What Energy Experts Are Saying About Heavily Regulated Hydraulic Fracturing and its Benefits
Despite a stream of baseless, unsubstantiated claims from certain media outlets, the facts surrounding hydraulic fracturing continue to surface – demonstrating that this practice is environmentally safe, abundantly regulated and a the linchpin for US energy security, thousands of good-paying jobs and billions in revenue.
Daniel Yergin – universally considered one of the top energy experts in the world – and Robert Ineson co-authored a Wall Street Journal column today entitled “America’s Natural Gas Revolution … A ’shale gale’ of unconventional and abundant U.S. gas is transforming the energy market.” It the piece, they write this:
The biggest energy innovation of the decade is natural gas—more specifically what is called “unconventional” natural gas. Some call it a revolution.
The other technology is known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fraccing.” … The critical but little-recognized breakthrough was early in this decade—finding a way to meld together these two increasingly complex technologies to finally crack the shale rock, and thus crack the code for a major new resource. It was not a single eureka moment, but rather the result of incremental experimentation and technical skill. The success freed the gas to flow in greater volumes and at a much lower unit cost than previously thought possible.
In the last few years, the revolution has spread into other shale plays, from Louisiana and Arkansas to Pennsylvania and New York State, and British Columbia as well.
The supply impact has been dramatic. In the lower 48, states thought to be in decline as a natural gas source, production surged an astonishing 15% from the beginning of 2007 to mid-2008. This increase is more than most other countries produce in total.
Yergin and Ineson emphasize how certain manufacturing states will now have access to affordable and reliable energy supplies, ultimately increasing their competitive edge and helping to keep jobs right here in America, thanks to hydraulic fracturing:
Some areas like Pennsylvania and New York, traditionally importers of the bulk of their energy from elsewhere, will instead become energy producers. It could also mean that more buses and truck fleets will be converted to natural gas. Energy-intensive manufacturing companies, which have been moving overseas in search of cheaper energy in order to remain globally competitive, may now stay home.
The energy experts write this, too, highlighting the long-term importance shale gas could play in meeting our nation’s growing energy demands:
More abundant gas will have another, not so well recognized effect—facilitating renewable development. Sources like wind and solar are “intermittent.” When the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, something has to pick up the slack, and that something is likely to be natural-gas fired electric generation.
