Methane study, EPA debunk claims of water pollution, climate change from fracking

[Bluewill]

I Spy Radio Show
This Week on I Spy on Salem Link to Dr. Daniel Fine--->
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So who's to blame for those high gas prices at the pump? Obama? George W. Bush? Oil speculators?

But a much larger puzzle is America's energy resources and our energy policy. We talk with Dr. Daniel Fine, an associate with the New Mexico Center for Energy to get a handle on all of this.

What role do speculators have in the oil prices? Is it all just more of the "blame game" by Obama? But what role does he have in it?

And if Republicans are secretly hoping high gas prices might hurt Obama's re-election campaign, find out why they may be in for a big surprise.
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Resources & Links from the Show
Below are links to our guest's websites, articles, and other information mentioned on the show or for more information.

Guest & Links mentions on the show

Dr. Fine's article on the effect of oil speculators
Another great article (not mentioned on the show): America's Energy Disaster from
the National Review Online

 

[RGR]

Dr. Fine's article on the effect of oil speculators
Another great article (not mentioned on the show): America's Energy Disaster from
the National Review Online

Can you summarize how someone can use the word "energy disaster" in reference to the reality we have here in America? Those of us who have lived through "energy disasters" (such as the crisis of the 70's, rationing and whatnot) have a tough time with imagining that America today (gasoline availability everywhere, increasing oil production, low natural gas prices because of new resource developments in gas shales) is in anything remotely resembling an "energy disaster".

 

[waltky]

Just wait till dey frack one o' dem big ol' earthquake faults an' California goes slidin' into the ocean...

Fracking could boost California economy
Thursday, March 14, 2013 - Oil seen lifting state's economy

Development of oil-shale deposits in Central California using fracking and other techniques may boost the state's economic activity by as much as 14.3 percent, a University of Southern California study said.

Such drilling in the Monterey Shale Formation, in addition to increasing per-capita gross domestic product, may add as much as $24.6 billion in state and local tax revenue and as many as 2.8 million jobs by 2020, according to the report released Wednesday.

Unlocking the oil within the 1,750-square-mile swath of rock could require hydraulic fracturing, which injects water and chemicals into the shale. Environmentalists say it may damage water supplies.

Gov. Jerry Brown said Wednesday that he would defer to state regulators to develop a fracking policy.

Read more: Fracking could boost California economy - SFGate

See also:

Tenn. university proposes fracking on its own land
March 15, 2013 — The University of Tennessee wants to allow hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas on a state-owned tract of rolling woodland and use the revenue to fund research into the environmental impact of such drilling — a proposal that environmentalists condemn as a conflict of interest.

The unique proposal is being considered as national debate continues over "fracking." Energy companies use the procedure to remove gas or oil from rock formations by forcing liquids underground at high pressure. Many universities say they lack the money to properly study its environmental implications. Gwen Parker, a Nashville-based staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said her group is taking a lead in trying to block the move. She called the university's proposal a "fundamental conflict of interest." "We have not been able to find any instances of a university drilling on their land and funding their research with revenues from the drilling activities," Parker said.

Without an appraisal, it was unclear how much revenue such drilling could yield, though some said it could be in the range of millions of dollars annually. The university wants state permission to allow an outside company to drill on about 8,000 acres of mature woodlands it maintains as an outdoor laboratory in the Cumberland Plateau — all while performing research on the effects on water quality, air quality and ground impacts. University officials argue that because the property is state-owned, they can maintain control over the drilling project and provide independent scientific results in an area of the industry where many environmental questions remain.

An undated photo provided by the University of Tennessee shows Wilson Mountain in the Cumberland Forest, a state-owned research area used by the University of Tennessee. The university wants to allow hydraulic fracturing drilling on the property to fund research into the environmental impacts of the drilling.

On Friday, the university presented its proposal to a subcommittee of the State Building Commission, which voted unanimously to allow the university to seek bids from companies. "Our intention is science-based investigation," said Larry Arrington, chancellor of the UT Institute of Agriculture. "We will move forward in a transparent manner, in which we will seek to engage and receive input from all interested parties."

Before the meeting, about 50 people against fracking held a rally across the street from the state Capitol. "We should not be allowing fracking in the state of Tennessee until we are absolutely certain that we have regulations ... in place that are going to guarantee the protection of water quality," said Scott Banbury, one of the organizers. Environmentalists also argue that preservation of the forest tract in question is critical because it is one of the few mature forests still intact in the state's Cumberland Mountains region. Gov. Bill Haslam is supportive of the university's proposal.

More Tenn. university proposes fracking on its own land | CNS News

 

[Bluewill]

For more of the article go to --> Oil, gas wells in northwestern NM show potential | WashingtonExaminer.com

FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — The oil and gas industry is getting excited about a potential boom in northwestern New Mexico.

Preliminary results from some of the 22 exploratory wells drilled in the Mancos shale formation in the San Juan Basin show commercial potential for production, according to industry executives who visited Farmington this week.

Ken McQueen of Oklahoma-based WPX Energy Inc. told the Albuquerque Journal (» Prospects good for N.M. oil, gas boom | ABQ Journal ) that two wells the company drilled in 2010 in a dry natural gas section of the Mancos have produced 2 billion cubic feet of gas so far. He described the area as an "attractive target" to pursue.

"These two wells are in the top 10 best wells drilled by WPX to date," he said. "They're quite extraordinary for us."

Energy development companies were hopeful about the prospects for liquid natural gas and oil in other sections of the Mancos formation.
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Mancos shale is sandwiched between soft sandstone layers in the San Juan Basin that producers have been exploiting for decades. Modern drilling techniques allow resources trapped inside the rock-hard shale to be tapped. Three dimensional imaging helps pinpoint oil and gas deposits, while hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling can access the deposits.

"I'm bullish on the Mancos," said T. Greg Merrion, president of Merrion Oil and Gas Corp. in Farmington. His company is partnering with Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. to drill exploratory oil wells in the area.

"We've already seen a number of wells drilled that are economic," Merrion said.

 

[Bluewill]

Mancos Shale (Cretaceous) in the San Juan Basin. The Mancos Shale in the San Juan Basin encompasses a shale gas play in the deeper northern part of the basin and an unconventional oil play from marine Mancos shales that are interlaminated and interbedded with marine shelf to slope sandstones in the southern part of the basin. This link will take you to a slide set developed for a presentation given to the The San Juan Basin Energy Conference on March 18, 2013. The slide set describes the geologic framework for the Mancos Shale oil play and the Mancos Shale gas play. A written report on the topic is in preparation. The Chief Geologist of New Mexico--->
Bureau Staff: Ron Broadhead

 

[editec]

Better get to it quick.

The market cost of natural gas is declining rather rapidly, I am informed.

 

[Bluewill]

Except the Mancos similar to the Bakken is a hybrid play (both Natural Gas and Oil are found or projected to be found in great quantities)

 

[Bluewill]

Just to clarify on the WPX production wells:
This should read 2 billion cubic feet already produced per well and between 5 billion and 6 Billion cubic feet of natural gas per well upon completion...

 

[Mr. H.]

And just what the fuck are you selling here?

 

[Bluewill]

TO All:
Here you can find the latest map depicting the Mancos Shale play:

Use the link below--->

https://www.linkedin.com/company/3044815?trk=tyah

 

[Mr. H.]

Go away.

 

[editec]

I hear they discovered oil in the Brooklyn bridge.

Better buy into that opportunity ASAP!

 

[RGR]

What's with all the pimping for New Mexico?

 

[waltky]

Fracking camps differ on EPA methane report...

EPA methane report further divides fracking camps
28 Apr.`13 - EPA report that lowers methane-leak estimates further divides fracking camps

The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change? Oil and gas drilling companies had pushed for the change, but there have been differing scientific estimates of the amount of methane that leaks from wells, pipelines and other facilities during production and delivery. Methane is the main component of natural gas.

The new EPA data is "kind of an earthquake" in the debate over drilling, said Michael Shellenberger, the president of the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental group based in Oakland, Calif. "This is great news for anybody concerned about the climate and strong proof that existing technologies can be deployed to reduce methane leaks." The scope of the EPA's revision was vast. In a mid-April report on greenhouse emissions, the agency now says that tighter pollution controls instituted by the industry resulted in an average annual decrease of 41.6 million metric tons of methane emissions from 1990 through 2010, or more than 850 million metric tons overall. That's about a 20 percent reduction from previous estimates. The agency converts the methane emissions into their equivalent in carbon dioxide, following standard scientific practice.

Kourtney Hardwick, BP Florida operations manager, looks over a methane gas well site east of Bayfield, Colo. The well pad now has three gas wells that have been drilled and are producing natural gas. A new report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered estimates of how much of a potent greenhouse gas is being leaked by the natural gas industry. The EPA now estimates that in 2011 the natural gas industry released 10 percent less methane into the atmosphere than it did in 1990. The new figure comes after the EPA estimated last year that those methane admissions had risen about 15 percent since 1990.

The EPA revisions came even though natural gas production has grown by nearly 40 percent since 1990. The industry has boomed in recent years, thanks to a stunning expansion of drilling in previously untapped areas because of the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which injects sand, water and chemicals to break apart rock and free the gas inside. Experts on both sides of the debate say the leaks can be controlled by fixes such as better gaskets, maintenance and monitoring. Such fixes are also thought to be cost-effective, since the industry ends up with more product to sell. "That is money going up into the air," said Roger Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, adding he isn't surprised the EPA's new data show more widespread use of pollution control equipment. Pielke noted that the success of the pollution controls also means that the industry "probably can go further" in reducing leaks.

Representatives of the oil and gas industry said the EPA revisions show emissions from the fracking boom can be managed. "The methane 'leak' claim just got a lot more difficult for opponents" of natural gas, noted Steve Everley, with Energy In Depth, an industry-funded group. In a separate blog post, Everley predicted future reductions, too. "As technologies continue to improve, it's hard to imagine those methane numbers going anywhere but down as we eagerly await the next installment of this EPA report," Everley wrote.

More EPA methane report further divides fracking camps

 

[Bluewill]

By Ben Wolfgang

-

The Washington Times

Monday, April 29, 2013

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**FILE** A Chesapeake Energy natural gas well site operates near Burlington, Pa. ... more >

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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. By dramatically lowering its methane emissions estimates from natural gas drilling sites, the Environmental Protection Agency has made it much more difficult to argue that the fracking boom is accelerating climate change.

SPECIAL COVERAGE: Energy and Environment

The developments Monday in Franklin Forks, Pa., also will make it much more difficult to argue that the wildly successful drilling method is harmful to drinking water.

The state’s Department of Environmental Protection now says there is no evidence to connect natural gas drilling with high levels of methane in private water wells in the small town, which sits within the Marcellus Shale region, one of the largest known natural gas deposits in the world and exhibit A of how fracking is transforming the American energy landscape.

The agency specifically says the gas is coming from elsewhere.

“The testing determined that the water samples taken from the private water wells contained gas of similar isotopic makeup to the gas in water samples taken from Salt Springs State Park,” which contains high levels of naturally occurring methane, the DEP said in a statement.

The Franklin Forks case attracted national attention and was held up by some environmentalists as another example of the dangers of fracking. It was also the subject of numerous media reports, including a Rolling Stone magazine photo essay that labeled one Franklin Forks family “Fracking’s Real-Life Victims.”

The family believed that nearby natural gas drilling was ruining their property and had rendered their water unusable and undrinkable. Similar claims have been made elsewhere in Pennsylvania and in other spots across the nation.

Thus far, however, there have been no confirmed cases of fracking contaminating water supplies — an acknowledgment that Lisa P. Jackson, as EPA administrator, made twice to Congress.

Fracking, formally known as hydraulic fracturing, uses massive amounts of water combined with sand and chemicals to crack underground rock and release trapped gas. It is being used extensively in states across the nation and is credited with putting the U.S. on a path toward North American energy independence within the next 10 to 15 years.

While environmental groups likely will dispute the Franklin Forks findings, Pennsylvania officials are making perfectly clear that nearby fracking simply could not be responsible for the elevated methane levels.

“The water samples taken from the private water wells was not of the same origin as the natural gas in the nearby gas wells,” the DEP said.

Many in the environmental community argue that the Pennsylvania outcome should have been expected. The DEP, they say, is hesitant to go after energy companies that have provided thousands of jobs for Keystone State residents and poured billions of dollars into local economies.

That argument cannot be made about the EPA, which is taking the lead in President Obama’s pledged fight against climate change. The agency’s report makes clear that fracking isn’t as big a part of that struggle as previously thought.

Even though natural gas production has exploded in recent years, the EPA now says that private industry’s pollution control efforts have cut methane emissions by an annual average of 41.6 million metric tons from 1990 to 2010, a 20 percent reduction from previous estimates.

Read more of the article now--->: Methane study, EPA debunk claims of water pollution, climate change from fracking - Washington Times
Follow us: [MENTION=39892]Was[/MENTION]htimes on Twitter

 

[Bluewill]

From Bloomberg News:
Pennsylvania says water in town visited by Ono not contaminated by drilling - Drilling - Ohio
Mark Drajem
Apr 30, 2013 12:00 am ET

Methane in the water wells of a Pennsylvania town visited by Yoko Ono in her campaign against hydraulic fracturing wasn’t caused by drilling for natural gas nearby, the state environmental regulator said.

In the northeastern town of Franklin Forks, samples from three private water wells are comparable in their chemical makeup to the natural spring at a nearby park where methane had been detected long before fracking began in the area, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Testing also determined that the gas in the water samples taken from the private water wells wasn’t of the same origin as that in the nearby gas wells, the department said in a statement yesterday.

“We’re pleased that a science-based, fact-finding effort by the state definitively showed that our operations were not responsible for methane migration issues,” Susan Oliver, a spokeswoman for WPX Energy Inc., a driller that some residents have blamed for polluting their water, said in an e-mailed statement.

The debate in Franklin Forks, just 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) from the New York line, has drawn visitors. Officials, citizens, scientists and lawyers from New York, which is considering ending a de facto moratorium on fracking, visit in droves. Ono came on a bus trip with her son, Sean Lennon, actress Susan Sarandon and anti-fracking filmmaker Josh Fox in January.

Local Resident

One resident, Tammy Manning, isn’t convinced by the state’s conclusions. She has sued WPX, saying her water woes began only after the fracking for natural gas nearby. She said her legal case against the company will continue.

“There are still far more questions than there are answers,” Manning, who contends the methane in her home’s well caused dangerous accumulations of gas inside her house, said in an interview. “Even if it migrated” from the park spring, “why did it migrate into all of our wells at exactly the same time?”

The battle over fracking pits Manning, who spoke at a rally of fracking opponents outside an industry conference in Philadelphia in September, against Shelly DePue, who has four gas wells on her farm west of town and starred in an industry- funded film, “Truthland,” made to defend the industry.

Other visitors to the area have included film crews and citizens from South Africa, Poland, France and Canada. They often take a bus tour across the region, including stops at the Manning home.

The use of horizontal drilling and fracking, in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart rock formations and free trapped gas, has led to a surge in natural-gas production in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation.

The state had ordered WPX to test water sources in town and vent four wells that had high levels of methane, the key constituent of natural gas.

The company maintains that the isotopic signature of the gas, which scientists use as a kind of fingerprinting method, was similar to that found in nearby Salt Springs park.

 

[Mr. H.]

Huge development. Now maybe the idiots in Illinois and New York will step aside and let the true job creators do their work.

Screw you, Yoko.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

If Fracking is as safe as proponents say it is, I say they should all move onto fracking sites. Bring the kids, mom and grandma. Just make sure the state you move to has Obamacare

Even Obama speaks of 'clean coal' and safe 'nuke energy'

this isn't about ideology. It's about the environment.

interesting note. Long Beach, CA discovered a huge oil filed a century ago. It was huge. Drilling went wild. The city started to sink.

true story

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Huge development. Now maybe the idiots in Illinois and New York will step aside and let the true job creators do their work.

Screw you, Yoko.

Asbestos created jobs too, so has tobacco, so has war

 

[martybegan]

If Fracking is as safe as proponents say it is, I say they should all move onto fracking sites. Bring the kids, mom and grandma. Just make sure the state you move to has Obamacare

Even Obama speaks of 'clean coal' and safe 'nuke energy'

this isn't about ideology. It's about the environment.

interesting note. Long Beach, CA discovered a huge oil filed a century ago. It was huge. Drilling went wild. The city started to sink.

true story

As soon as you move right under a industrial windturbine there Dainty.

Enjoy the Hum.