Press Releases
May 25th, 2010
EID points to PA as linchpin of emerging revolution in shale gas exploration across America
WASHINGTON – The responsible development of the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, a phenomenon made possible thanks to the common and continued use of hydraulic fracturing technology, has the potential to add an additional 212,000 new jobs to the state’s employment rolls by 2020, on top of the thousands of jobs already being created right now. That’s the message that researchers from Penn State University delivered today in the state’s capital of Harrisburg, on hand to share the results of an updated economic study that builds on research first released last year.
“From southern Texas to northern Michigan, the historic opportunities being made possible right now thanks to the responsible exploration of America’s shale gas resources represent a ray of light against an otherwise dreary and uncertain economic backdrop,” said Lee Fuller, executive director of Energy In Depth.
“But in few places across the country has this light been brighter and more hopeful than in Pennsylvania, a state with a long and proud history of providing the energy resources our nation needs to keep moving,” Fuller added. “The release of this report from Penn State today serves to reinforce that status in a modern context, and also make clear to those who oppose this critical work on political or ideological grounds that, at least on practical economic grounds, that opposition could lead to fewer jobs, greater dependence, and a lot less revenue for the state.”
According to the latest numbers from the Energy Information Administration (2008), Pennsylvania contributes a little less than one percent of the total amount of natural gas produced each day in America – roughly 500 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. But all that changes over the next 10 years according to the Penn State report, with the ramp-up in Marcellus-related activities in Pennsylvania slated to bring online an additional 13.5 billion cubic feet a day, a 27-fold increase over current production numbers in the state.
Fully developed, the authors find that the broader Marcellus region, spread out through much of Appalachia, could prove to be second largest natural gas field in the world, behind only a massive gas reserve split between Iran and Qatar. Examined another way, the 516 trillion cubic feet of Marcellus shale gas could hold the BTU equivalent of 87 billion barrels of oil – more than entire proven reserves of nations like Russia, Libya, Nigeria and China.
The study finds that only Texas is expected to produce more natural gas per year in the United States by the 2020 than Pennsylvania – assuming efforts to restrict the innovative technologies involved in producing these resources aren’t successful on Capitol Hill.
For a copy of the updated Penn State study, click here.
May 25th, 2010
EID director sends letter to every member of the
energy panel detailing the serious consequences of amendment
WASHINGTON – The bill might known as the “Assistance, Quality and Affordability Act,” but according to reports on Capitol Hill, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s markup of the legislation on Wednesday may include a vote on an unrelated amendment targeting a key technology used to tap the enormous potential of America’s onshore shale gas resources.
In anticipation of that amendment being offered tomorrow, Energy In Depth executive director Lee Fuller sent the following letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee this morning, copying the panel’s entire membership as well. An electronic version of that letter can be found online here, and the full text is available below:
May 25, 2010
The Honorable Henry Waxman
Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-6115
The Honorable Joe Barton
Ranking Member, Committee on Energy and Commerce
2322A Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-6115
Dear Chairman Waxman and Ranking Member Barton:
This week, the Energy & Commerce Committee is scheduled to markup the Assistance, Quality and Affordability (AQUA) Act of 2010, which seeks, among other priorities, to reauthorize the State Revolving Fund in place under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Among the many amendments to the bill that you and your colleagues are likely to consider, one amendment in particular will seek to rewrite SDWA in a manner that could have serious consequences on American energy producers’ ability to deploy a key technology needed to access abundant energy resources from shale formations onshore. The amendment, which some have indicated may be offered by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), will include language taken from H.R. 2766, which the committee has not acted upon in any discernable way since the legislation’s introduction nearly a year ago.
Drafts of the proposed amendment text which have surfaced indicate it will seek to compel service companies to disclose materials used in the fracturing process to the appropriate state agencies or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Before you and your colleagues vote on this amendment, though, you should be aware that the structure of the amendment could result in significant and adverse consequences.
First, it would amend the delegation process under SDWA. For states to maintain their primacy under the Act, they would have to accept the disclosure requirements found in the amendment. As a part of those requirements, states would have to incur the costs of managing the data that would be generated for each fractured well, and post that information on an Internet site.
No funding is provided to pay for these costs; states would have to sacrifice other functions to generate the information. Of course, if they choose not to do that, states would have to give up their regulatory responsibilities under SDWA and turn these functions over to EPA. Not only would this burden EPA – since it is not staffed with the capabilities to undertake daily regulatory responsibilities – but it would also lead to duplicative regulations.
Second, these reporting requirements would undermine other efforts for which some members of your committee have advocated – for example, work related to the development of “green” additives for the fracturing process. Even though state regulatory programs have effectively managed the environmental considerations associated with hydraulic fracturing, some companies are actively working to produce new additive compounds considered to be even more environmentally benign than they are today.
While existing concerns related to Confidential Business Information tend to be focused more on other areas of the broader fracturing debate, the release of information to competitors – both foreign and domestic – on initiatives such as the development of “green” chemicals could have the perverse effect of forcing companies to cut their investment in this important research, or abandon it altogether.
As it relates to the composition of fluids commonly used in the fracturing process today, it’s important to note that greater than 99.5 percent of the mixture is comprised of water and playground sand. The remaining materials, used to help deliver the water down the wellbore and position the sand in the tiny fractures created in the formation, are typically components that can found in your kitchen cupboard and beneath your kitchen sink. The most prominent of these, a substance known as guar gum, is an emulsifier more commonly found in ice cream and peanut butter.
In contrast to the assertions on which this amendment is premised, these materials are well known to state regulators, and are generally available to members of the public upon a quick search of the Internet, or by request to the state. In Pennsylvania, a list of these components can be found easily on the website of the Department of Environmental Protection; in New York, a basic search of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s website returns the same. Lists of these components have also been made available by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Ground Water Protection Council, and on the website of Energy In Depth (EID), of which I have the privilege to serve as executive director.
The fact is, hydraulic fracturing has been ably and aggressively regulated by the states almost since the moment of its invention, with regulators compiling an impressive record of enforcement and oversight during that time. It’s a record that continues to be acknowledged by regulators and lawmakers on the federal level as well, most recently by EPA’s director of drinking water protection, who told a reporter in February that there existed “no evidence” that “states aren’t doing a good job already” when it comes to regulating fracturing activities.
In closing, it’s important for members of the committee to understand that, as additional attention has been paid on the technologies that are making the modern-day shale revolution possible, EPA has taken appropriate notice as well, announcing earlier this year the commencement of a new study focusing on the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water. In 2004, the agency published a report finding hydraulic fracturing to be a safe and well-regulated technology. Notwithstanding those findings, EPA is honoring a request by Congress to study the technology once again.
This research, once complete, will confirm and reinforce the existing record of safety and performance to which hydraulic fracturing has laid consistent claim over the years. However, legislative efforts such as the one proposed by Rep. DeGette should wait until the results of that study are released. Otherwise, why should the time, energy and resources be spent on doing the study in the first place?
Thank you for your forthright consideration of this position. EID stands ready and eager to assist you and your staff should you need any additional information in the future.
Sincerely,
Lee O. Fuller
Executive Director
Energy In Depth
cc: All members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee
May 12th, 2010
WASHINGTON – America’s shale gas resource base is poised to increase 88 percent by the year 2035 assuming key technologies such as hydraulic fracturing remain intact and available to U.S. energy producers. That’s the conclusion released this week by the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) in Washington. In its Annual Energy Outlook 2010, EIA projects that over the next 25 years, natural gas prices and net imports will decrease by 14 and 44 percent, respectively over the next 25 years — a function, according to the independent agency, of natural gas production in the lower 48 increasing by 17 percent over that time.
Subsequent to the release of the study, Energy In Depth executive director Lee Fuller issued the following statement:
“America’s abundant and clean-burning shale gas resources, and the technologies used to safely produce them, represent a critical and positive turning point for our nation’s energy pathway forward. The results of this independent study not only reinforce this promise and potential, but it also underscores the importance that hydraulic fracturing will continue to play in leveraging these job-creating, homegrown reserves into affordable energy and long-term security.
“And while this study demonstrates that a clear blueprint exists to help drive down energy costs for American consumers, as well as our dependence on unstable regions of the world to fuel our economy, it also highlights what locking up our abundant shale gas resources could mean for our nation. Adding layers of unnecessary federal regulations to hydraulic fracturing – which is tightly regulated by energy-producing states – could put our nation’s energy potential out of reach.”
NOTE: Click HERE to view the section of the study entitled “Importance of low permeability natural gas reservoirs.” Key experts provided below:
The use of hydraulic fracturing in conjunction with horizontal drilling in shale gas formations and the use of hydraulic fracturing in tight gas formations has opened up natural gas resources that would not be commercially viable without these technologies. As shale gas production has expanded into more basins and recovery technology has improved, the size of the shale gas resource base in the AEO has increased markedly.
No Shale Gas Drilling case. Starting in 2010, in this case no new onshore lower 48 shale gas production wells are drilled. Natural gas production from shale gas wells drilled before 2010 declines continuously through 2035.
High Shale Gas Resource case. In this case, the unexploited portion of each shale formation supports twice as many new wells as in the Reference case. The lower 48 shale gas resource base increases by 88 percent, from 347 trillion cubic feet in the Reference case to 652 trillion cubic feet in the High Shale Gas Resource case.
In the No Shale Gas Drilling and No Low-Permeability Gas Drilling cases, lower 48 onshore natural gas productive capacity is less than in the Reference case, and as a result average U.S. natural gas prices are higher, more natural gas is imported, and natural gas consumption is reduced. Conversely, in the High Shale Gas Resource case, natural gas productive capacity is higher, natural gas prices and imports are lower, and consumption is higher than projected in the Reference case.
March 18th, 2010
EID: “We are hopeful and it is our expectation that this study – if based on objective, scientific analysis – will serve as an opportunity to highlight the host of steps taken at every wellsite that make certain groundwater is properly protected”
WASHINGTON – Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will begin a new, comprehensive study on hydraulic fracturing, the critical and heavily regulated 60-year old technology used to stimulate energy production in 9 out of 10 wells throughout the United States. Following the announcement, Lee Fuller, executive director of Energy In Depth, released this statement:
“We are hopeful and it is our expectation that this study – if based on objective, scientific analysis – will serve as an opportunity to highlight the host of steps taken at every wellsite that make certain groundwater is properly protected. The energy industry, as well as state regulatory agencies, are eager to work with EPA throughout this fact-based examination. Further, efforts underway in Congress to give EPA outright authority to regulate fracturing – which could hamper domestic energy production and job growth – should come to a standstill until this study is completed.
“Adding another study to the impressive list of those that have already been conducted and completed is a welcome exercise. Hydraulic fracturing is one of the U.S. oil and gas industry’s crowning achievements, enabling us to produce energy supplies at enormous depths with surgical precision and unrivaled environmental safety records. And, simply put, new innovations are making these technologies better and better by the day – a fact widely recognized by the agencies that regulate hydraulic fracturing in energy-producing states.
“Fracturing has a long and clear record of safely leveraging otherwise unreachable homegrown, clean-burning, job-creating energy reserves. Today, the responsible development of America’s shale gas resources represents a crucial turning point for our nation’s long-term energy security. Hydraulic fracturing is the tool that can safely make this possible, and can continue to help lead us on a path toward stronger energy independence and economic competitiveness.”
READ MORE
March 15th, 2010
EID: Boren/Murphy letter fills “factual and historical holes that were unfortunately left agape subsequent to the release of the Waxman memorandum.”
WASHINGTON – Less than a month after Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) sent letters to nine separate service companies seeking additional information on the processes and technologies involved in producing America’s enormous reserves of clean-burning shale gas, U.S. Reps. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) and Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) submitted a letter of their own this past week, reminding the chairman that shale gas is a “proven and powerful engine of economic growth – and one this Congress idles at the peril of those it represents.”
After reviewing the letter, Lee Fuller, executive director of Energy In Depth, released the following statement:
“With more attention being paid on Capitol Hill to the critical role that shale gas can play in securing our nation’s economic and environmental future, it’s natural that additional questions will be raised, and additional information will need to be provided so that lawmakers have access to all the facts, and a full appreciation of the context within which they reside. This letter from Congressmen Boren and Murphy addresses both of those needs, all while filling-in several factual and historical holes that were unfortunately left agape subsequent to the release of the Waxman memorandum.”
The following excerpts were taken directly from the Boren/Murphy letter, which can be downloaded in full here:
On Jobs:
“Consider that in just the past few years, more than 100,000 high-wage jobs have been created in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania alone, all of them tied to the responsible development of American natural gas, and every bit of that made possible thanks to the safe and steady deployment of fracturing technology.”
“At a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty, and in a year in which four million Americans lost their jobs, shale gas exploration represents a proven and powerful engine of economic growth – and one this Congress idles at the peril of those it represents.”
On Shortcomings of the Waxman Memo:
“While a number of the elements contained in your memorandum appear to be sufficiently-researched and adequately sourced, we were nonetheless disappointed to find in the eleven-page document only a single reference to the landmark 2004 study on hydraulic fracturing done by EPA, a reference that does not even acknowledge the core findings and conclusions of the actual report.”
On Relationship between Committee Investigation and EPA’s Pending Study:
“While the agency has yet to formally release details indicating the scope and methodology of that research, it seems likely that much of the information you intend to gather pursuant to your investigation will also be sought, compiled and analyzed by EPA. It’s our hope that you work does not in any way interfere with that process, and our expectation that your course of study meets the same rigorous standards of science, evaluation and peer-review as historically observed by the agency.”
On Waxman Assertion that Fracturing Solutions are Unknown:
“[C]ertainly you must know that federal law mandates that Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) be kept on-hand at every wellsite in America when chemicals are present, and further, that those sheets include an accounting of the identities of those chemicals with identified risks used in the fracturing process. Indeed, the vast majority of these information sheets can be found readily and easily on the Internet. As you indicate, a number of states today post this information in full view of the public online.”
On the Critical Role that Well Integrity Plays in Safeguarding Drinking Water:
“Unfortunately, those who support the FRAC Act appear to believe the mere existence of small amounts of chemical additives in the fracturing solution represents a circumstance sufficient for public drinking water supplies to become contaminated.
“The reality, however, is that these materials are well known to those who regulate the process, and are managed in a way that eliminates virtually any risk of those components coming into contact with shallow reservoirs bearing potable water. Wells drilled today incorporate thousands of feet (and many layers) of steel casing, and thousands of pounds of cement – every bit of that installed using a time-tested engineering process and precise instrumentation to ensure what’s happening inside the wellbore remains in complete isolation from what naturally exists outside of it.”
Click here to view the letter online.
READ MORE
March 11th, 2010
EID: CERA study “reminds us to what we owe the recognition for making this energy revolution possible,” specifically hydraulic fracturing
WASHINGTON – Shale gas exploration “ranks as the most significant energy innovation so far this century” according to a report published by IHS/Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) and released this week in Houston – and hydraulic fracturing, the decades-old technology that’s being used today to unlock these unconventional resources, has “always been regulated at the state level” ably, aggressively and while ensuring proper safeguard for air, water and the surrounding environment.
Subsequent to the release of the report, Energy In Depth executive director Lee Fuller issued the following statement:
“It’s long been said that America’s enormous shale gas resources have the potential to fundamentally recast our nation’s energy and economic future for the better; today’s report from CERA provides new evidence that such a transformation is already well underway. It also reminds us to what we owe the recognition for making this energy revolution possible – specifically, the critical role that hydraulic fracturing technology continues to play in positioning our country to seize on these historic opportunities.
“More relevant to the underlying policy debate, though, is the information in this report highlighting the processes, procedures and regulations in place to ensure this work continues to be done safely and while protecting and preserving the surrounding environment. Contrary to the suggestions of some, hydraulic fracturing is not a new technology, it’s not an untested one, and it’s certainly not a process exempt from stringent regulation. The reality is actually quite the opposite, and this report tells that story in a detailed and comprehensive way – and one that’s accessible for a broader audience.”
What follows are several of the key excerpts culled from the study:
On Supply, Price, Jobs:
Shale gas exploration “ranks as the most significant energy innovation so far this century … It has the potential, at least, of a paradigm shift in the fueling of North America’s energy future.”
“At the national level IHS Global Insight has estimated that the overall natural gas industry employed 550,000 workers in 2008 and was responsible for the creation of an additional 2.4 million jobs in supporting industries, adding over $400 billion to the US economy.”
“The abundance and relative low cost of the natural gas resource base have transformative implications for North American natural gas markets.”
“In fact the robust prospects for shale gas will help to stabilize long-term natural gas markets.”
On Water Use:
“Shale gas production is considerably less water intensive than other types of energy production. Ten times as much water is used to produce the equivalent amount of energy from coal, and ethanol production can use as much as a thousand times more water to yield the same amount of energy.”
On Water Safety:
“Shale gas deposits are typically located several thousand feet below the deepest potential underground source of drinking water, and the low permeability of shale rock and other intervening formations restricts upward flow of fraccing fluids into drinking water aquifers.”
“At present there is no evidence that liquids used for hydraulic fracturing of deep shales can migrate upward to contaminate drinking water aquifers, and there are strong geological arguments to the contrary.”
“Oil and gas operations are widespread throughout North America and drinking water supplies have been appropriately safeguarded from contamination from these activities for many years. This suggests that the risks can be managed and that shale gas development can proceed safely, with proper industry management and regulatory safeguards in place.”
On State Regulation:
“Hydraulic fracturing has always been regulated at the state level by the agencies that regulate all natural gas production in the state.”
“The focus of state regulation is the protection of groundwater resources, and the mechanism for this protection is proper well construction.”
“A properly installed well includes steel casing surrounded by concrete to separate the well from freshwater aquifers above the shale gas zone. The surface casing extends at least 50 to 100 feet below the deepest potential source of drinking water—the required depth is established by regulations in each state. Regulatory inspections ensure that the well is structurally sound before fracturing occurs.”
On the Environment:
“The positive environmental attributes of shale gas are many. … The climate change benefits of natural gas get the most attention, but emissions of local air pollutants also decrease, including sulfur dioxides, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and particulates.”
February 18th, 2010
“Fracturing is safe, effective and very much needed in the context of today’s enormous challenges
related to energy, the economy, and the environment”
WASHINGTON – Energy In Depth executive director Lee Fuller issued the following statement today subsequent to news from the House Energy & Commerce Committee that the panel is interested in learning more about a critical, 60-year-old energy technology known as hydraulic fracturing:
“Hydraulic fracturing is an essential component of producing clean-burning energy in America today, and to the extent the committee’s inquiry into this process helps clear up some of the misconceptions that have come to be associated with the technology, it’s a study we look forward to contributing to. In our view, the committee will benefit enormously from learning more about the procedures, practices and regulations in place to safeguard underground sources of drinking water – and in particular, the steps that are taken at every wellsite in America to ensure the proper casing and cementing acts as an effective barrier between the inside of the wellbore and the environment outside it.
“If the responsible development of shale gas represents a potential game-changer for the United States, hydraulic fracturing represents a non-negotiable tool needed to leverage that potential into reality – and the jobs, revenue and opportunity that come with it.
“It’s understandable that lawmakers would take an interest in learning more about this critical technology moving forward. But as they begin their latest study of the fracturing process, we’d also commend to their attention the various statements, studies and testimonials by and from organizations like EPA, the Department of Energy, and the Ground Water Protection Council – all of which have found, and consistently so, that fracturing is safe, effective and very much needed in the context of today’s enormous challenges related to energy, the economy and the environment.”
READ MORE
February 16th, 2010
Comments by EPA’s Steve Heare aligns with past statements from agency, directly contradicts arguments in support of FRAC Act
WASHINGTON – States are doing “a good job already” when it comes to regulating a 61-year-old energy technology known as hydraulic fracturing, a top EPA water official said yesterday – directly contradicting those who support re-writing the Safe Drinking Water Act to impose EPA regulation over the process for the first time in the agency’s (or Act’s) history. Following comments made yesterday from Steve Heare, EPA’s director of EPA’s drinking water protection office, Energy In Depth executive director Lee Fuller issued the following statement:
“These comments from a key EPA drinking water protection official underscore the tremendous work that state regulators have done for decades, and continue to do today, to ensure the proper balance between responsible energy exploration and the safeguarding of our land, air and water. They also align seamlessly with every single official pronouncement that EPA has ever made on hydraulic fracturing; namely, that fracturing technology is safe, it’s incredibly effective, and that it poses no risk to drinking water supplies as currently regulated.”
In particular, Fuller pointed to testimony offered in December by several EPA water and compliance officials to a committee of the U.S. Senate, a hearing in which EPA’s Peter Silva, Cynthia Giles and Matthew Larsen were asked if they were aware of a single instance of water contamination tied to hydraulic fracturing. None were able to identify a single such case, according to the hearing transcript – a reality confirmed by EPA itself in 2004 when it found “no evidence” of alleged contamination after conducting an exhaustive study of the issue over the course of nearly five years.
Fuller also noted that EPA’s latest comments on hydraulic fracturing present a direct challenge to those who support the so-called FRAC Act currently being considered in Congress – legislation that would fundamentally re-write the 36-year-old Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) with an eye on shoehorning hydraulic fracturing into a potentially unworkable federal regulatory regime. Sponsors of the FRAC Act premise their support for the bill on the assertion that states cannot effectively regulate the fracturing process as currently constituted – a notion that stands in direct contradiction to comments made by Mr. Heare yesterday.
“It seems we have a bit of a disagreement to resolve here,” Fuller added. “If supporters of the FRAC Act believe that EPA’s drinking water official is wrong, they should say so – and be ready to defend that assertion. Alternatively, if they think he may right, they ought to take a second look at the legislation they’re trying to pass, and perhaps do a bit more research into how their individual states are effectively handling this important responsibility. I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised by how aggressively this process is being managed by experts on the ground and in the community.”
READ MORE
February 15th, 2010
Group highlights hydraulic fracturing’s long, clear safety record; enormous economic benefits associated with responsible development in NY
WASHINGTON – As reported by the Cornell Daily Sun last week, Cornell University is creating an “ad hoc advisory committee” to examine the science and mechanics of hydraulic fracturing, the key technology used to safely unlock clean-burning natural gas reserves from the Marcellus shale.
In an effort to ensure the committee has ample access to all the relevant facts associated with shale gas exploration in New York, Energy In Depth wrote to the panel last week to offer its expertise and to hopefully begin a “substantive dialogue between our organization and the members of your panel.”
The text of the letter to Cornell University Hydrofracking Committee is available on-line HERE and copied below:
February 12, 2010
Dr. Susan Riha
Director, New York State Water Resources Institute
Charles L. Pack Research Professor of Forest Soils
Dept. of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Cornell University
1110 Bradfield
Ithaca, NY 14850
Jean-Yves Parlange, Ph.D.
Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Dept. of Biological and Environmental Engineering
Cornell University
228 Riley Robb
Ithaca, NY 14850
Dear Professors:
Following the University’s recent announcement of the formation of an ad hoc advisory committee charged with examining the science, practice and potential benefits associated with natural gas development in New York’s portion of the Marcellus Shale, I have the privilege of writing to you today to first thank you for your willingness to engage this critical work, and second, to offer up myself and my organization as a potential resource for your panel as it examines both the technical and practical implications of shale gas exploration in New York.
I should mention at the outset that my professional background is one of an engineer, and the focus of the organization of which I serve as executive director, Energy In Depth, is one of education and public engagement. Formed last year as a subset of a broader educational campaign of America’s small and independent oil and natural gas producers, Energy In Depth, based in Washington, D.C., has worked hard over the past several months to explain the mechanics involved in deploying the latest innovations in technology in service of responsible energy production, and on occasion, to correct the myriad misconceptions that exist surrounding the record of safety, performance and environmental sensitivity to which these technologies lay claim.
My understanding is that your committee is specifically interested in assessing whether to recommend to your president that a portion of the nearly 420,000 acres owned by Cornell University be considered for potential lease; naturally, a thorough examination of the potential costs and benefits associated with such an action would seem an appropriate and requisite course. Toward that end, I’d like to take this opportunity to share just a few facts that I hope will serve to inform your investigation moving forward. Again, it’s my hope that this correspondence marks the beginning of a substantive dialogue between our organization and the members of your panel, especially on issues related to the safety and environmental performance of hydraulic fracturing.
In an attempt to be brief, I would identify just a few of top-of-mind considerations that may be of interest to your committee:
- Natural gas exploration is not new to New York, and neither is hydraulic fracturing. Contrary to how this issue has been characterized in the press, natural gas exploration has taken place in the state of New York, safely and efficiently, for longer than 150 years. In fact, the world’s first-ever commercial natural gas well was drilled in Fredonia, New York in 1829. And although hydraulic fracturing hasn’t been around for quite that long, it has been in commercial use nationwide now for more than 60 years – and has safely been deployed in New York for decades.
- In 60 years of use, hydraulic fracturing has not been shown to pose discernable risk to drinking water. Hydraulic fracturing has been used for generations to stimulate the flow of energy resources far beneath our feet, and in that time, has not once been credibly tied to the contamination of drinking water – a fact that has been corroborated by EPA (numerous times), the Ground Water Protection Council, and various other state and federal agencies. The continued and aggressive regulation of the process by state regulators is in part responsible for this impressive record of safety; but so too is the fact that the formations we fracture reside thousands of feet below formations that support potable water, separated by millions of tons of impermeable rock.
- The solutions used in the fracturing process are composed almost entirely of water and sand. As experts in the fields of subsurface hydrology (Dr. Parlange) and eco-hydrology (Dr. Riha), it’s certainly our anticipation that issues related to water – both subsurface and in its disposition – will likely be central to your panel’s examination. As your study proceeds, it’s my hope you take note of the fact that greater than 99.5 percent of the fluid used in the fracturing process is comprised of water and sand, with the remaining additives generally categorized as benign gels and friction reducers commonly found in everyday household items. Recognizing that your panel may have specific questions related to these additives, I will once again extend an offer to conference with you on this subject, or otherwise respond in writing to any questions that you may have.
- The economic potential that shale gas exploration presents to New York is extraordinary. Cornell University is an institution whose scholarship informs and enlightens the world, but it’s also an institution with an obligation to the communities of which it is a member. We don’t believe it hyperbolic to suggest that the responsible development of New York’s shale gas, with the help of a well-regulated fracture stimulation process, can be an economic game-changer for the people who live and work in the Southern Tier, with the potential to create hundreds of thousands of high-wage jobs throughout the state, and direct billions of dollars a year to Albany to help your state provide essential services to those in need. On this subject, I would commend to you attention a 2009 study compiled at the request of lawmakers in Broome Co., N. Y. A copy of that text is available on our website, http://energyindepth.org.
With that, I will once again extend my thanks, and those of my organization, to you and your fellow committee members for taking the time to conduct an objective and science-based assessment of the potential for shale gas exploration on lands owned by the University. It’s my hope that you will consider this correspondence an invitation, and in fact a request, to continue this dialogue as your examination proceeds. And it’s my further hope that you will not hesitate to contact me directly should you encounter any questions, concerns or suggestions. Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Lee Fuller
Executive Director
Energy In Depth
Vice President
Independent Petroleum Association of America
CC: Provost Kent Fuchs, President David Skorton
January 27th, 2010
Democrats and Republicans from western PA confirm, applaud state’s stringent regulatory standards
HARRISBURG, Pa. – Federal legislation that seeks to destroy the current state-federal regulatory partnership on hydraulic fracturing in favor of an EPA-directed regime would “substantially increase” the cost of clean-burning natural gas “with no resulting environmental benefits.” That’s the message state Rep. Jim Christiana (R-Beaver) is taking to his colleagues in Harrisburg today – introducing a new resolution reaffirming the ability of state-based regulators to properly regulate and oversee a process that’s central to Marcellus Shale exploration in the state.
“Hydraulic fracturing is absolutely essential to produce natural gas from the Marcellus Shale and other gas shales that promise to hold more than a 100-year supply of natural gas for our nation,” said Rep. Christiana, a member of the House committee on environmental resources and energy. “Pennsylvania’s oil and gas regulatory program is among the most stringent in the United States and places great emphasis on protecting groundwater supplies. I believe that additional and costly Federal oversight is unnecessary and cost-prohibitive.”
The resolution introduced today by Rep. Christiana, who represents several communities in western Pennsylvania, is consistent with remarks offered by U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) during a hearing last week of a key Energy & Commerce subcommittee. Just as Rep. Christiana did today, Congressman Doyle took the time to remind his colleagues then that “in Pennsylvania, we have rules in place to protect our underground sources of drinking water” – and that “Pennsylvania law requires drillers to case in grout wells through all freshwater aquifers before drilling … to protect ground water from pollutants inside wells.”
Congressman Doyle also remarked during the hearing that Pittsburgh may “have been known as a steel city, but pretty soon we may be known as the Saudi Arabia of natural gas with the Marcellus shale sitting underneath western Pennsylvania.” In highlighting the economic benefits for the commonwealth, Rep. Doyle added that “last year alone, Pennsylvania could attribute nearly 50,000 jobs to environmentally safe natural gas production.”
Louis D. D’Amico, executive director of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of Pennsylvania, and someone with nearly 40 years of experience in the energy sector, called Rep. Christiana’s resolution “a potential breakthrough” in the debate over shale gas exploration in Harrisburg, and applauded the lawmaker for his “willingness to educate his colleagues on the real-world facts related to the safe and decades-old application of fracturing technology, as well as the many misconceptions that persist.”
With the introduction of the Christiana resolution today, Pennsylvania joins at least 11 other states, several federal agencies, and countless local communities in either taking up or formally adopting robust declarations of support for the economic potential of American shale gas – as well as for the key technologies needed to produce it.
Now a full two years into the development of the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, the safe and responsible use of hydraulic fracturing, as well as other critical technologies, have already helped the state create more than 48,000 new jobs, according to Penn State University – and generate a staggering $3.8 billion in economic development.
NOTE: A copy of the PA House resolution, as introduced, can be accessed HERE.
Additional resources available at Energy In Depth:
January 25th, 2010
More than 700 farmers, small business owners & landowners take pro-gas message directly to their state lawmakers
ALBANY, N.Y. – Hundreds of local landowners, community leaders, and elected officials descended upon the Capitol building in Albany this morning, determined to show their support for commonsense efforts to leverage the state’s abundant energy resources into jobs, revenue and opportunity for New York – and equally determined to separate fact from fiction on the critical technology needed to safely convert that potential into reality.
“For the better part of two years, those who oppose the responsible development of New York’s natural gas resources on ideological grounds have dominated the discussion in Albany,” said Dan Fitzsimmons, director of New York’s Joint Landowner’s Coalition, a group that turned out hundreds at the rally this morning. “Today’s event marks a turning point in that debate. We’re talking about a resource base that could put thousands of New Yorkers back to work, produced with a technology that’s been used here in the state for decades without incident. The problem is: No one in this town seems to know it. Our hope is that after today, they will.”
Held this morning on the east side of the Capitol complex, early estimates suggest the rally attracted the participation of more than 700 citizens – none of whom were deterred by the steady rain that fell throughout the demonstration.
Despite the weather, the crowd stood firm and brought forward a very simple list of requests: 1) that policy-makers do their part to educate themselves on the safety and necessity of natural gas exploration in New York, and 2) that the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) do its part to put in place a sound regulatory framework needed for that work to finally proceed.
Lee Fuller, executive director for Energy In Depth, applauded the group’s efforts this morning, and used the occasion to remind lawmakers that New York has been safely producing natural gas for more than 150 years, and has been relying on hydraulic fracturing technology to bring local wells to life for more than a generation.
“Those who are actively fighting to ban hydraulic fracturing in New York today apparently are unaware that operators have been safely deploying fracturing technology in the state for decades,” said Fuller. “The only difference now is that we’re looking to explore formations that are deeper in the ground, and further from water aquifers nearer to the surface. If anything, the work we’re looking to undertake today is safer and more tightly regulated than anything that’s ever been done in the past. To the extent that message was sent today in Albany, it could represent a pivotal change in the dynamics of the current debate.”
NOTE: Click HERE to view pictures from today’s event.
Additional resources available at Energy In Depth:
January 21st, 2010
House panel examines unique role that shale gas, hydraulic fracturing can play in delivering Americans clean, secure and affordable energy future
WASHINGTON – America’s abundant reserves of clean-burning, shale-derived natural gas have the potential to create thousands of high-wage jobs and billions in new revenue, all while helping our nation pursue a clean, affordable, and secure energy future. That’s the message that members of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on energy and the environment heard today, as the panel sought to gain additional information on the proposed merger of ExxonMobil and XTO Energy – a leading independent producer of shale gas resources.
Subsequent to the hearing, Energy In Depth executive director Lee Fuller issued the following statement:
“Certainly today’s hearing considered a range of topics that extended well beyond hydraulic fracturing’s remarkable record of safety and performance, but when those issues came up, it was clear that support for this commonly used technology was not limited to one end of the dais.
“While different members approached the issue from several unique perspectives, the points on which everyone seemed to agree are that natural gas is critical to our energy future, critical to our economic future, and critical as a means of significantly reducing our dependence on foreign energy. Thanks to the technology available to us today, each and every one of those objectives is well within our reach.”
Among other key elements included in its legislative portfolio, the subcommittee on energy and the environment maintains jurisdiction over the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974, a statute that some lawmakers would like to re-write with an eye on handing EPA regulatory authority over hydraulic fracturing – a process that has been aggressively and successfully regulated by states for the 60 years in which it has been in commercial use.
Although not a member of the subcommittee, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) appeared at the hearing today for the purpose of defending her effort to amend SDWA, assuring members of the panel that the FRAC Act would not have the effect of impeding the safe and responsible use of fracturing technology.
Rep. DeGette characterized the bill as a measure that would promote the additional reporting of chemicals. Unfortunately, the actual text of her bill suggests a very different outcome – potentially creating a situation whereby the fracturing process is shut down for several years while EPA develops the regulations needed to execute its new and potentially onerous mandates.
December 16th, 2009
Letter to EPA from 22 House Democrats urges “systematic, scientific” approach to studying HF
WASHINGTON – Any agency-led study of a key technology for safely accessing America’s abundant reserves of shale gas should use a “systematic, scientific approach that ensures transparency, accuracy and validity.” That’s the message that 22 Democratic members of the U.S. House delivered to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson this week, as her agency reportedly prepares to undertake its second comprehensive study of hydraulic fracturing in five years.
“In some ways, a letter like this wouldn’t seem necessary,” said Lee Fuller, director of Energy In Depth, a coalition of independent oil and gas producers formed earlier this year. “EPA should understand its mandate, and be prepared to execute it in a way that ensures its course of study is science-based, peer-reviewed, and informed by the knowledge and experience of experts in the field.
“We have every reason to believe it does, and it will,” added Fuller. “This letter simply articulates that expectation, and more important, shows that congressional support for the safe and responsible development of American shale gas is not a partisan affair.”
After five years of exhaustive research on the environmental performance of hydraulic fracturing, EPA released its study on the subject in 2004, concluding that the half-century-old technology “poses little or no threat” to drinking water supplies. Although no material changes to the underlying technology have been made since then, activities in opposition to fracturing have increased substantially among anti-energy activists, who have rightly identified and targeted the technique as the key to unlocking massive, job-creating natural gas resources from shale deposits all across the country.
The letter to Administrator Jackson, signed by lead-author Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) and 21 of his Democratic colleagues in the House, comes on the heels of recently passed appropriations legislation calling on EPA to re-examine several key issues surrounding the use and performance of hydraulic fracturing. An electronic copy of the letter can be downloaded HERE; its text is available below.
December 15, 2009
Dear Administrator Jackson:
The Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010, signed into law on October 30, 2009, contains funding for carrying out the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) critical mission to protect human health and the environment. Pursuant to that mission, the conference committee’s report requested that the EPA conduct a study of hydraulic fracturing.
Specifically, the report states that the EPA is to “carry out a study of the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water, using a credible approach that relies on the best available science, as well as independent sources of information.” We believe that this study should use a systematic, scientific approach that ensures transparency, accuracy and validity, so as to allow the EPA and Congress to properly evaluate the environmental performance of hydraulic fracturing.
We recommend that the EPA follow several key criteria. First, the study should rely on accepted quality assurance guidelines. The EPA should develop a reasonable and transparent study design consistent with its 2004 study and have the results properly peer-reviewed by qualified experts in accordance with standard practices. The study should also draw on the knowledge and experience of experts in hydraulic fracturing, including those in the Department of Energy, the U.S. Geological Survey, and state regulatory agencies. The EPA should make the study’s results available to interested members of the public for review and comment prior to finalizing them.
Second, the EPA should fully take into account previous studies on hydraulic fracturing by federal or state governmental agencies, councils, commissions or advisory committees. For example, given the significant effort associated with the 2004 EPA study, the agency should consider that study’s conclusions on hydraulic fracturing and utilize a phased approach when determining whether additional review is warranted.
Last and most importantly, the study should be based on well-recognized principles of risk assessment to determine whether individuals are exposed to substances in the hydraulic fracturing process at levels considered harmful to human health.
Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to working with you to develop America’s energy resources in the most environmentally-sound manner possible.
Sincerely,
Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.)
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.)
Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)
Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.)
Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) Rep. Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas)
Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.)
Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.)
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.)
Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas)
Rep. Harry Teague (D-N.M.) Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas)
Rep. Parker Griffith (D-Ala.) Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas)
December 7th, 2009
EID launches new online feature encouraging New Yorkers to comment on draft DEC natural gas plan
Washington, D.C. – Should the state of New York finally put in place the regulations needed to convert the potential of clean-burning natural gas from the Marcellus into the reality of thousands of new, high-wage jobs for New Yorkers? That’s the question the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) put before the state’s residents in October, and it’s one the Energy In Depth coalition is encouraging the public to respond to with the help of a new online feature launched this afternoon.
Available at EnergyInDepth.org, the site will now carry a New York-specific page with links and information on the draft DEC regulatory plan, along with a sample letter and submission form that residents can use to quickly and easily make their views known in Albany. The comment period is slated to expire on December 31, leaving little more than three weeks for New Yorkers to stand up and defend a plan that balances the economic future of the state with the environmental imperatives of safe water, clean air, and open spaces.
“Nearly 190 years of producing clean-burning natural gas in New York has demonstrated that we can do it safely, efficiently, and in a manner that creates jobs and revenue for those who live here,” said Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York. “With the state’s unemployment rate at nine percent, there’s never been a more critical time to leverage our homegrown resources into economic opportunities for the future. The DEC plan envisions a future in which that work can take place, and sets out the rules, standards and regulations needed to protect our environment while we’re doing it.”
Coming in at an overwhelming 804 pages in length, the DEC draft plan was released in September after nearly three years of study and research by the agency. If approved, it would allow the state to proceed one step closer toward the future possibility of exploring the prolific Marcellus Shale formation, an 8,000-foot-deep reserve that some researchers estimate could hold more than $1 trillion-worth of clean-burning, job-creating natural gas.
“The draft DEC plan ranks among the most aggressive and comprehensive regulatory proposals ever introduced,” said Lee Fuller of Energy In Depth, a coalition of small and independent energy producers formed earlier this year. “Remarkably, some of the same interest groups that claimed to play such a prominent role in shaping it are now working tirelessly to defeat it – aware that the absence of a workable regulatory framework is tantamount to the defeat of even the most responsible, tightly-regulated exploration.”
For more information, please visit EnergyInDepth.org. To navigate directly to the EID’s comment submission page, click HERE.
READ MORE
October 30th, 2009
Energy In Depth breaks down the anti-energy documentary, separates fact from fiction on history, performance of HF
“Split Estate,” an editorial in Colorado’s Grand Junction paper argued last week, “is a polemic, aimed at highlighting one side’s views … not at presenting a balanced picture of the arguments related to fracking.” But as we lay out in further detail below, “balance” isn’t the only component of responsible story-telling that was left on the cutting room floor by film director Debra Anderson.
Having been screened in near-empty theaters in New York and Los Angeles earlier this summer, and on satellite TV earlier this month, the producers of Split Estate appear now to be focused on advancing their message in a more targeted, overtly political way – asking supporters to demand the film be played at local county commission hearings, and sending out frequent calls-to-action requesting that letters of support for the FRAC Act be mailed to Washington, D.C.
Make no mistake: Every bit of Split Estate is directed at advocating a specific policy position as it relates to responsible energy development in the United States: Stop it. All of it. Smartly, the film’s supporters and director recognize the extent to which attacking hydraulic fracturing can be used to deliver the practical outcomes they seek.
Movies are fun to watch. This is a movie. But none of that should absolve those in positions of responsibility from checking up on some of these assertions for themselves, and perhaps even thinking critically about why they were made in the first place. The fact sheet provided below seeks, in the very least, to begin such a process.
What follows are a few of the most outrageous examples of distortion, disinformation, and outright dishonesty included in the film:
Movie Message #1: The process that led to hydraulic fracturing earning an “exemption” from federal law in 2005 was quite a scandal – and everyone, as it were, was in on it.
Narrator: “In 2004, the Bush-Cheney administration’s Environmental Protection Agency asserted that fracturing does not threaten drinking water.”EPA’s Weston Wilson: “Within a few months of coming into office, [the] vice president was pressuring the administrator of EPA, Christie Todd Whitman, to exempt hydraulic fracturing from Safe Drinking Water Act regulation.”Narrator: “Because of its high cost, [hydraulic fracturing] was not widely used until recently, in the 1990s, when the price of natural gas shot up high enough to make it affordable.”Fact Check:
- Interestingly, the 2004 EPA report that found hydraulic fracturing to be a safe and effective energy technology was initiated not by the “Bush-Cheney” EPA, but by EPA administrator Carol Browner during the Clinton administration. This fact is directly at odds with several assertions made in the film.
- Currently serving in the White House as President Obama’s energy advisor, Ms. Browner wrote in 1995 that there was “no evidence” that hydraulic fracturing contributed to contamination, and that even the possibility of contamination happening in the future was “extremely remote.”
- Hydraulic fracturing did not earn an exemption to federal law under the Bush administration – it was never regulated under federal law to begin with. The 2005 energy bill, supported by then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), simply clarified the reach of the existing statute, making clear that states – who have been regulating fracturing activities for more than a half century – were best-equipped to oversee this process.
- Fracturing first came into commercial use in the late 1940s, and has been used consistently and efficiently over the years not only to produce oil and natural gas, but to tap water wells and even by EPA to clean up Superfund sites. It is not a new technology.
- The EPA study demonstrating the safety of hydraulic fracturing is one of many – all of which conclude that fracturing is environmentally safe as currently regulated.
- It should also be noted that EPA is an independent agency of the federal government, one that exists outside the structure of existing executive departments. It’s an agency with more than 18,000 employees – only a handful of which must be confirmed by the Senate, and even fewer selected by the president.
- To refer to the agency circa 2004 as the “Bush-Cheney administration’s EPA” is an attempt to obfuscate this fact, and to insinuate (without evidence) that the president ordered EPA scientists to produce analysis favorable to hydraulic fracturing.
Message #2: Medical personnel, state regulators, the general public – no one has any way of knowing what sort of materials are used in the fracturing process.
EPA’s Weston Wilson: “We cannot know what the industry injects in our land. It is exempt from being reported.”Activist Theo Colborn: “You may only get five percent of what’s in that product, and the rest is proprietary or they just don’t give it – they don’t have to.”Ms. Colborn: “There is no way a physician can truly treat what he’s seeing. They have not been given a list of these chemicals that are being used.”Fact Check:
- Mr. Wilson’s assertion (echoed by Ms. Colborn) that “we cannot know” what materials are involved in the fracturing process is demonstrably untrue.
- Mandated by the federal government, documents known as Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are required to be kept on-hand at all well sites. These sheets contain full listings of the materials involved in the fracturing process, and are even available on the Internet. They are also readily available to all medical and emergency response personnel.
- States in which fracturing activities take place have required a complete list of materials used in the process be submitted to state agencies when they have found it necessary.
- Some states, such as Pennsylvania, post those material sheets online (available here). Additional sheets can be accessed from Energy In Depth and the Ground Water Protection Council.
Ms. Colborn: “For people who are telling you that these products are safe, first, ask them what they have been trained in; two, find out who’s paying their salary; and third, actually hand them a real glass full of something that you have taken from an evaporation well, and ask them to drink it.”
- Ms. Colborn, a former zoology professor at the University of Florida, previously drew a salary from the professional environmental interest group WWF.
- Groundwater is not the same thing as drinking water, nor is it similar to the liquids involved in the fracturing of a well. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires groundwater to be treated to meet federal standards before it can be used in public water supplies. One of the treatment chemicals used in public water management is – and has been for over a hundred years – chlorine. It destroys water-borne bacteria; but no one would suggest drinking concentrated chlorine.
- Water residing thousands of feet underground (naturally) and brought to the surface following the fracturing process is called “produced water.” It must be managed to protect the environment under either the federal Clean Water Act or the Safe Drinking Water Act. No one suggests that it should be considered as drinking water.
- According to the Ground Water Protection Council, “[M]ost additives contained in fracture fluids including sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and diluted acids, present low to very low risks to human health and the environment.”
Message #3: The 2004 EPA study proving fracturing to be safe was “unsupportable” – EPA’s own experts said so.
Narrator: “[The 2004 EPA study] was challenged by a 30-year EPA environmental engineer Weston Wilson, acting under protected whistleblower status.”
Fact Check:
- Mr. Wilson does indeed work (to this day) for EPA’s regional office in Denver. His areas of expertise (as defined by himself) are in Clean Air Act and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) enforcement, not in the Safe Drinking Water Act or hydraulic fracturing. Consequently, Mr. Wilson was not part of the team of scientists and engineers that spent more than five years studying hydraulic fracturing for EPA.
- Wilson has a long and well-documented history of aggressive opposition to responsible resource and mineral development. Over his 35-year career, Mr. Wilson has invoked “whistleblower” status to fight dam construction in Colorado, oil and gas development in Montana, and the mining of gold in Wyoming.
- Wilson in his own words: “The American public would be shocked if they knew we make six figures and we basically sit around and do nothing.”
Message #4: Energy producers in America benefit from unprecedented exemptions to existing federal environmental laws.
Graphic box: “The oil and gas industry is exempt from sections of the following U.S. Laws: Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, CERCLA, and The Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act”NRDC’s Amy Mall: “What’s most important is for Congress to close these loopholes – and to hold the oil and gas industry to the same standards as other industries.”Fact Check:
- Notice here the documentarian doesn’t say energy producers are exempt from these laws – they’re only exempt from “sections” of them. Obviously, not every section of every environmental law deals with oil and gas production.
- Whereas some sections of the environmental statutes identified by the film’s director do not cover oil and gas, other “sections” in those same laws do. And that’s true for every single one cited in this documentary.
- In fact, federal environmental laws include sections that distinguish between different dischargers – industries, municipalities, agriculture – because no law written can be applied identically to all situations and circumstances.
- The oil and gas industry is among the most heavily regulated sectors in the U.S. economy. Every stage – from the wellhead to the burner tip – is covered extensively by state, local and federal laws.
Message #5: The Amos Well case demonstrates clearly why Congress needs to act to restrict hydraulic fracturing.
Narrator: In 2004, some residents in Garfield County [Colo.] began to complain that they were getting sick as a result of the drilling activities … A young woman from Silt, Laura Amos, was one of the earliest and loudest voices.”
Fact Check:
- In 2001 (not 2004), Ms. Amos first complained to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) about a variety of problems associated with her drinking water well, including reduced volume and the suspected presence of methane.
- According to Ms. Amos, these problems were caused by hydraulic fracturing operations conducted on gas wells approximately 1,000 feet from her home. Reports indicate that fracturing operations took place at depths of over 2,000 feet; the Amos well is 225-feet deep.
- COGCC undertook a thorough investigation of Ms. Amos’s complaints. On at least eight occasions between 2001 and 2005, the agency tested the Amos well for contaminants. Nothing of note was ever detected in any of these samples.
Message #6: America’s open spaces are currently under siege – the product of an unprecedented drilling boom initiated by President Bush, and surreptitiously aided by Vice President Cheney.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass): “The attitude of the previous administration was drill, drill, drill – and drill some more.”
Narrator: “Back in 2000, after the Bush-Cheney election, there was a dramatic acceleration in drilling activity.”
Fact Check:
- According to the Congressional Research Service, more federal acreage was offered for lease under the Clinton administration than under the Bush administration – 31.3 million acres more.
- While it’s true that more wells were developed during President Bush’s tenure, that increase reflects a change in the dynamics of price — not a change in national policy.
|
Administration
|
Offshore Acreage
|
Onshore Acreage
|
Total Acreage
|
| Clinton (1993-2000) |
420,277,357 |
46,427,365 |
466,704,722 |
| Bush (2001-2008) |
403,953,986 |
31,488,455 |
435,442,441 |
Source: Congressional Research Service (published Jan. 14, 2009)
Odds and Ends
Sen. Kerry: “Sixty-five percent of the current [federal] subsidies go to gas and oil, and you have this imbalance. We ought to have 65 percent or more – 80 percent – ought to be going to alternative, renewable technologies — to energy efficiency.”
Ms. Colborn: “Let’s work on alternatives. Let’s serve the country through alternative energy.”
Fact Check: The Energy information Administration (EIA) estimates that total federal subsidies for electric production are $24.34 per megawatt hour for solar power and $23.37 for wind, compared to 25 cents per megawatt hour for natural gas and petroleum fueled technologies—98 times higher. Yet, even with these subsidies, solar generated only 0.02 percent of U.S. electricity in 2008. Wind barely delivered one percent.
* * *
Narrator: “Industry has brought jobs and money to the county, but for Gilbert Armenta, the price has been much too high.”
Mr. Armenta: “The industry has the mentality that, [the land] is all theirs and it don’t belong to nobody else.”
Fact Check: Mr. Armenta is a fourth generation American who, by his own admission, owns “over 100,000 acres of ranchland” in Bloomfield, New Mexico. In his county, energy development accounts for more than eight percent of the total workforce. Perhaps it’s not unreasonable for residents in his community not fortunate enough to own 100,000 acres of ranchland to pursue high-wage, family-supporting employment opportunities in this field.
* * *
Narrator: “In an effort to convince authorities that the bubbling was not occurring naturally, Lisa [Bracken] and her family demonstrated that the gas would ignite.”
Fact: Gas ignites. That’s true whether the methane found in the Bracken stream arrived there through natural means or not. Once again, the director confuses a basic point of science in her rush to blame hydraulic fracturing for a phenomenon that occurs naturally every single day. This explains why public water systems de-gas their water during treatment; unfortunately, many private wells do not.
Additional resources available at Energy In Depth:
October 30th, 2009
Democrats Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Dan Boren (D-Okla.) share their states’ experiences with safe, well-regulated technology used to produce secure, American energy
Sen. Dorgan, chairman of the Energy Appropriations subcommittee and member of the Energy & Natural Resources committee, said this in a floor speech this week:
- We need to continue to develop resources at home if we are going to become less dependent on foreign energy.
- We are now discovering new fields in shale and tight sands reservoirs because we can use technologies that we could not benefit from 5 and 10 years ago. Just think we now explore 2 miles beneath the surface of the Earth areas of shale and go into seams 100-foot thick. We have the ability to drill down 2 miles, make a big curve, and drill out 2 miles to reach the resource. So you have a 4-mile circuit with this one drilling rig and you go into a shale deposit more than out 2 miles out. To exploit the resource, companies use hydraulic fracturing by using water under high pressure. It allows them to break down that shale, and you have oil production.
- The U.S. Geological Survey did a survey in North Dakota in an area called the Bakken shale. It is an area about 100-foot thick 2 miles down. They said using today’s technology there is up to 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil in place. That is the largest assessment of recoverable oil they have ever found in the Lower 48 States. Think of that. But none of that resource would be available without the use of hydraulic fracturing.
- By the way, this issue of hydraulic fracturing – water under high pressure to break that shale – we have been doing that for 60 years. There has been many studies, and there is simply no problem with it when properly applied. These studies show that it does not contaminate groundwater. In fact, the EPA itself did a study in 2004 and concluded there is no problem.
- Well, some of our colleagues are concerned, and they have legislation to regulate hydraulic fracturing on a federal level. In the House Interior Appropriations bill, there was a requirement for the EPA to do a study. … I do not mind there being a study because I believe that it will demonstrate what we already know and what the EPA has previously discovered in their study.
- This issue of hydraulic fracturing is not a problem. We do need to continue to produce more energy in this country to make us less dependent on foreign oil and find ways to use more domestic natural gas. It is just a fact, and it will not continue unless we can continue the hydraulic fracturing that unleashes the opportunity of these oil and natural gas fields.
- NOTE: Click HERE to view this floor speech. Also, the Associated Press reported this week that North Dakota, thanks in large part to hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques, is now the nation’s 4th biggest oil producing state in the nation, according to the US Energy Dept.
Rep. Boren, co-chair of the bipartisan House natural gas caucus and member of the Natural Resources committee, said this on CNBC’s “Mad Money” this week:
- I’d say they are misinformed. For those of us that have been around the oil patch our whole life, you know about hydraulic fracturing and that’s been the big issue people are talking about.
- There have been over 1 millions wells drilled and some folks can only point to 3 examples where they think hydraulic fracturing had anything to do with the water supply. And actually we can debunk those 3 cases.
- This is very safe. And the fuel we’re bringing out, this natural gas, is very clean.
- We’ve had a lot of environmental groups actually come to us and say we want to support you. We’re on your side. How often does that happen when you have the environmentalists and the oil and gas community on the same page?
- NOTE: Click HERE to view this CNBC clip.
October 1st, 2009
Release of DEC rules governing hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling puts supporters of EPA-only regulatory approach envisioned under anti-FRAC Act in serious bind
Washington, DC – Last night, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released a series of new rules governing the safe and responsible development of abundant natural gas reserves found in the state’s Marcellus Shale formation.
If enacted in full, the regulations would rank among the most restrictive in the nation, but, contrary to the wishes of anti-energy activists, would allow work to proceed in the area — and thus facilitate the creation of hundreds of thousands of high-wage jobs, hundreds of millions in local wages, and billions in economic output for New York.
In response to the release of New York’s long-awaited Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), Energy In Depth policy director Lee Fuller released the following statement:
“The oil and gas industry is among the most heavily regulated sectors in America, and hydraulic fracturing is among the most heavily regulated activities within that industry. For those who believe that states do not actively and aggressively regulate this critical, job-creating energy technology – yesterday’s announcement from DEC should put that notion to bed once and for all.
“Amazingly, even on a day when DEC released some of the most restrictive fracturing rules in the entire country, some would rather throw out the entire document, render the review process null and void, and hand over to EPA the authority to do what DEC is more than capable of doing itself. This speaks to the fundamental difference between these DEC rules and Rep. Hinchey’s FRAC Act: The former envisions energy exploration taking place, albeit within tightly defined regulatory parameters; the latter seeks to end it in its entirety.”
Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil & Gas Assn. of New York, and a member of Energy In Depth, also commented on the SGEIS’s release:
“We have begun a review of the SGEIS and remain hopeful that the state DEC has found a balance that continues to protect New York’s environment and allows responsible exploration for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. This rich deposit of natural gas holds tremendous economic potential for New York. A regulatory structure that is tough but fair will allow this state to realize this tremendous opportunity.”
Among the key findings put forth in the DEC report:
“Hydraulic fracturing occurs after the well is cased and cemented to protect fresh water zones and isolate the target hydrocarbon-bearing zone.”
“[T]ext in Chapter 6 along with Appendix 11 on subsurface fluid mobility explains why ground water contamination by migration of fracturing fluid is not a reasonably foreseeable impact.”
“The combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing is widely used in other areas of the United States as a means of recovering gas from tight shale formations.”
“The hydraulic fracturing product additives proposed for use in [New York] and used for fracturing horizontal Marcellus shale wells in other states contain similar types of chemical constituents as the products that have been used for many years for hydraulic fracturing of traditional vertical wells.”
“Transporting frac additives … is comprehensively regulated under existing regulations.”
“For any given area and formation, hydraulic fracturing design is an iterative process, i.e., it is continually improved and refined as development progresses and more data is collected.”
“The regulated industries provide jobs and economic stimulus through the purchase of goods and services, and the payment of taxes, royalties and leasing bonuses.”
Read More:
August 12th, 2009
State’s Democratic Governor Puts Forth New Blueprint for Leveraging Hydraulic Fracturing Technology to Generate Jobs, Revenue, Opportunity for NY
Washington, DC – As the state of New York gets set to release a series of new rules aimed at promoting a comprehensive, commonsense energy policy for its residents, the Marcellus Shale formation — and the trillions of cubic feet of clean-burning natural gas it holds — remains at the forefront of the debate. Earlier this week, Gov. David Paterson (D) released a draft energy plan highlighting, among many things, the economic importance of safely developing the abundant natural gas resources along the state’s Southern Tier.
Energy In Depth policy director Lee Fuller issued the following statement:
“Governor Paterson’s initial energy proposal is a step in the right direction. He rightly acknowledges that the Marcellus region offers enormous economic opportunity for his state and its citizens at a time when it’s needed most, and also notes the important role that hydraulic fracturing will play in safely and responsibly delivering those natural gas resources to the people who need them.
“The governor also highlighted the fact that New York has lost more than 200,000 jobs over the last year, producing an unemployment rate higher now than it’s been in 15 years. His report comes just weeks after a study found that natural gas production in Broome County could create 16,000 new jobs, nearly $800 million in wages, and more than $15 billion in economic activity – every bit of it made possible thanks to the safe and steady deployment of hydraulic fracturing technology.”
Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York, said this in a release:
“It cannot be overstated; the Marcellus Shale formation holds tremendous economic potential for New York. Increasing the production of this clean-burning and abundant natural resource will improve the economy, result in increased tax revenues and jobs, and improve New York’s and America’s energy independence.”
Key excerpts from Governor Patterson’s 2009 draft energy plan:
- The State’s natural gas production is expected to more than double from 55 billion cubic feet in 2007 to about 146 billion cubic feet, representing about eight percent of the State’s natural gas requirements by 2020. Although the addition of Marcellus Shale production is expected to result in a significant increase in New York production over the planning period, the natural gas model reflects a conservative Marcellus Shale natural gas production level to account for potential permitting and production difficulties related to horizontal drilling, and hydraulic fracturing. If these difficulties are minimized, Marcellus production levels could potentially be much higher.
- This resource presents an opportunity for the State to unlock substantial economic value while helping to achieve a key energy policy objective of importance to the State’s energy security. Natural gas extraction would create jobs, create wealth for upstate land-owners, and increase State revenue from taxes and land-owner leases and royalties. Development of State-owned lands could provide much needed revenue relief to the State and spur economic development and job creation in economically depressed regions of the State. Furthermore, the increased supplies of natural gas…will place downward pressure on natural gas prices, thereby potentially lowering the cost of energy for New Yorkers.
- Horizontal well completions combined with hydraulic fracturing are likely to provide the best means for producing economic volumes of natural gas.
Read More:
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August 10th, 2009
New report details staggering economic impact that Marcellus Shale natural gas development can have on Broome County, New York
WASHINGTON – A single rural county in a single U.S. state holds enough clean-burning natural gas to leverage the creation of 16,000 good-paying jobs, $793 million in wages, and $15.3 billion in total economic output according to a study commissioned at the request of legislators in Broome Co., New York, and released this week.
The report, compiled by researchers from the University of North Texas, who had previously studied the Barnett Shale, comes on the heels of a Penn State study also released this week finding that for every Marcellus Shale well developed in the Pennsylvania, $6.2 million in economic impact could be realized.
The Broome Co. report suggests the figure may be even higher in the state of New York, with gross revenues exceeding $9.3 million per well.
Energy In Depth policy director Lee Fuller issued the following statement:
“Natural gas helped transform the economic landscape of New York in the 19th century, and as this report makes plain, natural gas from the Marcellus Shale is poised to transform the state’s economy once again in the 21st century.
“At the center of this all this excitement stands a critical energy technology known as hydraulic fracturing. With it, opportunities for new jobs, new revenues, and greater security abound. Without it, those opportunities will be lost. It’s our hope that regulators and legislators in New York do their homework on this critical technology, and put forth a plan that allows it to be safely deployed for the benefit of their constituents.”
Among the report’s key findings:
- “Assuming well completion in 2009 and production commencing in 2010, we estimate gross revenues at about $9.3 million per well during the first 10 years of production.”
- “If the number of developed gas wells in Broome County reaches 4,000 … drilling expenditures will total $14 billion and total local economic activity will rise to $15.3 billion.”
- “Labor income from salaries, wages and benefits will increase by almost $793 million from the creation of over 16,000 person-years of employment.”
- “Property income related to gas well drilling activities will rise by $1.2 billion and tax revenues will increase by $44 million and $41 million during the period of drilling activity for state and local taxing entities, respectively.”
- “[B]ecause the Millennium Pipeline passes through Broome County, local producers will receive a ‘premium’ when delivering gas to the New York City Gate.”
July 28th, 2009
Penn State researchers call DeGette/Casey “ominous,”
say it “would accomplish little in terms of protecting potable freshwater”
WASHINGTON – The safe and steady deployment of hydraulic fracturing technology in the Marcellus Shale region last year generated more than $240 million in state and local taxes for Pennsylvania, 29,000 good-paying jobs, and $2.3 billion in total economic development, according to a new report issued by Penn State University.
The study, released this week by PSU’s College of Earth & Mineral Sciences, also refers to the DeGette/Casey anti-fracturing legislation in Congress as an “ominous proposal” that would “raise prices for gasoline and natural gas” while “accomplish[ing] little in terms of protecting potable freshwater.”
Energy In Depth policy director Lee Fuller issued the following statement subsequent to the report’s release:
“One-hundred and fifty years after Pennsylvania gave us the world’s first commercial oil well, the critical work of finding and producing the energy our nation needs continues in the natural gas fields of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. All told, we’re talking about a resource that’s expected in 2009 to create 50,000 jobs in a single year in a single state. And almost none of them would be possible without the safe, continued use of hydraulic fracturing.”
Among its key findings, the Penn State report found that each natural gas well drilled in the Marcellus region produced $6.2 million in economic impact, both for the state and to citizens directly. It also calculated that for every $1 that Marcellus shale gas producers spend to find and produce that gas, $1.94 of total economic output is generated.
The report makes plain that hydraulic fracturing is a non-negotiable tool for making these resources and revenues possible. “This remarkable, almost unbelievable, increase in estimated [natural gas] reserves is due to technological advancements in horizontal drilling and … the implementation of hydrofracturing.”
And it pulls no punches in assessing the merit of the DeGette/Casey anti-frac legislation.
“There is little question that this type of legislation would accomplish little in terms of protecting potable freshwater but would be disastrous in terms of the domestic oil and gas industry, raise prices for gasoline and natural gas, and ultimately derail any efforts to address the need to reduce carbon emissions.”
Additionally, on the safety of hydraulic fracturing:
- “Well designers exercise extreme care in well design to isolate any fluids used in the hydrofracturing process from any potable-sub-surface drinking water.”
- “No untreated water used in hydraulic fracturing is ever disposed to a stream or river.”
- “All water that is used in the stimulation process and collected at the surface is disposed of in DEP-regulated/permitted disposal sites that are located in the Commonwealth.”
Read More:
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www.EnergyInDepth.org
July 21st, 2009
Coalition Exhibition Seeks to Educate Key State Legislators, Staff on Safety, Imperative of Hydraulic Fracturing
PHILADELPHIA – As the American people continue to read more about, hear referenced, and see firsthand the critical role that hydraulic fracturing plays in delivering our nation a clean, secure energy future, the Energy In Depth coalition is taking that message on the road – hosting an educational exhibition this week at the 2009 National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) legislative summit in Philadelphia.
“As more and more communities across the country look to leverage their energy resources into thousands of area jobs and billions in local and state revenue, reasonable people are bound to ask reasonable questions about whether the process in place for producing that energy is safe, efficient and properly regulated,” said Lee Fuller, policy director for the coalition of mostly small and independent producers of American energy.
Added Fuller: “It’s precisely these questions the Energy In Depth coalition was formed to answer – wherever, whenever and from whomever they’re asked. And that’s the reason we’re in Philadelphia this week: to encourage and help inform a dialogue that’s based on facts, not fear; on-the-ground evidence, not off-the-wall hyperbole.”
From Tuesday through Thursday, Energy In Depth will host an educational exhibition in the Philadelphia Convention Center aimed at giving state legislators and staff an opportunity to see firsthand how advances in hydraulic fracturing and other innovative technologies are helping to fuel their community, fund their state, and confront our nation’s dangerous and growing dependence on foreign energy.
This opportunity to speak directly to lawmakers and key officials comes as a wave of support continues to build in state capitals and county courthouses across the nation in opposition to federal, one-size-fits-all legislation that could strip states of their rights to regulate hydraulic fracturing, and ultimately slow energy production. In fact, just this week, the United States Energy Council – a coalition of state legislators from energy producing states – issued this statement of policy. In its statement to congressional leaders and administration officials, the council writes:
- “The Energy Council urges the United States Congress to maintain state regulatory jurisdiction over oil and gas hydraulic fracturing operations and refrain from extending federal jurisdiction, under the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act.”
This letter follows action from states, including Alabama, Louisiana, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Texas, who understand that hydraulic fracturing is a safe technology and critical tool for economic development and job creation, and have taken action to urge the federal government to not interfere with the current state regulatory framework.
The exhibit will be displayed at location 153 in the far left corner of the convention floor. A detailed map of the venue can be found HERE. Energy experts will be manning the booth during the regular exhibit hall hours, which are:
Tuesday, July 21, 10am – 5pm
Wednesday, July 22, 9am – 4pm
Thursday, July 23, 9am – 3pm
Read More:
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www.EnergyInDepth.org
June 25th, 2009
Earlier today, the Center for American Progress (CAP), an influential, left-of-center public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., posted a memo on its website in support of the FRAC Act of 2009 – legislation that seeks to impede the development of America’s abundant shale gas resources by targeting the critical tools needed to bring those resources to market.
Naturally, the CAP memo chooses not to characterize the purpose or intent of the legislation as such. Instead, CAP senior fellow Tom Kenworthy describes the bill as an attempt to force the energy industry to “disclose the chemicals it uses and … make fracking subject once again to the Safe Drinking Water Act.”
Of course, hydraulic fracturing has never been subject to the Safe Drinking Water Act, making it both physically difficult and semantically impossible to “subject” it “once again” to an Act of which it was never the object of regulation in the first place.
Other errors of fact, characterization, omission and commission are identified and corrected below.
CAP: “Re-establishing federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing seems a sensible precaution.”
Response: As indicated above, hydraulic fracturing has never been under the direct jurisdiction of federal law, rendering inaccurate the suggestion that “[r]e-establishing” such regulation would be a “sensible precaution.”
That’s not to suggest, however, that the technology is now, or has ever been, free from regulation. States have been regulating and overseeing the fracturing process for more than 60 years. And in that time, they’ve compiled a record of safety that few oversight agencies – be they local, state or federal – can match.
Unfortunately, this error in understanding appears to be common, especially among those who believe that, since fracturing earned an “exemption” from federal regulation in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (supported by then-Sen. Barack Obama), it must be the case that fracturing was covered by federal statute previous to that.
But the Energy Policy Act did not exempt hydraulic fracturing from federal regulation. It simply clarified the position of Congress with respect to whether hydraulic fracturing was ever intended to be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). It was not — a judgment supported in full by the history of SDWA.
CAP: “The oil and gas industry has recently begun a multimillion campaign to defend the practice against the new legislation, which would force the industry to disclose the chemicals it uses and would make fracking subject once again to the Safe Drinking Water Act.”
Response: While appreciative of Mr. Kenworthy’s generous characterization of the Energy In Depth coalition, we must again take issue with his suggestion that the DeGette/Casey legislation “would make fracking subject once again to the Safe Drinking Water Act.” That assertion, as we’ve shown, is mistaken.
So too is the CAP description of the DeGette/Casey bill as an effort to “force industry to disclose the chemicals it uses,” a notion premised on the idea that state regulators have no access to information related to the materials used in local fracturing operations. The truth is, states do have access to that information. Some of them even post it on the Internet.
In spirit and in letter, H.R. 2766 is about EPA regulation, not disclosure – with section 2(a) of the bill clearly amending SDWA to include the regulation of hydraulic fracturing under its portfolio. With SDWA regulation comes EPA permit-authority of the process, a prospect that then-EPA administrator Carol Browner admitted was unnecessary in 1995.
For more information on what the DeGette bill actually does, please visit here.
CAP: “[ProPublica] asserts that more than 1,000 cases of water contamination near areas of oil and gas drilling have been documented by courts and government agencies across several states.”
Response: On this, Mr. Kenworthy is right: ProPublica does assert that. Left on the cutting-room floor is the following fact: Not a single documented case of drinking water contamination has ever been credibly tied to hydraulic fracturing. Not one. In 60 years.
From where does that “1,000 cases” figure arise? Last year, 452,000 wells produced natural gas in the United States. Recognizing the potential in that volume of activity, opponents of hydraulic fracturing have asked state regulators to produce detailed lists of each individual case in which a well was breached or any amount of methane compromised the integrity of the well. That none of these cases could be proved to have had anything to do with hydraulic fracturing is rarely mentioned.
In 2004, no less an authority than EPA itself undertook an exhaustive research project aimed at finding out, once and for all, whether hydraulic fracturing posed a legitimate risk to ground and drinking water. It found “no evidence” of any such risk. In his defense, Mr. Kenworthy references this study in his memo.
CAP: “Fracking is used in most U.S. oil and gas wells and involves pumping a combination of water, sand, and chemicals under high pressure deep into rock formations that hold oil and gas.”
Response: While this definition of hydraulic fracturing is technically accurate, the author’s insistence on lumping together “water, sand, and chemicals” implies that the concentrations of each must be in equal, or at least similar, parts.
The reality of the situation is quite a bit different, as water and sand on average comprise 99.51% of the liquids and materials used in the fracturing process (see graphic on page 62 of this report, issued in April by the Ground Water Protection Council and the U.S. Department of Energy). “[C]hemicals,” the vast majority of which you can find in your cupboard or under your sink, make up less than one-half of one-percent of the total mixture.
CAP: “Deep gas formations are ‘thousands of feet below the land surface and are separated from freshwater supplies by layers of steel casing, protected by concrete barriers as well as millions of tons of hard, dense solid rock geologic formations,’ said Chesapeake Energy Corporation Vice President Mike John during congressional testimony on July 4.”
Response: Not to pile on, but the hearing was held on June 4. Three weeks ago today.
More resources and materials from Energy In Depth:
June 19th, 2009
Report by Potential Gas Committee underscores critical role hydraulic fracturing plays in delivering future energy security
WASHINGTON, DC – The safe and responsible use of a critical well stimulation technology known as hydraulic fracturing has helped expand U.S. natural gas reserves by 58 percent in just four years, according to a new report released today by the Colorado School of Mines’ Potential Gas Committee.
“We’ve always known that America’s shale regions held enormous energy potential, but without the proper tools in place, it wasn’t clear whether we could ever convert that potential into real-world production,” said Lee Fuller, policy director for Energy In Depth, a new American oil and natural gas industry coalition formed to provide real information about energy development to the public and policymakers.
“Thanks to proven technology like hydraulic fracturing,” added Fuller, “now we know. And thanks to this report, what we know is pretty staggering.” Hydraulic fracturing is a technology used to stimulate the flow of energy from new and existing oil and gas wells. By creating or even restoring millimeter-thick fissures, the surface area of a formation exposed to the borehole increases and the fracture provides a conductive path that connects the reservoir to the well. These new paths increase the rate that fluids can be produced from the reservoir formations, in some cases by many hundreds of percent. The rapid shift in natural gas development to shale gas formations means that roughly 90 percent of new wells require some form of fracture stimulation to assist their production.
Among its core conclusions, the Potential Gas Committee report suggests the United States is likely to be sitting atop natural gas reserves far larger than previously thought – 2,074 trillion cubic feet according to the committee, or nearly a 100 years worth of production. The expansion is due in large part to recently discovered reserves of gas in America’s shale regions, which include the Marcellus in the mid-Atlantic, the Barnett in Texas, the Woodford in Oklahoma, the Fayetteville in Arkansas, the Haynesville in Texas and Louisiana, and several others.
The revised account represents the largest jump in resource estimates in the 44-year history of the report.
Whether this new research informs the current debate over hydraulic fracturing on Capitol Hill remains unclear. Legislation aimed at destroying the current state-federal partnership in regulating hydraulic fracturing was introduced in both the Senate and House last week.
Although its authors have suggested the legislation “isn’t revolutionary” and simply represents “a technical fix,” the true consequences of the measure are likely to be much more pervasive and severe. In fact, recent studies on the issue – known collectively as Project BRIEF (Bringing Real Information on Energy Forward) – found that new federal regulations on already-well-regulated local oil and gas activities could result in:
- The forced closure of more than half of America’s oil wells, and a third of its gas wells
- $4 billion in lost revenue to the federal government; state treasuries would lose $785 million
- Domestic oil production slashed by 183,000 barrels per day; natural gas by 245 billion cubic feet per year
Click here to view the executive summary of the Committee’s report. Click here to access the anti-fracturing bill advancing in the House, and here for the one introduced in the Senate.
June 9th, 2009
Could result in lost jobs, lost revenue, greater dependence on foreign energy
WASHINGTON, DC – In a move that recent studies suggest could result in thousands of lost jobs, billions in foregone taxpayer revenue, and massive amounts of American energy left in the ground, U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), and Jared Polis (D-Colo.), along with Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in the Senate, today introduced companion legislation seeking to impose new restrictions on a safe and commonly used energy technology known as hydraulic fracturing – an essential technique for extracting hard-to-reach domestic energy while limiting disturbance to land.
“The legislation introduced in Congress today is based on the notion that hydraulic fracturing is unsafe, unregulated, and that it benefits from a special exemption to federal law. Not a single one of these premises are true,” said Lee Fuller, policy director for Energy In Depth, a new American oil and natural gas industry coalition formed to provide real information about energy development to the public and policymakers.
“What is true,” continued Fuller, “is that hydraulic fracturing has been used for more than 60 years to access and produce oil and gas resources that would have otherwise remained trapped under miles of rock — and that it’s been regulated assiduously by the states for at least that long.”
At its core, the DeGette legislation seeks to rescind key provisions of existing federal law clarifying Congress’s intent as it relates to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974, legislation aimed at protecting public water supplies. In 1974, hydraulic fracturing had already been in commercial use for 25 years. At no time during its deliberation, nor in subsequent debates on amendments to SDWA in 1980, 1986 and 1996, was the concept of regulating hydraulic fracturing under SDWA ever a consideration.
The reason? Hydraulic fracturing was then, and continues to be now, aggressively regulated by the states, compiling an impressive record of safety and performance over that time.. More than 60 years after its first commercial use, not a single case of hydraulic fracturing-related contamination has been documented by federal or state government analyses. In fact, a landmark 2004 study conducted by EPA found that hydraulic fracturing posed “no threat” to underground drinking water supplies.
Click here to view the House bill; here for the Senate. For more information, visit EnergyInDepth.org
June 4th, 2009
Testimony from independent gas producer, state regulators, and preeminent groundwater protection agency underscores safety, necessity of hydraulic fracturing
WASHINGTON, DC – Extraordinary concentrations of clean-burning, American-made natural gas are ready, willing and able to be produced deep underground and more than a mile beneath the water table, a House subcommittee was told today – but only if producers are allowed to continue utilizing a safe and critical well-stimulation technology known as hydraulic fracturing.
“As the campaign to curtail the responsible development of America’s abundant energy resources ramps up, and efforts are made to achieve that end by targeting hydraulic fracturing, today’s hearing introduced some important facts to this debate that ought to be considered,” said Lee Fuller, policy director for the Energy In Depth, a newly formed coalition seeking to bring to light the real facts on modern-day energy production. “Among the most important: that hydraulic fracturing is safe, that it’s well-regulated, and that it’s an essential, non-negotiable tool in bringing massive reserves of shale gas to American consumers.”
The hearing, convened by the House Natural Resources subcommittee on energy and mineral resources, took a closer look at two recently published reports investigating the systems and processes in place for making sure the development of America’s shale gas regions doesn’t bring undue and unintended harm to our drinking water supplies. Both studies were authored by the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) and funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The first report, published in April and titled “Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer,” concludes that technologies such as hydraulic fracturing allow us to “produce more natural gas from the shale formations” across the United States with “less disturbance of surface environments” – all while “protecting and conserving water resources.”
The second report, released just last week, takes a more thorough and focused look at how individual states are regulating and overseeing the practice of energy development, finding the process “is managed best at the state level where regional and local conditions are understood.”
The GWPC, considered “one of the nation’s leading groundwater protection organizations,” reiterated those findings at the hearing today – also highlighting a number of other core findings from the report. Among them:
- “Current state regulation of oil and gas activities is environmentally proactive and preventive.”
- “The only alternative to fracturing the producing formations in reservoirs with low permeability would be to drill more wells in an area.”
- “Based on over 60 years of practical application and a lack of evidence to the contrary, there is nothing to indicate that when couple with appropriate well construction, the practice of hydraulic fracturing in deep formations endangers ground water.”
GWPC’s testimony, delivered by Council president Scott Kell, is available here. Also available are electronic copies of testimony given by Chesapeake Energy’s Mike John, along with letters sent to GWPC by Texas Railroad Commission chairman Victor Carrillo, Alabama’s State Oil and Gas supervisor Nick Tew, Mark Fesmire of the New Mexico Natural Resources Department, and Joseph Lee of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
More from Energy In Depth on the long record of safety and clear economic benefit of hydraulic fracturing:
May 20th, 2009
On Tuesday, May 19, the office of U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) issued a press release subsequent to a hearing of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee suggesting the congressman had gotten EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to “acknowledge” the need for her agency “to reexamine the Bush administration’s misguided views on the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing.”
Context
In 2005, Congress passed (with the vote of then-Sen. Barack Obama) the Energy Policy Act, a key provision of which sought to clarify Congress’s historical intent on whether the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974 was ever designed to regulate hydraulic fracturing.
The answer was no, and in this case, history proved an effective guide: When SDWA was passed in 1974, hydraulic fracturing had already been in use for 25 years. Hydraulic fracturing was never considered for inclusion under SDWA jurisdiction at the time. The Act was amended in 1986, and then again in 1996. At no point in the process was the concept of SDWA regulation over fracturing ever considered a necessity – or even a possibility.
Subtext
Hydraulic fracturing is a commonly used, and increasingly critical, technology for finding and developing oil and gas resources trapped below rock that would otherwise be too deep, too hard and too expensive to access. The technique has been deployed more than a million times over the past 60 years, delivering to the American people more than 600 trillion cubic feet of American natural gas and seven billions barrels of American oil.
In 2008, a report issued by professors from Pennsylvania and New York suggested that the Marcellus Shale formation, a unit of sedimentary rock spread across much of the Appalachian Basin, could contain 516 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – enough to heat more than 60 million homes for 160 years. Without hydraulic fracturing, these resources cannot be feasibly or economically produced.
Politics
Those who oppose the responsible development of American energy have seized on hydraulic fracturing as a means of blocking reasonable access to, and production of, domestic energy resources. The centerpiece of their campaign appears to be focused on blaming hydraulic fracturing for everything from exploding houses in Ohio, to flammable water in Colorado, to hard water deposits in New York (each of these accusations, and others, are debunked here).
Despite these claims, hydraulic fracturing continues to be aggressively regulated by the states, and has compiled an unparalleled record of safety over the 60 years since its first commercial use.
Economic Impacts
More recently, legislation co-sponsored by Rep. Hinchey has sought to destroy this existing state-federal regulatory partnership in favor of an EPA-only approach. Were this and other restrictive regulatory measures to come to pass, a recent analysis showed it could result in the forced closure of more than half of America’s oil wells, a third of its gas wells, cost the federal government $4 billion in lost revenue, slash American oil production by 183,000 barrels per day, and natural gas by 245 billion cubic feet per year.
EPA on Record
In 1995, then-EPA administrator Carol Browner (currently the president’s energy and environment czar) wrote that that her agency saw “no evidence” that hydraulic fracturing “has resulted in any contamination or endangerment of underground sources of drinking water (USDW).”
“Moreover,” she added, “given the horizontal and vertical distance between the drinking water well and the closest gas production wells, the possibility of contamination or endangerment of USDWs in the area is extremely remote.”
In 2004, EPA issued a landmark report examining the question of safety as it relates to hydraulic fracturing, finding “the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids” poses “minimal threat to USDWs.” In arriving at that conclusion, EPA stated it had “reviewed more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, other research, and public comments.”
States on Record
Recognizing that hydraulic fracturing is both a safe technology and a key driver of local economic development, states such as Alabama, Louisiana, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Texas have recently taken up or passed resolutions informing Congress and EPA that the current regulatory relationship is working well, and that efforts to disrupt it could produce serious and long-term consequences.
In New Mexico, former U.S. Energy Secretary and current Governor Bill Richardson introduced a plan in February aimed at easing unnecessary compliance burdens, recognizing that thousands of jobs and millions in potential revenue were tied to safe, responsible, state-regulated natural gas and oil production.
Statement from Lee Fuller, policy director for Energy In Depth
“Those familiar with the history surrounding the passage and amendment of the Safe Drinking Water Act understand what this measure was intended to do, and what it clearly was not. Unfortunately, instead of taking on the issue of responsible energy development candidly and on its merits, opponents of natural resource development have decided to target the essential tools needed to safely and efficiently bring this energy to market.”
May 19th, 2009
As Waxman, DeGette consider handing regulatory reins over to EPA,state legislatures speak up in support for maintaining,strengthening current state-federal partnership
WASHINGTON, DC – As their federal counterparts in Washington, D.C. look for new and creative ways to restrict the responsible use of a critical natural gas and oil extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing, states with decades of experience in regulating the technology are not taking the effort lying down.
Earlier this week, the Louisiana House became the latest in a string of legislatures where resolutions affirming the chamber’s support for hydraulic fracturing – or opposition to Congress’s effort to disrupt the current partnership – were either formally filed or broadly approved. Many of these states have effectively regulated fracturing activities for more than a half century, and stand to lose the most – in jobs, revenue, royalties and energy output – should EPA be given regulatory authority over the proven technology. To learn more specifics about hydraulic fracturing technology, click here.
“If hydraulic fracturing were unsafe, unregulated, and largely unnecessary as a tool of producing American energy, Congress would have a good reason to step in, and states would have an even better one to step out,” said Lee Fuller, a spokesman for Energy In Depth, a new coalition of American oil and natural gas trade groups. “Clearly, that is not the case. And that’s why you’ve seen states from the Southeast to the Intermountain West stand up, shoulder-to-shoulder, and affirm their support for this safe, critical and increasingly valuable well stimulation technology”.
The latest effort out of Baton Rouge, La. was introduced by Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville, and calls on Congress to maintain a provision in existing federal law preserving Congress’s intent not to regulate hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974, legislation designed to protect public water supplies. In 1974, hydraulic fracturing had already been in commercial use for 25 years. At no time during its deliberation, nor in subsequent debates on amendments to SDWA in 1986 and 1996, was the concept of regulating hydraulic fracturing under SDWA ever a consideration.
The reason? Hydraulic fracturing was then, and continues to be now, aggressively regulated by the states, compiling an impressive record of safety and performance over that time. More than 60 years after its first commercial use, not a single case of hydraulic fracturing-related contamination has been documented by the federal government. In fact, a landmark 2004 study conducted by EPA found that hydraulic fracturing posed “no threat” to underground drinking water supplies.
Because of that, other states – such as Alabama, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Texas – have taken up or passed resolutions similar to the one being considered in Louisiana. In New Mexico, former U.S. Energy Secretary and current Governor Bill Richardson introduced a plan in February aimed at easing unnecessary compliance burdens, recognizing that thousands of jobs and millions in potential revenue were tied to safe, responsible, state-regulated natural gas and oil production.
Those conclusions are supported in full by a recent set of studies known collectively as Project BRIEF (Bringing Real Information on Energy Forward), commissioned by the Energy in Depth coalition. In particular, BRIEF found that proposed changes to federal regulations, including those related to hydraulic fracturing, could result in:
- The forced closure of more than half of America’s oil wells, and a third of its gas wells
- $4 billion in lost revenue to the federal government; state treasuries would lose $785 million
- Domestic oil production slashed by 183,000 barrels per day; natural gas by 245 billion cubic feet per year
May 6th, 2009
U.S. Natural Gas and Oil Producers Launch “Energy In Depth” Initiative to Educate the Public, Prevent Losses
WASHINGTON, DC – A coalition of America’s oil and natural gas producers today released the findings of a major research initiative, which, among other things, concludes that enacting new federal environmental regulations – especially related to hydraulic fracturing – could have disastrous economic consequences and increase our dependence on foreign sources of oil.
Known as Project BRIEF – Bringing Real Information on Energy Forward – the research initiative is comprised of studies on the history and progress of effective state regulation of energy development, the proper role of the federal government in regulating development, and the economic consequences associated with changes to existing regulatory frameworks. To highlight the Project BRIEF findings and educate the public, the coalition also launched a new website, which can be found at www.EnergyInDepth.org.
“The scope of the Project BRIEF research project is unprecedented, and its findings are stark,” said Lee Fuller of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, one of the coalition organizers which represents the 5,000 smaller, independent producers that drill 90 percent of the nation’s wells. “Implementing new federal regulations that threaten domestic energy production and increase costs – without creating any additional environmental benefits – is the wrong policy course for the country, and could cost thousands of hard-working Americans their jobs. That’s the bottom line in the BRIEF reports, and the reason we’ve launched this public education initiative.”
America’s natural gas and oil producers provide massive untold contributions to the national economy, and play a critical role in ensuring that America’s energy needs are – and will continue to be – met. Saddling these producers with new, unnecessary, and ineffective environmental regulations could put them out of business, destroy jobs, and increase our U.S. dependence on foreign sources of energy. That’s especially true if lawmakers in Congress move forward with plans to target hydraulic fracturing, a safe and commonly used production technology that renders possible the efficient extraction of energy resources from shale rock.
“Energy is the lifeblood of our economy and the fuel that sustains and creates good jobs here at home,” Fuller continued. “The men and women who work for America’s roughly five thousand small and independent oil and natural gas producers are using 21st century technology to develop supplies safely, efficiently, and effectively – as their long record of achievement illustrates. Policymakers and the American public need to get unvarnished facts and see firsthand the environmentally-sensitive technology we have at our command today to produce energy safely. They’ll get both, and more, with Energy in Depth.”
Key Findings of the Project BRIEF reports include:
- 1.2 million Americans are directly employed by domestic oil and natural gas producers
- In 2007 alone, the industry invested a record $226 billion in domestic exploration and production, driving countless state and local economies
- In 2007, the oil and gas industry paid public and private landowners $30 billion in royalties.
- State regulation of the domestic energy activities has effectively protected the environment and public health for over a century.
- Potential new regulations now circling around Washington could:
o Force the closure of more than half of America’s oil wells and a third of our gas wells
o Cost the federal government $4 billion in revenue; state treasuries would lose $785 million
o Slash domestic oil production by 183,000 barrels per day; natural gas by 245 billion cubic feet per year
For more information on Project BRIEF and to learn more about American energy production, visit www.EnergyInDepth.org – a first-of-its kind, insider’s look at domestic energy production. It features a virtual well site, a storehouse of interactive features and videos aimed at giving users an up-close view of American oil and natural gas production.
Some of the other features visitors will find useful on Energy In Depth:
- Interactive State-by-State Map: Includes data on how many jobs would be at risk and how much annual tax and royalty revenue each state would stand to lose under regulations currently being considered in both state and federal legislatures.
- Frac In Depth/Environment In Depth: A stand-alone section devoted to the who, what, when, how, and where of a drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing – along with a separate section detailing recent breakthroughs in technology that are allowing producers to protect and preserve our environment. Hydraulic fracturing is responsible for delivering 30 percent of America’s oil and natural gas, and has aided in the extraction of more than 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and seven billion barrels of oil over the history of its use.
- Comprehensive Energy Research Library: The product of months of independent research and hundreds of hours of document assembly, the library brings together reports, studies and hard-to-find analyses to complement the site’s already established content.
