Tag Archives: Fracking

EPA Report That Lowers Methane-Leak Estimates Further Divides Fracking Camps

Posted by on April 28, 2013 No comments

gmfeier writes “The EPA has significantly lowered its estimate of how much methane leaks during natural gas production. This has major implications for the fracking debate, but puts the EPA at odds with NOAA. From the article: ‘The scope of the EPA’s revision was vast. In a mid-April report on greenhouse emissions, the agency now says that tighter pollution controls instituted by the industry resulted in an average annual decrease of 41.6 million metric tons of methane emissions from 1990 through 2010, or more than 850 million metric tons overall. That’s about a 20 percent reduction from previous estimates. The agency converts the methane emissions into their equivalent in carbon dioxide, following standard scientific practice.’”

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Skipping the Water in Fracking

Posted by on March 22, 2013 No comments

The push to extend fracking to arid regions is drawing attention to water-free techniques.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, uses large amounts of water injected into wells under high pressure to help free natural gas and oil from shale deposits (see “Drilling for Shale Gas”). Yet some of the world’s largest sources of shale gas are found in deserts, making the technique seem impractical.







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In 2011, Fracking Was #2 In Causing Greenhouse Gas In US

Posted by on February 9, 2013 No comments

eldavojohn writes “According to Bloomberg, drilling and fracking results in greenhouse gases second only to coal power plants in the United States. From the article, ‘Emissions from drilling, including fracking, and leaks from transmission pipes totaled 225 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalents during 2011, second only to power plants, which emitted about 10 times that amount.’ According to Mother Jones, we now have more giant methane fireballs than any other country in the world and we can now see once dim North Dakota at night from space.”

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Safer Fracking

Posted by on January 5, 2013 No comments

Strong regulations and improved public disclosure are needed.

Can hydrofracking—using fluids to break open underground rock formations and recover trapped natural gas—be done safely? This is a question I am often asked by friends who read stories linking shale gas production to incidents of water pollution. While fracking is frequently blamed for contaminating groundwater, studies indicate that pollution may actually stem from more basic issues like faulty well construction and design or improper wastewater disposal.







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Promised Land Brings Fracking to the Big Screen, but Offers Little Insight

Posted by on January 4, 2013 No comments

The new movie about is short on details. Here are the key environmental issues with fracking, and how to deal with them.

Matt Damon’s Promised Land is a movie ostensibly about fracking and shale gas, but it has little to say about the real issues involved—other than hinting that the subject is complicated.







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Studies Link Earthquakes to Wastewater from Fracking

Posted by on December 14, 2012 No comments

The link between a recent rise in earthquakes and wastewater disposal from shale gas wells grows stronger, though skeptics remain.

At the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco last week, scientists presented the latest evidence tying the disposal of wastewater from shale gas hydrofracking to increased earthquakes.







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Studies Link Earthquakes to Waste Water from Fracking

Posted by on December 14, 2012 No comments

The link between a recent rise in earthquakes and wastewater disposal from shale gas wells grows stronger, though skeptics remain.

At the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco last week, scientists presented the latest evidence tying the disposal of wastewater from shale gas hydrofracking to increased earthquakes.







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Fracking Helps U.S. Crude Production Rises to Highest Point Since 1998

Posted by on December 8, 2012 No comments

Government numbers reveal a steep increase in monthly production over the past year.

The United States produced an average of 6.5 million barrels of crude oil per day in September—the largest monthly average since January 1998, according to the Energy Information Administration. As shown in the chart below, the monthly average has risen by about a million barrels per day since July of of last year. The EIA reports that “most of that increase is due to production from oil bearing-rocks with very low permeability.” The development of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technologies has made the extraction of oil from such resources much more economical in recent years. These technologies are the main reasons the International Energy Agency expects oil production by U.S. to surpass that of Saudi Arabia within a decade. (See Shale Oil Will Boost U.S. Production, But It Won’t Bring Energy Independence)







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Pennsylvania Fracking Law Opens Up Drilling On College Campuses

Posted by on October 14, 2012 No comments



PolygamousRanchKid writes with this news from MotherJones: “Last year, when Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett suggested offsetting college tuition fees by leasing parts of state-owned college campuses to natural gas drillers, more than a few Pennsylvanians were left blinking and rubbing their eyes. But it was no idle threat: After quietly moving through the state Senate and House, this week the governor signed into law a bill that opens up 14 of the state’s public universities to fracking, oil drilling, and coal mining on campus. Environmentalists and educators are concerned that fracking and other resource exploitation on campus could leave students directly exposed to harms like explosions, water contamination, and air pollution.”

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Using Ozone to Clean Up Fracking

Posted by on August 1, 2012 No comments

Ecosphere’s new technology reduces the use of chemicals and helps natural-gas companies recycle water.

The oil and natural-gas boom in the United States—driven by water-intensive hydraulic fracturing technology (see “Natural Gas Changes the Energy Map“)—is creating demand for better water-treatment technologies. Now Ecosphere Technologies has developed a process that is helping producers recycle water and eliminate the use of some of the chemicals involved in treating water for fracking.







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Can Fracking Be Cleaned Up?

Posted by on June 5, 2012 No comments

The International Energy Agency says yes, but it will take tougher regulations that force producers to apply the latest technologies.

Fracking, aka hydraulic fracturing, a process for freeing natural gas locked in shale deposits, has caused a boom in natural-gas production in the United States. But some experts worry that the practice results in contaminated drinking water and the release of methane, prompting some localities to limit shale-gas production.







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Vermont Bans Fracking

Posted by on May 17, 2012 No comments



eldavojohn writes “Vermont is the first state to ban fracking (hydraulic fracturing), a process that was to revolutionize the United States’ position into a major producer of natural gas. New York currently has a moratorium on fracking but it is not yet a statewide ban. Video of the signing indicates the concern over drinking water as the motivation for Vermont’s measures (PDF draft of legislation). Slashdot has frequently encountered news debating the safety of such practices.”

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Study Says Fracking is Safe In Theory But Often Not In Practice

Posted by on February 17, 2012 No comments



First time accepted submitter chadenright writes “A university study asserts that the problems caused by the gas extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking,’ arise because drilling operations aren’t doing it right. The process itself isn’t to blame, according to the study, released today by the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.”

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Fracking Quakes Shake the Shale Gas Industry

Posted by on January 20, 2012 No comments

Well shutdowns prompted by fracking-induced seismicity may inspire technology tweaks.

Geophysicists are increasingly certain that expanding production of shale gas is responsible for a spate of minor earthquakes that have upset some communities and prompted authorities in Arkansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, and the U.K. to shut down some natural-gas operations. The question now, say the experts, is whether the underground operations causing the trouble should be scaled back or more closely monitored to minimize future quakes—and whether the relatively small quakes may yet have the potential trigger truly destructive ones.







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