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The debate over fracking
A natural gas-powered electricity-generating plant in Middletown, Conn.
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Kai Ryssdal: Crude oil rose almost $2 today, closed just shy of $97. That consistently high per barrel price is one of many reasons the energy industry's turning its attention to a commodity measured in cubic feet. But that attention to natural gas brings with it scrutiny as well, specifically about a kind of drilling called hydraulic fracturing -- fracking.
Last week the state of New York took some baby steps to allow more fracking, which has of course pleased nobody. Marketplace's Scott Tong's on the line to help put this in some perspective. Hey Scott.
Scott Tong: Hey Kai.
Ryssdal: So remind us what Gov. Cuomo in New York did last week, would you?
Tong: Well his government began the process of lifting the ban. So we've entered the world known as the regulatory process. The upshot, Kai, is New York accessed the environmental risk and it said, OK, we're going to allow drilling, but not in sensitive places like New York City and its water sources and Syracuse. So 85 percent of the state is going to be open to drilling, but still, that's more restrictive than the other states, where drilling is already happening. So industry is not happy.
I spoke to economist Mike Giberson over at Texas Tech, and he says the oil and gas companies, they feel that they know what they're doing.
Mike Giberson: The people in the industry doesn't feel like this is really a new thing, so they're surprised that so much opposition has come up. I think the reason is partly because it's moving it to areas where there hasn't been a lot of oil and gas development before.
And New York state, Kai, is much different than say Texas, where they're used to this kind of thing. Drilling is an industrial process; you've got trucks, yellow tape, big oil rigs, generators, waste water. So in New York, you have other sectors -- like tourism and fishing and wineries -- who fear they're going to lose out. So it's very contentious.
Ryssdal: You've actually seen fracking, right? You've been out to a drilling site, or whatever it is?
Tong: I have, yes, in western Pennsylvania.
Ryssdal: So walk us through: what does it look like?
Tong: Well, oil and gas is now in the province of the geeks, that's the first thing to say. You know when you drive through a road where they've blown out the side of the hill, and you can see the rock formation on either side?
Ryssdal: Yeah.
Tong: And it looks like these layers, right? Shale rock looks like that. And in a lot of places, inside shale rock, there's natural gas. So to get it out, you don't just drill down -- you drill down and then sideways. So that's one breakthrough they've been able to do. The other one is you have to break the rock all the way deep down to get the natural gas out, so you shoot water and sand and chemicals down the hole to get the natural gas out. The risk, though, is human error. There have been cases where the well wasn't sealed, it wasn't operated the right way, so the chemicals leaked into the water supply.
So the critics, they focus on the risk; the proponents, they focus on the technology. There is a lot of theology in this debate, and it keeps going and going.
Ryssdal: Well explain that debate a little bit. I mean, it's not like natural gas is going to replace oil, say, tomorrow right?
Tong: Or in the next 30 years. Still, there's a lot of people who use the term "shale gas revolution." You have a lot of this drilling in the states. You have companies around the world who want to do the same thing: China, Argentina, Poland, Australia. And in the long term, there could be a whole lot of it, decades of supply. So a new report from the International Energy Agency says natural gas can bring more energy security to a lot of countries; it could leapfrog coal and become the number two energy source in the world behind oil; and it emits less carbon dioxide than coal, so environmentally, it's a little friendlier. The title of the new report from the IEA is called "The Golden Age of Natural Gas?" (.pdf) So we could be getting there.
Ryssdal: I love the question mark. Marketplace's Scott Tong from the Sustainability Desk. Scott, thanks a lot.
Tong: You're welcome.
1.5 trillion barrels of oil
28++15.266+N,99++35.953+W,Harrison+Piloncillo+Ranch+ Airport(Harrison Piloncillo Ranch Airport)
The estimate above came from http://dailyreckoning.com/oil-shale-reserves/. But, I'm more interested in what is happening here in Texas, and in particular with the lands over which we fly. North of Laredo and up to south of the hill country you'll find the Eagle Ford Shale. One estimate is that within a decade there will be an additional 30,000 oil/gas wells there between Laredo and San Antonio.
More here: http://eaglefordshaleblog.com/ and http://oilshalegas.com/eaglefordshale.html. Because of the location of a recent landing by one of our hang glider pilots we are particularly interested in this portion of the country to the north http://info.drillinginfo.com/urb/eagleford/operators/2011/01/meet-the-10.... See more maps http://eaglefordshaleblog.com/2010/02/19/eagleford-shale-maps/.
Oil shade was a joke in Colorado in the seventies (think Dinosaur, Colorado in the nineties). Now it is no joke in Texas. Mineral rights purchased at $10,000/acre plus.
Oil shade extraction is economical at $90/barrel. We've lived with natural gas extraction here in Zapata County for the whole time that we've flown from Zapata. Of course, it is often the roads that go toward wells that have allowed us a way out after an outlanding.
Five times the amount of oil resources in the US than are found in Saudi Arabia? If true that would certainly make us a little less interested in Middle Eastern and North African adventures.
Scott Tong didn't answer your question, "...what does it look like?" I've flown over and landed at hundred and thousands of these wells in Zapata County, Texas (and north). They are scraped off land, white, a couple of very small structures, a white/chalk road to the white/chalk pad. Pipes under ground. Check out Zapata County on Google Earth to get a good picture.
Of course, they are ugly, although not much worse than the Mesquite here. :-)
The real story is fracking oil, not gas. If you really want to know what is going on, contact me and I can head you in the right direction.
The only peer-reviewed study of shale gas, by Prof. Robert Howarth of Cornell, shows that fracking is equivalent or worse than coal for greenhouse emissions because of methane seepage into the atmosphere. (That's why well pads and other things ocasionally blow up and why people in fracking areas can light their tap water on fire.) GHG emissions in combination with the massive extraction of water (1-3 million gallons per frack per well) from local water sources and irreversible pollution of water supplies as well as toxic air pollution from gas processing facilities and other industrialized infrastructure needed to support fracking belie the claim that natural gas from shale is environmentally "a little friendlier." NY state is blessed with abundant fresh water supplies, which are in crisis worldwide. The NY Times recently revealed that many gas industry insiders see the new shale gas plays as a ponzi scheme. Allowing fracking after all information that's been revealed about its irreversible harm is insane. Please report the full story.
This was a very pro-gas company presentation of a drilling technique that is clearly prety dangerous to drinking water! In this day and age, it is simply laughable to hear a big company say "Trust us, we know what we're doing!" Can we ever trust a large corp to look out for humans before its own profit? Never, never, not once, not ever, never in the past and never in the future.
