THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 58, March 28, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
FRACKING -- AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO GREEN DOGMA:
Misleading Claims about Shale Gas Development
Serve Dogma, but Not the Public Interest
By Paul K. Driessen
THE ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT VERSUS HORIZONTAL DRILLING & HYDRAULIC FRACTURING: SHALE GAS TECHNOLOGY & DEVELOPMENT
PERCEIVED BY ENVIRONMENTALISTS TO BE AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO THE IDEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THEIR MOVEMENT -- ENVIRONMENTALIST
ORGANIZATIONS REDOUBLING THEIR EFFORTS TO STOP FRACKING IN ITS TRACKS -- THE IMPACT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY'S
OVER-REACH & OVER-REGULATION ON THE ECONOMY & GENERAL WELFARE OF THE U.S.A. -- THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF INCREASED FRACKING ON U.S. &
GLOBAL WELL-BEING
FULL STORY:
The Sierra Club and other environmentalist pressure groups are redoubling their efforts to “stop fracking in its tracks.” No wonder. The technology is an existential
threat to fundamental “green” dogmas.
Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing constitute a true “game changer.” In less than two years, this proven, but still rapidly advancing, technology has
obliterated longstanding claims that we are running out of petroleum. Instead, the U.S.A. now finds itself blessed with centuries of oil and natural gas.
Thankfully, much of it is on state and private lands, which cannot easily be locked up by federal diktat.
Poland and Estonia are using it; China has invited companies to the Middle Kingdom; Britain, Israel, and Jordan are evaluating their shale deposits; and other
nations are following suit, coaxing oil and natural gas from shale and other rock formations that previously had refused to yield their hydrocarbon riches.
By making more natural gas available, fracking has reduced the U.S. price for this clean-burning fuel to under $3 per thousand cubic feet (or million Btu), compared
to a peak of $8 a few years ago.
Natural gas is also supplanting coal for electricity generation. Due to excessive, mostly unnecessary new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, many U.S.
coal-fired power plants are shutting down. Replacement plants are far more likely to be gas-powered than nuclear, especially in the near term.
Natural gas makes heating and electricity more affordable for families, hospitals, government buildings, and businesses; feed stocks less expensive for makers of
plastics, paints, fabrics, and other petrochemical products; and the prospect of natural gas-powered vehicles more enticing, without mandates or subsidies. That
translates into thousands of jobs created or saved.
Companies are keeping chemical plants open that were slated to close, due to soaring prices for oil that they now can readily replace with cheap natural gas. Shell
plans to build a $2-biillion ethane “cracking” plant near Pittsburgh – creating 10,000 construction jobs and 10,000 permanent jobs – thanks to abundant gas from
Marcellus Shale. Louisiana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas and other states are reporting subsidy-free employment and revenue gains from shale gas
development. More are likely to follow, as companies seek new ways to capitalize on access to abundant, inexpensive, reliable gas.
Natural gas also provides essential backup power for wind turbines. Without such backup, electricity generation from these projects would plummet to zero
70-80% of the time, affecting assembly lines, computers, televisions, air conditioners, and other electrical equipment dozens of times every day.
Even harder for environmentalists to accept, cheap natural gas also makes it harder to justify building redundant wind turbines that require large subsidies to
generate far more expensive electricity only 5-8 hours a day, on average, while killing large numbers of raptors, migratory birds, and bats. It makes more sense to
simply build the gas turbines, and forget about the mostly useless wind turbines.
Fracking is also unlocking oil in the vast Bakken Shale formations beneath Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan. Oil production there has shot from 3,000
barrels a day in 2006 to nearly 500,000 today – creating thousands of jobs and a growing need for the Keystone XL pipeline to Texas.
In response, eco-activists are spreading unfounded fears about this proven technology. Using words like “reckless,” “dangerous” and “poisonous,” they say
unregulated fracking companies are operating with little concern for ecological values and causing cancer, earthquakes, and groundwater contamination.
The claims have fanned borderline hysteria in some quarters and prompted Maryland, New York, and other states to launch drawn-out studies or impose
moratoria that will postpone drilling and the benefits it would bring. Facts are sorely needed.
Drilling and fracking have been carefully and effectively regulated by states for decades. As studies by the University of Texas and various state agencies have
documented, there has never been a confirmed case of groundwater contamination due to fracking. Even EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson acknowledged that to
a congressional panel.
These analysts, drilling companies, and even an Environmental Defense expert now say fracking has not played a role in any of the rare cases where methane
has gotten into drinking water.
Instead, the cause has generally been a failure of “well integrity” – the result of improper cementing between the well borehole and the steel “casing” and pipes
that go down through aquifers and thousands of feet deeper into gas-laden shale formations. Similar failures occur in water wells drilled through rock formations
containing methane (natural gas).
The solution is straightforward: better standards and procedures for cementing vertical pipes in place, and testing them initially and periodically to ensure there
are no leaks.
Similarly, fracking fluids fail to match the “toxic” and “cancerous” opprobrium alleged by anti-drilling campaigns. Over 99.5% of the fluids is water and sand. The
other 0.5% are chemicals to keep sand particles suspended in the liquid, fight bacterial growth, and improve gas production.
Although industrial chemicals were once used, almost all of today’s are vegetable oil and chemicals used in cheese, beer, canned fish, dairy desserts, shampoo,
and other food and cosmetic products.
As to “earthquakes,” barely detectable “tremors” have occasionally been measured near fracking operations and wastewater disposal injection wells. However,
calling these snap, crackle, and pop noises and movements “earthquakes” is akin to screaming “Earthquake!” when a cement truck goes by.
Despite these facts, EPA is nevertheless trying to invent problems and inject itself into already vigilant and responsive state regulatory efforts. The agency has
conducted a roundly criticized study in Wyoming and is conducting water tests in Pennsylvania, where state officials view its activities as unnecessary meddling.
Additional over-reach and over-regulation would be hugely detrimental to U.S. and global well-being. Fracking could help create numerous jobs and provide a far
more secure, affordable, dependable, and lower-pollution future than would ever be possible with wind or solar power.
By expanding oil and gas development, it could make North America the world’s new energy hub. Middle East Sheiks, Islamic Mullahs, and OPEC Ministers
would lose economic, political, and strategic power. Threats of Russian pipeline closures would no longer intimidate Eastern European countries. Politicians
everywhere would waste less money on “renewable” energy T-Boonedoggles.
Unfortunately, though, fear campaigns are preventing some of America’s poorest counties and families from enjoying the economic benefits of Marcellus Shale
development.
Baltimore’s Sage Policy Group calculated that fracking in western Maryland could reduce energy costs, create thousands of jobs, and generate millions of dollars
annually in revenue for the State of Maryland and Allegany and Garrett Counties. Similar studies in New York and elsewhere have reached similar conclusions.
Hydraulic fracturing technologies are proven. Regulations to protect drinking water are in place and improving steadily, as cementing and other legitimate
concerns are recognized and addressed.
North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Poland, and Israel are showing the way forward.
Communities that have not yet opened their doors to responsible drilling, fracking, and production need to replace anti-hydrocarbon agendas and fears with facts,
optimism, and science-based regulations.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Conservative columnist and political commentator and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death,
Paul K. Driessen is Senior Policy Advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), the Congress Of
Racial Equality (CORE), the Center For The Defense Of Free Enterprise (CDFE), and the Atlas Economic Research
Foundation. Driessen has served on the Staffs of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Interior, as well as on that of
an energy trade association. He has often spoken and written on such topics as environmentalism, global climate change,
global warming alarmism, corporate social responsibility, and public policies relating to energy, the environment, and
economic development.
Driessen earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Geology and Field Ecology at Lawrence University, Appleton,
Wisconsin, and his Juris Doctor (JD) at the University of Denver College of Law. He received accreditation in Public
Relations from the Public Relations Society of America, New York, N.Y.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity