Salon.com > Gas

Fracking’s coming boom

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:27:00 +0000

Unlimited export of U.S. natural gas would have enormous implications on the future of the nation's economy, environment and domestic energy choices. Yet a burgeoning chorus in Congress, on both sides of the aisle, is calling for the swift approval of 19 liquid natural gas (LNG) export permits.

The acceptance of these permits would unleash an unprecedented frenzy of domestic high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, just to meet daily production rates under decades-long contractual obligations. If accepted, the total of the permits currently under review by the Department of Energy for LNG export would be equal to 28.54 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day, approximately 45 percent of what the U.S. is projected to consume daily in 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Administration.

On a Wyoming ranch, feds sacrifice water for uranium

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 19:00:00 +0000

GILLETTE, Wyo. — On a lonely stretch at the edge of the Great Plains, rolling grassland presses up against a crowning escarpment called the Pumpkin Buttes. The land appears bountiful, but it is stingy, straining to produce enough sustenance for the herds of cattle and sheep on its arid prairies.

"It's a tough way to make a living," said John Christensen, whose family has worked this private expanse, called Christensen Ranch, for more than a century.

U.S. gas sales declining

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 11:54:00 +0000

A note by Doug Short at AdvisorPerspectives.com shows that per capita gas sales have declined steeply over the last few years. According to the latest available numbers from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the 12-month moving average for gas sales dropped to about 350 million gallons per day, down 7.7 percent since August 2005.

"Some of the shrinkage in sales can be attributed to more fuel-efficient cars," Short writes. "But that presumably would be minor over shorter time frames and would be offset to some extent by population growth." He also notes that this list of top 10 best-selling vehicles has its share of gas guzzling pickups and SUVs.

And the sales drop has taken place at a time when the population has grown. Short finds that per-capita gas sales have declined almost 20 percent since March 1989.

What's going on here? Short sees several factors at work: 1) Urban populations have climbed, 2) Fewer people in the aging population have to get to work and 3) More young people are able to work from home or, due to social media, are less interested in leaving the house. We've become a nation less demographically inclined to drive.

h't Quartz

New York and Long Island impose gas rations

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 20:57:00 +0000

NEW YORK — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and officials in the Long Island counties of Nassau and Suffolk have decided to start an even-odd gas rationing plan beginning at 5 a.m. Friday.

The plan means that gasoline will be available to drivers with licenses plate numbers ending in an odd number Friday, which is Nov. 9.

Saturday will begin days for gas services for drivers with plate numbers ending in an even number.

Bloomberg says at a briefing that only 25 percent of the city's gas stations are open. He estimated the shortage could last another couple of weeks.

Cuomo: ‘No reason to panic’ over gas shortages

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:08:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he's signed an executive order waiving a requirement that fuel tankers register and pay tax before unloading.

He also is threatening utility companies' rights to operate in the state in the future if they don't immediately put power restoration work into high gear.

The governor says there's "no reason to panic" about gas shortages. He said Friday that tankers are now making "great progress" delivering fuel and that his order will help get gasoline to consumers faster. He also says terminals that suffered damage in Superstorm Sandy are coming back online.

But he also is warning utilities that they must devote full personnel and equipment to power restoration. Cuomo says utilities operate only with the state's permission and he will hold them accountable.

Petrol from air

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:13:00 +0000

British scientists have figured out how to make petrol out of air using technology that experts believe could solve the energy crisis and global warming in one fell swoop.

"It sounds too good to be true, but it is true. They are doing it and I've been up there myself and seen it," Tim Fox, head of energy and the environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London, told British newspaper the Independent. He explained, "The innovation is that they have made it happen as a process. It's a small pilot plant capturing air and extracting CO2 from it based on well known principles. It uses well-known and well-established components but what is exciting is that they have put the whole thing together and shown that it can work."

The process not only promises fuel produced without the repletion of the earth's resources, but, by extracting carbon dioxide, it actually combats the global warming effect of burning fossil fuels.

The small company, Air Fuel Synthesis, has currently produced just over a gallon of petrol using carbon dioxide from air and hydrogen from water. However, according to the Independent, "the company hopes that within two years it will build a larger, commercial-scale plant capable of producing a ton of petrol a day."

Study: Thousands of oil and gas wells not inspected

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Regulations at oil and gas wells around the country consistently go unenforced, according to a report released this week by the Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability Project.

The damning report, "Breaking All the Rules: The Crisis in Oil and Gas Regulatory Enforcement," found that every state studied failed to adequately enforce regulations, with thousands of oil and gas wells uninspected every year. Earthworks highlight understaffing and underfunding as key factors in unenforcement.

The report notes:

The U.S. faces a crisis in the enforcement of rules governing the oil and gas industry. The shale gas and shale oil boom has brought an expansion of oil and gas activity unseen in many parts the country since the 19th century. Unfortunately, as this report shows, states are dangerously unprepared to oversee current levels of extraction, let alone increased drilling activity from the shale boom.

Earthworks argues that, for most major energy companies, the cost penalties over unenforced regulations are factored into budgets as "the cost of doing business" -- serving as little deterrence to improve inspection records.