Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
NPR Podcast:
Pennsylvania Doctors Worry Over Fracking 'Gag Rule'
A new law in Pennsylvania has doctors nervous. The law grants physicians access to information about trade-secret chemicals used in natural gas drilling, but forbids them to tell anyone else - not even other doctors - what's in those formulas. It's being called the "doctor gag rule."
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
RDA e-Newsletter July 2012
Freshwater Impoundment Leaked Flowback
Renowned Scientist Travels To Williamsport
Join RDA Bus To DC For National Day Of Action
NPR Podcast: Pennsylvania Doctors Worry Over Fracking 'Gag Rule'
New 'Moratorium' Law Favors Wealthier Counties
The Sky Is Pink: An 'Emergency' Short Film By Josh Fox
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
Also => Fracking in Ireland and Being Dependent on Halliburton’s Mud by Greg Palast / July 3rd, 2012Originally Posted by Dr. FIVE
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
The Guardian is asking, Fracking: where's the debate about its climate change risks?
Fracking looks set to be given the green light in the UK, but there is a worrying lack of discussion about its climate implications
...
With nice timing – but largely ignored by the media – is a report out today by the Committee on Climate Change, a statutory body set up to advise the UK government on greenhouse gas emissions. It urges the government to give up on its "dash for gas" in order to help avoid dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Its chief executive, David Kennedy, said:
[Ministers] must rule out the dash for gas, and set clear carbon objectives in the context of draft energy legislation and the forthcoming gas generation strategy. Our analysis shows that power sector decarbonisation is economically sensible, even in a shale gas world.
...
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
Exxon CEO says low US natgas prices not sustainable (Reuters, 27 June 2012)
U.S natural gas prices are too low to allow the energy industry to cover the cost of finding and producing new supplies, the head of top producer Exxon Mobil said on Wednesday.
Record production, thanks to new technologies that tap natural gas trapped in shale rock formations, pushed U.S. natural gas prices to 10-year lows below $2 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in April, though prices have since rebounded.
"The cost of supply is not $2.50. We are all losing our shirts today," Rex Tillerson, chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil, said in a presentation at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Gas prices have risen over 50 percent since April's lows, and were up more than 5 percent on Wednesday to nearly $2.95 per mmBtu.
Still, prices remain well below the $4-$5 level that makes drilling in pure natural gas fields profitable. Most producers have moved over to more lucrative oil and liquids-based plays to fetch higher prices, which has begun to put a slight dent in U.S. gas production.
Again. Also => Fracking - A Boom and Bust and Fracking Ireland - News
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzJUkzY_bVs"]Fracking - Explained In Two Minutes - YouTube[/ame]
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
Apologies to mods for posting the entire piece, I only wanted to post the chart but couldn't get it to accept.
Jhttp://www.realclearenergy.org/chart...t_sources.htmlames Conca of Forbes tries to do a comparison of total life-cycles costs for each primary energy source over 60 years in comparing the different ways of generating electricity. The results are illustrated in the graph.
Conca differentiates between lifetime costs and other ways of comparing costs, specifically overnight costs and levelized costs:
"By life-cycle costs, I mean the total costs of building, operating, maintaining, fueling and decommissioning a thermal power plant, a solar array, a wind farm or hydroelectric dam over its life, that is, 15 years for a wind turbine, 40 years for a fossil fuel plant, 60 years for a nuclear plant, or 80 years for a large hydroelectric dam. Dividing those total costs by the amount of energy actually produced, not theoretically possible or installed capacity but actually produced, gives a life-cycle cost in ¢/kWhr. How we finance this cost is a totally different issue, one at which we generally fail as a society."
As the graph shows, hydro has the lowest costs at 3.3 cents per kWhr. This is due mainly to almost zero fuel costs and the 80-year life cycle of hydroelectric dams. Nuclear is second lowest with 3.5 cents, largely because of low fuel costs and the 60-year life expectancy of nuclear reactors. Coal is 4.1 cents, wind 4.3 cents, natural gas 5.2 cents and solar is the most expensive at 7.7 cents per kWhr.
Although fuel costs are free for wind and solar, their intensive capital costs, aggravated by the enormous amount of collection facilities that must be built, drive up their lifetime costs. It takes 9,500 windmills, for instance, to equal the life-cycle output of one AP1000 nuclear reactors, which is not the biggest reactor being built. Wind requires ten times the steel, concrete and copper per kWhr than any other energy source.
Natural gas plants are relatively cheap to built but are entirely dependent on future prices of natural gas, since fuel supplies make up 90 percent of the cost.
Conca believes that the market cannot handle these lifetime costs and that government investment and regulations should try to steer utility construction towards the energy sources that have the lowest lifetime costs. He recommends an investment pattern of 1/3 fossil fuels, 1/3 nuclear and 1/3 renewables.
As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information. Benjamin Disraeli
Secrecy is for losers. For people who do not know how important the information really is.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan - Secrecy: The American Experience (1998)
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
4) FREEMAN: We need federal regulation of fracking. “America’s energy future has been transformed by the production of natural gas made possible by hydraulic fracturing. This gas is a much cleaner source of electricity than coal. The problem is that the fracturing process used to extract the gas can, if done improperly, pollute surface and drinking water and emit dangerous air pollution. States like Texas, Pennsylvania and New York are now rushing to impose their own rules…The uneven approach is bad not only for the environment but also for industry, because under the current system, mistakes by a few bad apples could lead to overregulation or even outright bans on drilling. A better approach is one already reflected in many environmental laws: cooperative federalism. The federal government sets baseline standards, which states can exceed but not fall below.” Jody Freeman in The New York Times.
As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information. Benjamin Disraeli
Secrecy is for losers. For people who do not know how important the information really is.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan - Secrecy: The American Experience (1998)
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
Well. The graph in your source is clearly showing that wind energy is cheaper than gas. But let's now come to the lifetime carbon footptint.
What connects melting ice, short-lived pollutants and fracking? Methane. A study by the Cormell University came to the conclusion that shale gas can be worse than coal.
This has been confirmed by scientists from NOAA and the University of Colorado => Air sampling reveals high emissions from gas field (Nature News)
Compare to other claims of the industry, about 4% of the gas is lost into the atmosphere.
The Financial Times reports on 14 June that even Investors call for action on shale methane:
Institutional investor groups representing more than $20tn in assets under management issued a joint statement on Thursday calling on companies and governments to take action to minimise methane emissions from “fracking”.
But how could that be done when water, sand and chemicals are pressed through 6 inch pipes at a pressure of several thousands of psi? And if it was feasible why hasn't it been done long ago?
So what we're facing here is a delaying technology
- which is not safe
- which produces more greenhouse gases than oil or even coal
- which is polluting ground waters and the atmosphere
- which is more expensive than renewables
What's the point going for that risk if it's just for the greed of a few?
Shale gas fracking has no benefit whatsoever for the general public but a bulk of risks and a polluting legacy.
Last edited by New Vision; 06-07-2012 at 08:11 PM.
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
I thought as much. I gave it seven minutes and found no substance. He admitted at the outset he wasn’t going to talk about Ireland but rather his life experience. He seems hard up to sell books, I hope people didn’t have to pay to hear that, but ah shua did luuv his investigative reporters hat.
If this is what passes for educational info, gawd help us.
As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information. Benjamin Disraeli
Secrecy is for losers. For people who do not know how important the information really is.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan - Secrecy: The American Experience (1998)
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
Well. If you want an approach from an engineer who has been working in the field for decades I can help out with that. Maybe you give it a bit more than seven minutes
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY3eSwIEwek"]Dr. Ingraffea - Facts on Fracking - YouTube[/ame]
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
Just to give you a clue. This is where Tamboran wants to extract 2.2 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in Ireland.
(Source)
And all without the use of chemicals.
Do you really believe that???
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Senior Member
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
South Africa
Confessions of a fracking defector
Government has been making approving noises about fracking recently, possibly in preparation for the lifting of the existing moratorium. Enter Professor Gerrit van Tonder of the University of the Free State. Until two months ago, he was saying fracking would not contaminate the Karoo’s groundwater. Now he is suddenly adamant it will.
"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Moderator
Re: Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area
Salon
http://www.salon.com/2012/07/09/conf...g_can_pollute/
and the full report here
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/07/03/1121181109
The debate surrounding the safety of shale gas development in the Appalachian Basin has generated increased awareness of drinking water quality in rural communities. Concerns include the potential for migration of stray gas, metal-rich formation brines, and hydraulic fracturing and/or flowback fluids to drinking water aquifers. A critical question common to these environmental risks is the hydraulic connectivity between the shale gas formations and the overlying shallow drinking water aquifers. We present geochemical evidence from northeastern Pennsylvania showing that pathways, unrelated to recent drilling activities, exist in some locations between deep underlying formations and shallow drinking water aquifers. Integration of chemical data (Br, Cl, Na, Ba, Sr, and Li) and isotopic ratios (87Sr/86Sr, 2H/H, 18O/16O, and 228Ra/226Ra) from this and previous studies in 426 shallow groundwater samples and 83 northern Appalachian brine samples suggest that mixing relationships between shallow ground water and a deep formation brine causes groundwater salinization in some locations. The strong geochemical fingerprint in the salinized (Cl > 20 mg/L) groundwater sampled from the Alluvium, Catskill, and Lock Haven aquifers suggests possible migration of Marcellus brine through naturally occurring pathways. The occurrences of saline water do not correlate with the location of shale-gas wells and are consistent with reported data before rapid shale-gas development in the region; however, the presence of these fluids suggests conductive pathways and specific geostructural and/or hydrodynamic regimes in northeastern Pennsylvania that are at increased risk for contamination of shallow drinking water resources, particularly by fugitive gases, because of natural hydraulic connections to deeper formations.
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