In the words of the iconic Bob Dylan, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”. Right now, the wind is blowing in the direction of hydraulic fracturing of natural gas. I recently attended a conference sponsored by the Howard Baker Forum and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which spotlighted the emergence of Shale Gas technology as a dominant political and economic force in our country.
Over the past five years, improvements in drilling technologies have enabled us to unlock enormous domestic supplies of previously unrecoverable natural gas in deep shale deposits. Shale gas is gas which is trapped within shale formations which are fine grained sedentary rocks that can be rich with oil or natural gas. The production of natural gas from shale formations, known as hydraulic fracturing, has rejuvenated the natural gas industry. In April, for the first time ever, electricity from natural gas equaled that of coal – both producing 32% of our nation’s electricity.
Natural gas has a number of advantages as a fuel source starting with the price; right now natural gas is very inexpensive. In addition, natural gas has dramatically reduced our carbon emissions and decreases our reliance on coal. The net out for consumers is lower electricity prices.
Daniel Yergin, noted energy expert and founder of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, spoke to the conference on the importance of natural gas as a way for our nation to become self sufficient, a theme which was echoed by a number of other participants including Amy Myers Jaffee of Rice University’s Institute of Public Policy who also emphasized the European nation’s declining dependence on OPEC.
There can be do doubt about the benefits of natural gas, but there are still hazards from shale fracking which include methane, water contamination, noise pollution, and air pollution. If people in communities feel as if they are being harmed by fracking, this could backfire and communities could reject this technology..
It is important to that industry and government get the rules right. Regulatory laws must be transparent and easily understood. There must be dedicated effort to reduce methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon monoxide. It is also important that industry continue to refine drilling technology to find ways to drill a well with a smaller imprint on our environment. What technologies can be used with to minimize the impact on water?
This cannot happen overnight. It is easy to assume this fracking technology developed overnight but in fact it has taken some 30 years to get technology that ‘developed overnight’.
For more information on this conference click here