Posted on 02/29/2012 3:19:34 PM PST by neverdem
Fracking isnt going away.
To put it another way, the technique of hydraulic fracturing, used to extract natural gas from once-impossible-to-get-at reservoirs like the Marcellus Shale that lies beneath New York and Pennsylvania, has more than proved its value. At this point, shale gas, as its called, makes up more than 30 percent of the countrys natural gas supply, up from 2 percent in 2001 a figure that is sure to keep rising. Frackings enemies can stamp their feet all they want, but that gas is too important to leave it in the ground.
Fred Krupp, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund, understands this as well as anyone. Last summer, he was a member of a small federal advisory panel that was charged by Steven Chu, the secretary of energy, with assessing the problems associated with fracking. The group came up with a long list of environmental issues. But it also concluded that the U.S. shale gas resource has enormous potential to provide economic and environmental benefits for the country.
One thing Ive always liked about the Environmental Defense Fund is its hardheaded approach. Founded by scientists, it believes in data, not hysteria. It promotes market incentives to change behavior and isnt afraid to work with industry. Utterly nonpartisan, it is oriented toward practical policy solutions.
And that has been its approach to fracking. When I spoke to him recently, Krupp didnt back away from the idea that domestic natural gas could be the bridge fuel that helps bring us toward a renewable energy future. Unlike others in the environmental movement, he and his colleagues at the Environmental Defense Fund dont want to shut down fracking; rather, their goal is to work with the states where most of the shale gas lies and help devise smart regulations that...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
JOE NOCERA with his degree in Journalism is OBVIOUSLY the expert in Petroleum Engingineering, Geology and Hydrology to whom we should all listen.
My wife uses Gas-X . . . . . . . . . (did I write that where everyone could read it?)
Then again, Fig. 1In 1947, Stanolind Oil conducted the fi rst experimental fracturing in the Hugoton field located in southwestern Kansas. The treatment utilized napalm (gelled gasoline) and sand from the Arkansas River.
Which is exactly the reason why the NY Slimes is so widely read, they always have such knowledgeable experts...
This article is so wrong and misleading on so many levels it would take the rest of the day to respond to it. But just a few topics.
1. fracing is contained to the zone bounded by material contrast barriers. When the rock layers change the fracture is arrested. There are many layers reaching back to surface and the frac does not go out of bounds.
2. They admit that they don’t know if the amount of methane that “escapes” is ZERO or some. The reality is that it is in the ground because it didn’t escape over the millenia that it has been in the ground. Fracing and producing the gas reduces the pressure and thus reduces any natural tendency for the gas to “escape”. IF gas were leaking at even 1% per year it would mostly be gone from the reservoir by now.
These people are stupid, they don’t think.
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See how fracking works, video: http://www.northernoil.com/drilling
Thanks for the link!
Very good link. Every American should watch.
Thanks for the ping!
My favorite is Carbon Dioxide. If we use carbon dioxide,And the nice thing about CO2? You’ve guessed it - you sequester it from existing coal plants.
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