Like many environmentalists, I was dismayed when the Senate failed to pass a cap-and-trade bill two years ago. It looked like we would never get our act together to reduce greenhouse gases. Get ready to have beachfront property in Vermont, I thought.
But it turns out our greenhouse emissions dropped anyway, from 6 million metric tons to 5.2 million — the lowest level since 1992. We even beat the European Union, where the Green Party actually has members. So how did we do it? One big reason, ironically, is a Texas oil man named T . Boone Pickens, who perfected the art of squeezing natural gas out of shale rock by blasting huge quantities of water at it.
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I use LP gas (delivered gas) to heat my small home. Just got a small delivery (1st of the year). Holy cow....did the price of gas/gallon drop! I have been in the areas affected by the fracking boom. I know a lot of people that live there are against it. But to judge by the lawn signs, its 50/50 for/against. There has to be a way to make gas extraction safe for all. Gee, maybe we should invest in some R&D? If I had gas bubbling out of my drinking water, and had some kind of device to separate the gas from the water, would I possibly be in a Jedd Clampett situation ???? Think about it.. Z
The challenge here will be the wacko envrinmentalists who WANT to prove that fracking is unsafe, and who DO NOT want to see natural gas emerge as alternative to coal. But natural gas can also be liquified, and may replace oil as well. It could cause a boom in our country that would rival the internet boom of the 1990s, and lead us to a trade surplus. But the environmentalists do not want natural gas to be used, and will shill for the the solar/wind solutions that have yet to be made a viable alternative.
NEW PARAGRAPH: The technology behind fracking has been with us for decades, but it is now becoming safer and more profitable to use. We must NOT let the environmentalists stand in the way of a great boom that can come to our country.
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We seem obsessed in perfecting means toward imperfect ends. The focus on energy production begs the question of whether we are effectively and efficiently using this energy for productive purposes and whether conservation and demand management strategies should be placed in the forefront rather than the back burner. Continual highway construction to reduce congestion, for example,induces demand and increases dependency of auto travel resulting in further congestion and more demand for improved roadways until there aren't budgets big enough to maintain what was built. We need an national energy budget and we need to reduce energy waste and wasted motion in our transportation system. The gas industry should support Federal Regulation to legitimitize their operations and assure the public that fracking's possible adverse impacts can be minimized. However, if we pursue an all energy production mode, drill baby drill,anywhere and everywhere, all the above it won't matter because the cost of global climate change,extreme weather events and the rise of sea levels will far outweigh the benefits of more fossil fuel energy production.
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I'm surprised that Stockman didn't mention how Dick Cheney bulldozed Congress to keep fracking chemistry secret even though we now know that some water supplies are being poisoned. What issue is more important to the public than clean water? Definitely bad government antiregulation in this case. Anyone who has been at a fracking site can see it's a dirty business. But, extracting coal is dirtier. So, we have to consider both the extraction -- terrible for coal, bad for gas fracking -- and consumption -- bad for coal, cleaner for natural gas. I think optimiz made a crucial point -- if 50% of our energy use is wasted, and it probably is, then there is a much easier path to cleaner energy. Perhaps The SystemWorked and Richmond12 do not know how oil men and car makers wrecked public transportation in LA, which is now in environmental crisis.
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Surprisingly even-handed piece. Well done, Farah.
Environmentalists are so anti-gas/oil/coal that we will all freeze to death discrediting them.
We should stop fracking around and build solar powered windmills!
It’s clear reading this article that more needs to be done to inform the fracking debate. Science is a major part of this effort. Especially as data can help us better understand, measure and control unruly natural gas operation practices that impose unacceptable impacts on our air, water, landscapes and communities. The author briefly mentions the concern of methane, but as the main ingredient of natural gas – and one that is 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time frame – methane leakage matters. Up to this point, direct measurements of methane leak rates that occur during the production, transportation and use of natural gas have been limited and widely disputed. Sound science in this area is essential to ensure that the potential low-carbon benefits of natural gas – whether recovered by hydraulic fracturing or other means – are not squandered. With leading academic researchers and industry partners, Environmental Defense Fund is examining the climate impacts of methane leakage. Results from this first report are expected in 2013 http://www.edf.org/methaneleakage.