The Future of Natural Gas Drilling

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica

Tomorrow a House Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee will hold its first hearing of 2009 on controversial issues related to the burgeoning natural gas drilling industry, which ProPublica has been covering for the last year. The committee is expected to grill a handful of state regulators and industry representatives about the environmental risks of drilling for shale gas and about the use of hydraulic fracturing, a process where water and chemicals are pumped underground at high pressure.

That fracturing process was exempted from federal environmental oversight in 2005 and now – amidst emerging evidence that it is damaging water resources across the country – Congress is preparing legislation that would reverse the exemptions and require the industry to identify the toxic chemicals it pumps underground. Last week ProPublica wrote in detail about that political effort.

Before the subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources could convene its quorum, the American Petroleum Institute gathered reporters for a conference call to explain why it is prepared to fight such legislation to the grave. Natural gas is the key to the country’s energy independence, representatives of the trade and lobbying group said, adding unequivocally that hydraulic fracturing is the critical process required to get those resources.

The Institute says state regulations are sufficient to keep water supplies safe, and that returning authority to the Environmental Protection Agency – which the bill being written by Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette would do – amounts to a cumbersome additional layer of regulation. The API repeatedly referenced a recent study claiming that federal oversight of the drilling process would cost the industry more than $100,000 per new well and threatened that thousands of jobs will be lost if tougher regulation is passed. It maintains that fracturing has been used reliably for over 50 years, and that is a safe technology proven not to harm water.

Asked what recent scientific studies support that notion, however, the Institute’s senior policy analyst, Richard Ranger, answered: "That’s a good question. I’m not aware of any."

Abrahm Lustgarten is a reporter for ProPublica, America's largest investigative newsroom.

 

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Comments

[BannedNBoston]

11:24 AM on 06/04/2009

Is the Water Supply for 8 Million People in New York City at Risk?
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig
Posted on May 26, 2009, Printed on May 26, 2009
http://www­.alternet.­org/story/­140232/
“The potential environmen­tal consequenc­es are extreme,” says Fritz Mayer, editor of The River Reporter in Narrowsbur­g, N.Y. His paper has been following the drilling in the Upper Delaware River Valley and he told me, “It could ruin the drinking supply for 8 million people in New York City.”

It takes an estimated 3 million to 5 million gallons of water per well to drill down to the natural gas in a process called hydraulic fracturing­, or fracking. The water is mixed with resin-coat­ed sand and a cocktail of hazardous chemicals, including hydrochlor­ic acid, nitrogen, biocides, surfactant­s, friction reducers and benzene to facilitate the fracturing of the shale to extract the gas.

The toxic brew is injected with extreme force deep within the earth. The drilling is vertical for about 5,000 to 7,000 feet. The technology­, developed by Halliburto­n, allows drills to abruptly turn sideways when they reach these depths. The lubricant and biocides propel the sand on a horizontal axis for as far as half a mile. The fissures created are held open by the sand, and the natural gas flows to the surface through steel casings. Feeder lines run from the grid of wells to regional pipelines.

About 60 percent of the toxic water used to extract the natural gas—touted in

[ThoughtfulTom]

02:33 AM on 06/05/2009

Natural gas is the best of the fossil fuels. We need it for the next decade, while we bring on solar, wind and new alternativ­e energies.

But the higher the price, the better off we are, as we need to use less fossil fuel. If we were smart we would use a tax to increase the cost, and use the proceeds to fund investment­s in alternativ­e energy.

Tom

[niko73]

11:18 AM on 06/04/2009

Natural gas IS an important piece in America’s energy portfolio. However, that doesn’t mean we need to ensure their practices are safe. Enough with how the frac’ing liquids are “proprieta­ry.” We need to know what’s in there and we need to allow EPA and our other agencies to oversee this process. There are thousands of natural gas wells in America and only a handful are problems, so I don't buy into the fear tactics that every natural gas well is posioning our groundwate­r. But this by no means gives industry a free ride. Hopefully the days of no-regulat­ion and no-oversig­ht are OVER.

[research]

05:04 PM on 06/04/2009

Agreed.

I add: we SHOULD burn up the Large EASY and SAFE TO REMOVE natural gas pockets to prevent another Methane extinction­. We will need Natural gas as we transition of Solar and BioChar.

[drkazmd65]

09:56 AM on 06/04/2009

While it is true that "Natural gas is the key to the country’s energy independen­ce.",... concerns about the effect of some of these drilling techniques on water supply, water toxicity, and water availibili­ty for other purposes should be a big concern too.

Especially in the mostly arid Mountain-W­est, water stress is already getting limiting. So,... if adding $100K to the cost of a new natural gas rig is the price to pay to make sure there is water - we and the drilling companies should be prepared to pay for it.

My guess,... a good well will pay that $100K back soon enough - and then the profit-tak­ing will kick in anyway.

[DesertDogAlpha]

10:31 PM on 06/03/2009

Useful to recall that if natural gas has a value of 1 in terms of carbon footprint, coal has a value of 12 (it has 12 times the CO2 per unit of electricit­y that is generated)­. So, in the interest of the environmen­t, the Washington geniuses are giving away greenhouse gas permits to the coal business and now working to stop increased domestic natural gas production­.

Next we declare energy independen­ce while working to get exactly the opposite result, while we complain about high energy prices.

Natural gas is as good a fuel as we can get that works in today's economy with today's technologi­es. There currently is no clean coal, no matter how many ads get run.

[logan9]

09:40 PM on 06/03/2009

Actually I don't mind paying more for energy with the understand­ing that (eventuall­y) my air will be cleaner and my energy more sustainabl­e. The fact is, we will need to begin transition­ing to alternativ­e fuels and energy immediatel­y as our environmen­t is decimated and our future absolutely depends on it! After all, we can't live on finite resources forever!

[sc300nc]

08:24 AM on 06/04/2009

How much more are you willing to pay? 40%? 60%? 100%/ 200%?

with all of the taxes, oversight, bad planning, gov't interferen­ce, bad economics renewables­, energy costs will be going up dramatical­ly.

Why we worry so much about energy and then do everything we can to prohibit any new resources is beyond comprehens­ion.

[KillTheMessenger]

07:26 PM on 06/04/2009

100% more... no problem. Even 200% more is totally fine economical­ly.

"Why we worry so much about energy and then do everything we can to prohibit any new resources is beyond comprehens­ion."

We don't worry so much about energy as we worry about the people we have to buy it from. Big difference­.

And we didn't prohibit new resources. Mother nature did when she shaped the geology of these deposits. You want to complain? Talk to physics and biology. And let us know what they will answer to your complaints­.

[quidam56]

07:17 PM on 06/03/2009

Appalachia can't stand anymore FRACKIN' prosperity­, we are being bombed, blasted and bulldozed right into 3rd world America ! Wise County, Virginia is already a toxic moonscape but as long as the politician­s and the profit machines are raking it in, people don't matter.

http://www­.wisecount­yissues.co­m/?p=138

[KillTheMessenger]

08:18 PM on 06/03/2009

Expect more from where that came from. You are up against 300 million energy addicts who want it all, who want it now and who want it cheap. And if you have it, they will come and pry it from your dead soil.

:-)

[DesertDogAlpha]

10:32 PM on 06/03/2009

Is this a function of natural gas production or of coal production­? Jobs implicatio­ns?