the forest..."), and more punny protest signs built
off the F-bomb than even Joe Biden could dream up. Do it on a standard hot, humid July day in D.C., and add in the global warming
condemnations and simultaneous praises of the solar intensity as an endless wellspring of clean energy.
Frackin': The EPA is well known for its
attacks on virtually every kind of industry that might result in economic development — hitting the energy sector particularly hard.
Despite the agency's best efforts, it has not been able to match up the science with its desired claims of water contamination from natural
gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing — which has been in use in America for more than 60 years.
I do not like this, Uncle Sam, I do not like the GO
GREEN Scam. [Scroll down] Harvard Research Fellow Leonardo Maugeri said that U.S. huge oil and gas shale
reserves are "the most important revolution in the oil sector in decades." The Sierra Club, a left-wing environmentalist
group, after touting natural gas as a cleaner alternative to coal and oil for years, has "undertaken a massive campaign against
the extraction of natural gas from shale." The EPA targets companies that use hydraulic fracturing (fracking), accusing
them of environmental contamination of soil and water. Scant evidence is provided of such contamination.
Plunge
In CO2 Output Due To Natural Gas Fracking. The most underreported recent environmental story has been the dramatic decline
in energy-related carbon emissions — nearly back to mid-1990s levels, and falling. Maybe it's because that story just
doesn't fit the left's mantra that traditional energy sources are destroying the environment.
Fracking flop. The anti-affordable energy crowd has
suffered another setback. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday [7/25/2012] released the results of extensive testing that
found nothing toxic in the water in Dimock, Pa. That's the town where the anti-drilling documentary "Gasland" filmed dramatic images of a
homeowner lighting his tap water on fire. The film blamed the strange occurrence on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a procedure that
uses a pressurized mixture to extract natural gas from shale rock formations.
Derry
well sites empty as low gas prices stop Marcellus Shale drillers. Natural gas prices have fallen to the lowest levels in a decade,
leading drillers to move rigs to places like Ohio where more profitable natural gas liquids and oil are available. As a result, the rigs have
taken a hiatus in Derry. The evidence can be seen on Mr. Gera's property, where the hole has been drilled but the rock hasn't been hydraulically
fractured. No gas is coming to the surface to be fed into a pipeline — and no royalties will be paid until then.
Experts: Some fracking critics use bad
science. In the debate over natural gas drilling, the companies are often the ones accused of twisting the facts. But
scientists say opponents sometimes mislead the public, too.
For Energy Producers, Natural
Gas May Not Be the Only Source of a Glut. Energy producers struggling with decade-low natural-gas prices
have been relying on related fuels such as ethane, propane and butane to remain profitable. But so many companies
have increased drilling of wells with the fuels, known as natural-gas liquids, that their prices are falling as well,
creating a new supply-glut problem for the industry and threatening to crimp profits.
Why Natural Gas Could Displace Gasoline.
Massive natural gas discoveries along with new extraction techniques have led many to claim nat gas as the fuel of the future — which could
ensure U.S. energy independence, reduce geopolitical risks, and help meet U.S. electricity demands for the next 575 years. Yet why
have we seen so many negative publications and reports? Does natural gas really have a place in our future and is it the golden chalice we have
been led to believe?
[Emphasis added.]
Don't
let the Watermelons kill the Shale Gas Revolution. Imagine if we were to discover a new form of cheap,
clean energy so abundant that it will provide our needs at least for the next two centuries, freeing us from the pervasive
early 21st century neurosis of having to worry about "peak oil" or "conserving scarce resources", causing a worldwide
economic boom and with the added side-benefit of creating more fertiliser so that we can not only heat our homes more
cheaply than ever before but also eat more cheaply than ever before. Imagine how environmentalists would react if
such a miracle came into being. Actually we don't need to imagine for the miracle is already here.
An expanded natural gas focus is
a no-brainer. We have massive amounts of a fuel that is more efficient and less environmentally damaging than oil or coal, enough to
handle our own needs and to make us one of the largest net energy exporters, good for our economy and our foreign policy. The discovery of
massive additional amounts of natural gas have reduced prices to a fraction of equivalent amounts of oil.
Greens
Flummoxed By Cheap, Clean U.S. Gas. Green groups have a major new concern: fracking, the
process of extracting natural gas from shale deposits far underground. What they don't have is much hard
evidence that fracking is a danger. Fracking already is producing a bonanza in the U.S. Theoretically
it could provide enough to replace all coal-powered electricity with cleaner-burning natural gas.
Natural
gas: fuel of the future. [Scroll down] As if on cue, a couple of weeks ago the US Energy
Information Agency released an assessment of 48 shale gas basins in 32 countries. The
numbers are staggering: over a six-fold increase in the 1,001 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of
natural gas that was previously known to be "proven" reserves. According to the EIA report, over
6,600 Tcf of shale gas resources are estimated to be technically recoverable.
Drill, Baby, Drill
(Again). It may come as a shock to many that rather than having a mere 2 percent of
global reserves, this country is energy-rich, with known reserves far exceeding those of any other
nation. Many Americans already know that our proven coal reserves will hold out for another
400 years — and probably much longer. Less well known is that in recent years there has been a quiet
natural-gas revolution in this country. In 2008, estimated natural-gas reserves in the U.S. were
177 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). Since then, we have produced 165 Tcf and have 245 Tcf
left. This bounty is the result of new drilling techniques that have massively added to our
reserves. Currently, we have approximately a century of proven gas reserves, a number sure
to grow over time.
Fracking
gets a clean bill of health. [Scroll down] This accident was among the most serious that
can happen during the completion of an onshore shale-gas well. Yet nobody was injured, the public was
never in danger, and there was no lasting impact on the environment, as the analysis shows. ... But don't
expect the anti-fossil-fuel crowd to let scientific evidence get in its way.
Shale study's lead
author faces 'green' backlash. Faced with mounting criticism, the State University of New York at Buffalo is
distancing itself from a Marcellus Shale gas-drilling study released earlier this month by the school's own Shale Resources
and Society Institute. But the report's lead author is defending the work by the fledgling institute, saying Monday [5/28/2012]
that it's being mischaracterized by environmental activists who oppose any additional domestic fossil-fuel production.
Eagle Ford Shale's has had profound
impact on Texas. The Eagle Ford shale drilling boom has boosted wages and job growth, and the increased drilling in 23 South
Texas counties will likely have a continued impact on the state, according to a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. According
to the report released this week, the drilling boom has increased wages by more than 14 percent, job growth rose by nearly 6 percent and
retail sales jumped 9.3 percent in 23 South Texas counties. Live Oak and McMullen counties, which sit directly above natural gas
liquids and oil deposits, benefited the most from the drilling boom, according to the study.
America Can Be An Energy
Superpower. America could have enough oil resources to meet today's oil demand levels in the
future for decades without importing from unfriendly foreign countries. That is the conclusion of a
new report from the National Petroleum Council. The report also finds that America has huge volumes
of natural gas that can meet decades of demand.
USGS boosts
Marcellus gas estimates. A new assessment of the Marcellus Shale says the Northeastern U.S.
formation may contain 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, recoverable natural gas, far more than
believed less than a decade ago.
Blueprint
for Western Energy Prosperity. The West has the potential to produce 6.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas annually
by 2020, an additional one Tcf from 2010 levels. Combined, western oil and natural gas is projected to produce more energy on a daily
basis than the total U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela, Colombia, Algeria, Nigeria, and Russia.
Why American Natural Gas Will
Change The World. The spanner in the works is political risk of course; how much gas will Washington allow to leave its shores?
A couple of years ago you'd have said not much, but the fact the EIA has just downgraded recoverable shale reserves from 827 tcf in 2011 to
482 tcf in 2012 tells you all need to know. If the US wants to maintain its shale revolution, it badly needs prices to firm to make
fields economically viable.
Take a common-sense approach toward
energy. Today we're the most energy-endowed nation in the world, with enough clean, reliable, abundant and cheap natural
gas to last for generations. It's "like adding another Venezuela or Kuwait by 2020," according to Pulitzer Prize-winning energy
expert Daniel Yergin, who believes that the world energy map now centers on North America, not the Middle East.
Obama Wants Power, Not Jobs. Natural gas is a feedstock for the production of
fertilizer, plastics, and many chemical products. Fortunately, America possesses vast reserves of recoverable natural gas. The low price of this gas is
one factor spurring companies like Dow Chemical to expand production in the United States rather than send jobs overseas. [...] It all sounds like an economic
miracle, and it is. So why is Obama trying to kill it?
Full of (Natural)
Gas. [Scroll down] America has over a 100-year supply of natural gas. We have
more natural gas reserves in North America than the Saudis have oil. How much more? According
to the CIA's Factbook, Saudi Arabia has 264 billion barrels of oil. We have seven hundred
billion barrels of oil equivalent in our natural gas reserves — about 2.5 times more.
Natural gas under Gulf may
be too much of a good thing. The prospect of yet another new frontier for U.S. natural gas
development, this time in super-deep wells beneath the Gulf of Mexico's shallow waters, is not all good
news for Houston's energy sector. ... [It could] boost already swollen U.S. gas supplies, weaken prices
and keep producers on the sidelines.
The Editor says...
Since when is cheap and plentiful energy a bad thing? That's what all sensible people have
wanted for at least a century.
Natural gas supplements petroleum. Gas could be the answer in
global warming fight. An unlikely source of energy has emerged to meet international demands
that the United States do more to fight global warming: It's cleaner than coal, cheaper than oil
and a 90-year supply is under our feet.
America's Natural
Gas Revolution. The biggest energy innovation of the decade is natural gas?more specifically
what is called "unconventional" natural gas. Some call it a revolution. Yet the natural gas revolution
has unfolded with no great fanfare, no grand opening ceremony, no ribbon cutting. It just crept up.
It's a Gas. [Scroll down]
To sum up very briefly, the risk-taking private sector — driven by the potential of huge future
profits (anti-capitalists take note!) — has developed the technology to recover natural gas that
was previously thought to be unreachable. This technology has only come of age in the last two years,
but already the amount of natural gas we're producing is on its way to transforming the U.S. into the leading
gas-producing nation in the world.
Freedom From Foreign Oil.
In the last few years natural gas has been found in abundance in the United States. In fact, we have
2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, mostly in Appalachia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and
Texas — more than twice the amount of Saudi oil, enough to last us 100 years. Recent
innovations make it cleaner to burn and cheaper to use. It is the only fuel that can replace diesel in
semis and other heavy-duty vehicles. Battery power will not work on these behemoths, nor will ethanol.
Seeing Chukchi. Back
in July [2008], ... it was thought that Chukchi's waters northwest of Alaska's landmass held 30 billion cubic feet
of natural gas. Today, Science magazine reports that the U.S. Geological Survey now finds it holds more than anyone
thought — 1.6 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered gas, or 30% of the world's supply and 83 billion
barrels of undiscovered oil, 4% of the global conventional resources. That's enough U.S. energy to achieve
self-sufficiency and never worry about it as a national security question again. The only thing left to
do is drill.
Discovered: 200
trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Good news for America undermines the green energy agenda.
The Wall Street Journal reports a huge new discovery of natural gas — a fossil fuel so clean even
liberals can stand it. ... Good news, right? It's good for consumers, it's good for the country and the economy,
and it's good for the world's resources. ... But it's bad for the Fear Industry ... it's bad for our media
airheads, who have to think of whole new scare headlines ... it's bad for the Green Doom Brigade.
The Editor says...
Here's an easy solution: Liquefy the gas and export it. Who could possibly object to an idea like that?
Environmentalists challenge natural gas
export plans. Environmentalists are challenging Freeport LNG's bid to export natural gas from a facility in Texas — the
latest attempt to undercut a push by more than a half dozen companies to send the fossil fuel overseas. The move by the Sierra Club came
in the form of a formal protest lodged with the Energy Department, which is considering a request by Freeport LNG and other firms for licenses
to export liquefied natural gas.
Fracking:
The Radical Left's Latest Weapon of Fear. A Congressional Research Service report to Congress in
late 2009 indicated that America's combined supply of recoverable natural gas, oil, and coal exceeds every other
nation on earth; even far greater than Saudi Arabia, China, and Canada combined! The CRS report was independently
confirmed last month by the Institute for Energy Research with the release of the North American Energy Inventory.
The IER study says the U.S. has more than 1.4 trillion barrels of recoverable oil reserves; 1.7 trillion
barrels when combined with Canada and Mexico. That's enough for 250 years of U.S. consumption according
to the IER, and more than the entire world has used in the previous 150 years. Additionally, the North
American continent has 4.2 quadrillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas reserves — enough
to last the next 175 years at current rates of consumption according to IER.
Wake Up and
Smell the Energy. In terms of oil, the proven reserves of 1.79 trillion barrels available in
North America is more than will likely ever flow through the Strait of Hormuz and in fact twice that of all
the OPEC nations combined. That's enough to fill the tank of every passenger car in the United States
for the next 30 years. Our natural gas future is even brighter. An estimated 4.244 quadrillion
cubic feet of recoverable resources could keep every home well-heated for the next 575 winters at current
usage rates.
The environmentalists are now going after
the production of frac sand in Wisconsin. Sand
mining boom in Midwest emerges in fracking debate. Largely overlooked in the national debate over
fracking is the emerging fight in the U.S. heartland over mining "frac sand," which has grains of ideal size,
shape, strength and purity.
EPA
is Binge Gambling with US Economy. In recent history, we've collectively bet on "sure things" and
lost. We once believed there was an energy shortage — but modern technology and resource expansion
have created a global oil glut, and natural gas is so plentiful that it is currently priced at a two-year low.
America is now a net exporter of fuel.
Fracking Is Unlikely to Cause
Earthquakes. Hydraulic fracturing does not present a significant risk of causing earthquakes, according to a newly published
report by the National Research Council. The National Research Council, which is a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, found the
only significant risk of earthquakes related to hydraulic fracturing comes from injecting hydraulic fracturing wastewater underground after
the conclusion of fracking. Even then, seismic events associated with injecting wastewater underground have been minor, and have not
resulted in loss of life of significant damage.
Fracking: An existential threat to green
dogma. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing is a true "game changer." In less than
two years, this proven but still rapidly advancing technology has obliterated longstanding claims that we are
running out of petroleum. Instead, the USA now finds itself blessed with centuries of oil and gas.
Thankfully, much of it is on state and private lands, which cannot easily be locked up by federal diktat.
Little Green Morons. As
this is being written vast new reserves of natural gas are being found all over the nation, but as far as the
Sierra Club is concerned, drilling for it poses risks "to our air, water, climate, and people in their
communities." Short of putting your head in the oven and turning on the gas, there are no significant
risks and haven't been any in the sixty years or so that "fracking" has been used to access natural gas.
Cheap Natural Gas and
Its Enemies. A vast reservoir of clean-burning natural gas could be available at reasonable cost
in the coming years, freeing us from some of our dependence on imported energy. Yet there are those who
consider such a development a threat.
Ohio set to see oil boom thanks to
fracking. Ohio hasn't been an oil powerhouse for nearly 100 years. But thanks to
controversial new drilling technology, the state that once produced a third of the nation's crude and was the
birthplace of John D. Rockefeller's mighty Standard Oil could once again be a significant source of
domestic supply.
Progressives Crave Energy Scarcities.
Imagine what a horror 2011 was for progressives as Americans began to comprehend their stunning abundance of
fossil fuels — beyond their two centuries' supply of coal. Progressives responded with attempts to
impede development of the vast, proven reserves of natural gas and oil here and in Canada. They bent the
willowy Obama to delay approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to carry oil from Canadian tar sands; they
raised environmental objections to new techniques for extracting gas and "tight" oil from shale formations.
EPA study on fracking
and water questioned. The oil and gas industry continues to cast doubt on the validity of an ongoing Environmental
Protection Agency effort to determine potential links between fracking and water contamination. The international research
firm Battelle on Tuesday [7/10/2012] released a major new report on the EPA's study methods, which many critics think is meant
solely to demonize fossil fuels and provide political justification for sweeping new federal regulations. The American
Petroleum Institute and the America's Natural Gas Alliance commissioned the Battelle report, though neither organization would
reveal how much they paid to have it done.
Will President Obama's Re-election Doom
Fracking? The top White House energy aide says new regulations gripping the technology responsible for unlocking America's vast oil and
gas reserves will be ready by year's end. Team Obama's war on fossil fuels continues.
Carney: 'I feel rotten' about accidental fracking vote.
State House lawmakers have apparently accidentally legalized fracking in North Carolina, due to a deciding vote one Democrat says was a mistake.
Rep. Becky Carney, D-Mecklenburg, says she did not intend to cast the key vote that overrode the governor's veto of the bill. The vote
was 72-47, exactly the number needed for an override. Without Carney's vote, the veto would have been sustained.
Democrat's accidental vote
legalizes natural gas fracking in North Carolina. North Carolina is moving forward to legalize hydraulic fracturing — commonly
called fracking — after an accidental vote by Democratic state Rep. Becky Carney overrode Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue's veto on Monday
[7/2/2012]. Perdue had attempted to veto a Senate bill passed to allow the natural-gas extraction technique in her state, WRAL reported.
The vote was 72-47, with Carney's accident providing the final vote necessary for the override.
No Frac'ing Way. The fractures induced in the gas-bearing shales
are essentially horizontal; and since the gas shales such as the Barnett Shale [Texas] are on average over a mile below any drinking water aquifers;
there is no possibility that these fractures will travel through the overlying mile of solid rock allowing contamination of drinking water in these
shallow aquifers. The question is not whether there is contamination of drinking water from the frac'ing procedure undertaken in shale-gas
operations as much as it is a question of how false claims by the environmentalist lobby can go unchallenged.
Industry
groups: Administration overestimating emissions at 'fracking' sites. The amount of methane released from hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking, is half what the Obama administration estimates, according to a study released Monday [6/4/2012] by the American Petroleum Institute and the America's
Natural Gas Alliance. Howard Feldman, API's director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs told reporters on a conference call that the study
"provides the best, most comprehensive estimate of methane emissions from U.S. natural gas production. It's based on data from ten times as
many wells as support the estimate EPA has been using."
Study: State oversight of gas drilling doing just fine.
In the past, we've talked about a lot of the hysteria and hype among environmentalists when it comes to regulation of natural gas drilling in general and fracking in
particular. [...] In case any of them are truly interested in finding out the facts, we now have a new study from the University of Buffalo which reveals something
many of you should have known already.
Vermont becomes 1st state to ban fracking.
Vermont's governor has signed into law the first state ban on a hotly debated natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. There's no
drilling currently happening in Vermont, which is believed to have little to no reserves of oil or natural gas.
Town's Effort To Link Fracking And Illness
Falls Short. Quite a few of the 225 people who live in Dish, Texas, think the nation's natural gas boom is making them sick.
They blame the chemicals used in gas production for health problems ranging from nosebleeds to cancer. [...] But scientists say it's just not clear
whether pollutants from gas wells are hurting people in Dish or anywhere else. What is clear, they say, is that the evidence the town has presented
so far doesn't have much scientific heft.
Get The Frackin' Gas.
An oil company wants to invest its profits in clean-burning American natural gas. A Hungarian billionaire
and a "green" politician want to stop it. This is the real Climate-gate scandal.
America "awash in natural gas" but will enviros stop its production?
Fossil fuels account for 84 percent of all the energy America uses now and they will account for 78 percent
in 2035, according to U.S. government projections that include the most likely levels of growth in renewable
energy source like wind and solar. That in turn means we are going to need all the oil and gas we can
find and produce for the foreseeable future.
Study: Fracking Does Not Contaminate
Groundwater. The hydraulic fracturing process of extracting natural gas from shale rock formations has not resulted in any groundwater
contamination, according to a study released by the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
Top 10 misguided energy policies. [#9] Fracking regulations:
Techonological advances in fracking are allowing oil and gas companies to extract energy resources at reduced costs, helping rejuventate the economies of
states from North Dakota to Texas. So leave it to the EPA to try to stifle the process with new regulations to curb emissions from fracking.
The new standards will cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollar, slowing the fracking boom.
Vermont
Primed to Become First U.S. State to Ban Fracking. Vermont's House last week voted 10-36 to give final passage
to a bill that could make the state the first in the nation to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.
Vermont's Senate has already approved the measure, and the bill is undergoing a final review by legislative staffers before
being sent to Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin (D). Shumlin has reiterated his opposition to fracking in Vermont, saying
in April, "Here in Vermont, we want to ensure that we're not injecting chemicals into our beautiful rocks for any reason."
Appointees
show what Obama is. In the EPA's case, when they condemned fracturing to obtain gas from shale as harmful to ground water
they have to date no evidence to sustain that claim other than the ravings of another bunch of out-of-control environmentalists.
The EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, publicly stated that fact when interviewed by the press regarding the regional director's outrageous
remarks.
More fracking red tape. The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday [4/18/2012] finalized 588 pages of new restrictions on the production of natural gas and oil that
take primary aim at hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," a drilling technique that releases trapped natural gas from underground shale.
Gas producers will be required to install equipment on about 13,000 new natural gas wells and around 1,200 old ones to prevent released gas
from escaping into the atmosphere, where the agency says it contributes to "greenhouse" gases. Humans and animals release the same
vilified gases merely by being alive.
EPA
finalizes first-ever air pollution rules for natural-gas 'fracking'. The Environmental Protection Agency
unveiled first-ever regulations Wednesday [4/18/2012] aimed at reducing toxic air pollution from the natural-gas drilling
practice known as "fracking." The regulations — which would also target emissions from compressors, oil
storage tanks and other oil-and-gas sector equipment — would cut 95 percent of smog-forming and toxic
emissions from wells developed with fracking, EPA said.
Fracking Vindicated. The environmental left views the
incredible rebirth of the American fossil fuel industry, wrought by unconventional methods (fracking and horizontal drilling), with alarm and
disgust. The idea that the United States could easily fulfill all of its energy needs by utilizing its great domestic reserves of fossil
fuels arouses their collective anger, and they have been battling this technology via every means at their disposal.
EPA Targets New York Fracking
Standards. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has sent a series of letters to New York state officials
suggesting dozens of restrictions on natural gas fracking above and beyond those being contemplated by state officials.
Although fracking regulation always has been handled by the individual states, many observers say EPA is firing a shot across
the bow of New York and other states, indicating it may soon seek to usurp state authority on fracking.
Is the EPA Just Sloppy,
or Cooking the Books? After issuing a hastily compiled report last year claiming a direct link between groundwater
contamination and hydraulic fracturing at Pavillion, Wyoming, the EPA now admits that it may be wrong. Or, it may be, it
was intentionally cooking the books. The only question now is whether the findings in the draft report were purposefully
falsified so as to form the basis for national regulation of fracking, or whether they were just incredibly sloppy.
Either way, the EPA needs to be held to account.
Cheap Natural
Gas Heralds an Energy Revolution. All bets are off for the future of energy in the United States and,
indeed, the world, as the price of natural gas plummets to ever-lower values — thanks to the development
of technology that can access gas and liquids trapped in hitherto inaccessible shale rocks. In 2011, shale gas
accounted for a quarter of U.S. natural gas production. But this seemingly bright future may depend on a court
decision (expected in June 2012) and, of course, on the outcome of the November elections.
Peak oil
doomsayers ignore human ingenuity. There has been a revolution in power production over the last decade, one
that has been driven by engineering and science. The proliferation of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, means that
the US will be the world's second largest gas producer by 2035, with its output dwarfed only by Russia, according to the
International Energy Agency. The US currently has record low gas prices because the new technology has created a
glut of natural gas.
Faulty Wells, Not
Fracking, Blamed for Water Pollution. Some energy companies, state regulators, academics and
environmentalists are reaching consensus that natural-gas drilling has led to several incidents of water
pollution — but not because of fracking. The energy officials and some environmentalists
agree that poorly built wells are to blame for some cases of water contamination.
'Frack nation'.
Thanks to the Oscar-nominated documentary "Gasland," many people believe fracking — a process of getting
natural gas out of rock — pollutes water and creates wastelands wherever it is used. But like so
many documentaries nowadays, Gasland is high on anecdote and emotion but low on science and fact. One of the
most dramatic images in "Gasland" is footage of a resident lighting his tap water with flames shooting out of the
faucet. As a journalist, I wanted to learn more, so I went to a Q&A with Gasland director Josh Fox.
As I questioned him, Fox eventually admitted that he knew people could light their tap water in these areas
decades before fracking came on the scene.
Fracking linked to prosperity — environmentalists
alarmed. The other day I had a post about fracking and the increase in U.S. production of oil. A liberal
troll in comments insisted that fracking had nothing to do with this, which shows once again that liberals are by and
large know-nothings. Fracking has led to oil booms in North Dakota, Texas and elsewhere. ... The Independent
Petroleum Association of America, through its Energy In Depth web site, has linked fracking to something that is the
greatest fear of environmentalists throughout the world: Prosperity.
It's
not fracking's fault, study says. A university study asserts that the problems caused by the
gas extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," arise because drilling operations aren't
doing it right. The process itself isn't to blame, according to the study, released today [2/16/2012]
by the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
Fracking
doesn't contaminate groundwater: New Study. An academic study from the University Texas-Austin
shows that the hydraulic fracturing of shale formations to develop natural gas, "has no direct connection to
groundwater contamination."
Feds Find No Water Pollution
from Arkansas Fracking. After testing 71 water wells near hydraulic fracturing natural gas production
sites, the U.S. Geological Survey reports no evidence of water pollution. The tests were conducted in Van Buren
County, Arkansas after local residents expressed fears hydraulic fracturing — known as fracking —
might be polluting local water resources.
Natural
gas sector set up by Obama to be sabotaged? President Obama spoke of the role natural gas must
play in America's energy future during his State of the Union address last week, but industry insiders fear
it's merely lip service designed to distract from what they consider the administration's behind-the-scenes
plan to sabotage the sector. ... At the same time the president boasts of the nation's vast shale gas deposits,
his EPA is poised to make extracting that fuel much more difficult. The agency will this year release a
widely anticipated study on hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the use of water, sand and chemical mixtures
to crack underground rock and release huge quantities of gas.
Robert Howarth: the Al Gore of fracking! Killing
drilling with farcical 'science'. The academic face of the anti-fracking movement — Cornell
marine ecologist Robert Howarth — increasingly looks like he's willing to turn science into farce. ... Last
week, Howarth released another scientifically questionable study, now warning that fracking could push the
world over a tipping point, sending temperatures irreversibly higher — an inflammatory and demonstrably
incorrect assertion.
The environmentalists are now going after
the production of frac sand in Wisconsin. Sand
mining boom in Midwest emerges in fracking debate. Largely overlooked in the national debate over
fracking is the emerging fight in the U.S. heartland over mining "frac sand," which has grains of ideal size,
shape, strength and purity.
Update: Wisconsin DNR Rejects New
Curbs on Sand Mining. Wisconsin state environmental officials say they have no plans to impose new restrictions
on the mining of sand for use in hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas. The state Department of Natural Resources
on January 25 confirmed the results of its September 2011 study finding little support for claims of environmental damage
caused by sand mining.
Obama
jumps on natural gas bandwagon. A remark by President Obama at his postelection news conference
Wednesday should send Iowa's wind energy advocates into full alert. When asked about environmental issues,
the President suddenly started talking up natural gas, saying there are "terrific natural gas resources" in the
United States.
Hydraulic Fractured
Fairy Tales. Fracking is destroying the entire plan of the Gang Green, those environmental zealots;
it makes the move to alternative fuels and energy poverty unnecessary, since we are swimming in oil just waiting
to be fracked. Gang Green had to find a way to demonize fracking, and have been kicking this earthquake idea
around for some time. Now that there was an earthquake or two in Ohio, they have what they need to blame
fracking and scare people.
Fracking Natural Gas.
There is nothing that portrays more the ideological divide in America than the debate on energy. The
climate and energy wars have now become an insurmountable chasm and no cost is too great for the ideologues. ... The
dumbing down of the discourse is also all too apparent with Hollywood celebrities spearheading both the recent
opposition to TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline and the ever-present "fracking" rancor for natural gas
production.
State
of Denial: How New York May Squander Its Energy Boom. [Scroll down] New York State —
famous for its hordes of "progressive liberals" who claim to worry so much about the working class —
could also be economically humming by creating those high-paying blue-collar jobs so desperately needed in this
"he-cession." ... But no — of course, New York's environmentalists are up in arms about fracking (and
every other method of energy production that actually works — i.e., reliably produces low-cost
energy). This has led to quite a battle, indeed.
Green Groups' Attack On Fracking Based On Bad
Science. After admitting there's no documented evidence of groundwater contamination due to a
technique used to extract oil and gas from shale, the EPA tries to manufacture a crisis in Wyoming.
API blasts EPA
report on hydraulic fracturing. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and state regulators have raised questions
about some of the water samples drawn at EPA's deep test wells in Pavillion, Wyo., after some of the results
could not be replicated. Industry and Wyoming officials also have questioned whether the EPA may have
introduced contaminants when it drilled those test wells.
Industry:
What happens in Wyoming doesn't happen in Texas. Oil and gas industry leaders are pushing back today
against an EPA draft report that linked hydraulic fracturing with water contamination in Wyoming by insisting that
what happened in that state is light years away from drilling being done in Texas, New York and other parts of the
country.
ProPublica
is the left's biggest muckraker you never heard of. Dave Kopel, research director at
Colorado's Independence Institute, ... checked out ProPublica's assertions about natural gas hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking, "suspected of causing hundreds of cases of water contamination." Colorado
and New Mexico officials supposedly "documented more than 1,000 cases where water was contaminated by
drilling activities." Kopel called the officials. New Mexico had no fracking cases.
Colorado didn't compile fracking numbers. Kopel concluded that ProPublica cited data about contamination
from every drilling-related activity in a story only about fracking.
Fracking
freak-out just another flash-in-the-media enviro scare campaign. Leave it to somebody from an
energy state like Oklahoma to say it straight concerning the growing screams among environmentalists and their
buddies in government and the mainstream media for a ban on hydraulic fracturing AKA "fracking" of oil and natural
gas wells.
Will
The EPA Choke Oil Shale Production? The latest salvo in the administration's war on energy may be new
rules and permits to regulate a process to get oil and gas from porous rock, sacrificing jobs and economic growth
while under review.
EPA Fracking
Report and Energy Politics. Yesterday's EPA report raising water pollution worries about fracking in
Wyoming amounts to psy-ops in the Obama re-election campaign. ... Oil prices could actually drop substantially if the
worldwide potential of oil sands, shale, and fracking of natural gas is developed. The biggest game changer of all
is the bounty of clean-burning natural gas unlocked by fracking, with which America is particularly well-endowed. The
only way Obama can defend his energy policies is to raise fears of pollution.
More
unsupported hysteria over fracking. Fracking was first used in Oklahoma in the 1940s and
in the years since has been employed in more than a million oil and gas wells across the nation. There
is not a single independently documented instance of groundwater contamination by fracking anywhere in the
country, a fact that was confirmed as recently as May by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
Lisa Jackson during congressional testimony. So why did the EPA announce Thursday [12/8/2011] in a draft
report that chemicals "likely" associated with fracking were found at a drilling site near Pavilion, Wyoming?
Green Groups' Attack On Fracking Based On Bad
Science. After admitting there's no documented evidence of groundwater contamination due to a
technique used to extract oil and gas from shale, the EPA tries to manufacture a crisis in Wyoming.
The EPA's Fracking Scare.
The shale gas boom has been a rare bright spot in the U.S. economy, so much of the country let out a shudder
two weeks ago when the Environmental Protection Agency issued a "draft" report that the drilling process of
hydraulic fracturing may have contaminated ground water in Pavillion, Wyoming. The good news is that
the study is neither definitive nor applicable to the rest of the country.