Some big headlines are now highlighting the fact
that carbon dioxide emissions are falling in the
United States. Some even bigger ones are going to be
written as to whether we should rely on shale gas to
do this job, or whether this is creating an even
greater issue down the road.
The United States and Canada are the two developed
countries that are now able to access shale gas
supplies, enabling the nations to better meet their
own energy demands. The reserves are ripe and the
technique to drill them out exists. Leave them in
the ground or dig them out? The most prudent
response is to use the natural resource but to
adequately monitor it. After all, shale gas --
unconventional natural gas -- releases about half
the emissions as coal that are regulated under the
Clean Air Act, including carbon dioxide.
“In just a matter of years, thanks to shale, we’ve
gone from energy scarcity to energy abundance,” says
Michael Krancer, who used to lead Pennsylvania’s
Department of Environmental Protection and whose
comments were profiled in an
Energy In Depth blog. “What’s more is that
Marcellus gas production is equivalent to about two
million barrels of oil per day, which exceeds the
oil production of many OPEC countries."
Some recent stats: The
U.S. Energy Information Administration indicates
that carbon-related emissions dropped by 3.8 percent
from 2011 to 2012 while gross domestic product
product increased by 2.8 percent during that time.
Those releases are at their lowest levels since 1994
and 12 percent less than the 2007 peak, the agency
says. It specifically credits the increase in
natural-gas fired generation.
The same agency says that shale gas in this country
amounts to 7,299 trillion cubic feet. It adds that
world shale technically recoverable resources
outside this country are 20,451 trillion cubic feet.
As a result and in this country, natural gas’ market
share of the electric generation pie totals about 27
percent, which is expected to keep increasing. That
growth is coming at the expense of coal-fired
electricity.
To be clear, other nations hold more technically
recoverable natural gas than does the United States.
They are: China, Argentina and Algeria. Those
nations, though, don’t have the ability to dig it
out or to ship it around the world, something that
the United States is about to do.
What’s more, exporting the natural gas in the form
of liquefied natural gas would not just provide new
markets for producers here but it would also help to
alleviate Europe’s dependence on Russia’s Gazprom,
which supplies about a quarter of the natural gas
that the continent uses. Opportunities for
alternative natural gas suppliers in Western Europe
are therefore rising. Moreover, new pipeline
construction is enabling the fuel easier passage
between producers and suppliers, which could bring
down international prices.
Oversight Ability
No doubt, the process by which the shale gas is
developed is controversial. Hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking, is a production technique that involves
the high-pressure pumping of water, sand and
chemicals deep underground so as to break free the
natural gas.
Critics say that it does not just pollute the water
but that it also requires vast amounts of water that
is in short supply. Proponents counter that they
spend enumerable resources ensuring it is totally
safe, and that the states should continue to
regulate the drilling process, not the feds.
“We accept new regulations all the time,” says Rock
Zierman, of the
California Independent Petroleum Association, in
a phone interview. “We are Okay with new regulations
as long as they are realistic and they are
accomplishing something. But the federal government
set up a system 30 years ago whereby it gave the
states the power to regulate, and then it audits
them.”
The EPA readily acknowledges that the states have
played the lead role when it comes to natural gas
development. But it is arguing that because shale
gas is such a game changer that the federal
government must work hand-in-hand with all the
stakeholders to ensure that its extraction is safe
and responsible.
For example, the administration says that it has the
authority to regulate wastewater from oil and gas
production under the Clean Water Act. It also wants
to cut volatile organic compounds, or smog levels,
by 25 percent and it says that it could be done by
using proven technologies that can capture natural
gas that currently escapes into the air -- gas that
would be made available for sale.
Meantime, the U.S. Department of Interior wants to
require developers to make public the chemicals that
they are using to frack on public lands. While some
producers say that this would jeopardize their
competitive positions, others are saying that doing
so would help to meet their critics in the middle.
Conciliation and humility are called for here. Shale
gas is playing a powerful hand right now, as
evidenced by its economic possibilities and it
climate progress. That positioning, however, could
only be weakened by the industry’s own
intractability.
Twitter: @Ken_Silverstein
Copyright © 1996-2013 by
CyberTech,
Inc.
All rights reserved.
To subscribe or visit go to:
http://www.energycentral.com
http://www.energybiz.com/article/13/10/shale-gas-playing-powerful-hand-its-biggest-enemy-may-be-itself