Still the One …
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 | 1 Comment
The safe, well-regulated 60-year old energy production technique known as hydraulic fracturing has helped transform America’s economy, and is continuing to do so today. In shale plays across the nation, fracking is helping to unlock massive amounts of job-creating clean-burning natural gas.
A column by in today’s Montgomery Advertiser highlights the long, clear record of success and safety that hydraulic fracturing lays claim to. Under the headline “Shale gas crucial to nation,” William Reed writes:
The dramatic increase in U.S. production of natural gas would not have been possible without a precise and reliable technology for drilling through thick shale. Known as hydraulic fracturing, it has taken on increasing importance as an effective but little-known weapon in the battle against atmospheric pollution and dependence on foreign fuels.
Yet though it is largely unknown to us, we benefit from hydraulic fracturing at dozens of points in our daily lives. Thanks to this technology, plastics and other materials made from natural gas are used in scores of consumer products. Our industries rely on the availability of natural gas, and it’s needed for heating and electricity production.
In addition, our future fortunes look likely to become ever more closely linked with those of hydraulic fracturing, a process in which water and other materials are pumped at high pressure to break through underground rock formations and reach beds of natural gas.
Reed makes certain to emphasize the serious threat posed by proposals, such as the anti-clean energy production FRAC Act, that would strip states of their right to safely regulated hydraulic fracturing:
In addition, bills have been introduced that would empower the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate hydraulic fracturing. Environmental groups maintain that fracking, as it’s known, risks polluting underground drinking water supplies. But EPA itself has found little or no threat to water systems from hydraulic fracturing. State governments currently regulate hydraulic fracturing.
The proposed legislation would give EPA power to limit the type of fluids used in hydraulic fracturing or prohibit the practice altogether. But the use of hydraulic fracturing is one reason why shale gas production has become economically feasible in recent years.
America needs to embrace policies that will stimulate, rather than retard, domestic gas production.
But it’s not just opinion pages that have underscored the economic and security importance of domestic natural gas production. National Public Radio, — yes, that NPR — shed light on America’s natural gas reserves in a piece entitled “Rediscovering Natural Gas By Hitting Rock Bottom.” Here are key experts of this report:
But the natural gas folks now have numbers on their side due to new successes in getting gas out of shale rock. Geologists have always known that shale rock, often found in combination with coal and oil deposits, holds substantial amounts of natural gas. If a piece of shale rock is broken and lit with a match, it will actually burn for a few moments with a small flame.
The shale gas was previously considered unreachable, but advances in drilling techniques have changed that assessment. The result is a dramatic increase in estimated natural gas reserves. The Potential Gas Committee, loosely affiliated with the Colorado School of Mines, reported in June that natural gas reserves in the United States are actually 35 percent higher than believed just two years ago, and some geologists say even that estimate is too conservative.
And the NRP report also homed in on hydraulic fracturing, the essential tool for natural gas production:
The tightness of the shale rock would mean that relatively little of the trapped gas would seep into the pipeline. Gas producers therefore fracture the rock by forcing a water and sand mixture into the formation at very high pressure. This “water fracturing” technique opens millions of tiny cracks in the rock, enabling more of the gas to seep out.
Horizontal drilling and water fracturing are not new techniques in the oil and gas business, but only in recent years have producers used the procedures in combination to produce shale gas, and the results have been dramatic.
“It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever even heard of,” says Ray Walker, vice president of Range Resources, a gas exploration and production company. “It’s huge. The ability to produce these shale reservoirs is going to revolutionize this industry all over the world.”
Despite tremendous economic, security and environmental benefits, hydraulic fracturing and the production of domestic natural gas remains squarely in the crosshairs of many lawmakers in Washington who oppose this safe, well-regulated technique that gives so many Americans access to the energy that is rightfully theirs.
Tags:
I can definitely do something for the non-conventional energy generation
Just need A HELP..!
regards,