Fracking

Ahead of the US Election, Energy Sector Prepares for a Pivot

By


The US energy sector has been a rare bright spot through much of the past four years as first financial firms and then the rest of the global economy has struggled to recover from a grinding and often jobless recession.

Statistics about jobs vary, but any region with significant oil or gas resources has noted the uptick in employment in those sectors as development has accelerated. The most recent numbers from Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry, for example, show core employment in the Marcellus Shale developments in the state up by 177.5% from first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2012, even as the state’s overall employment level has lagged that of the rest of the country. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 5, 2012 at 3:45 PM

Fracking the Economy

By


The economic boom in oil and natural gas production resulting from advanced drilling technology lifted the US gross domestic product a full percentage point during the recent recession, says an IHS Global Insight expert, and it can continue to boost the economy for the foreseeable future.

John Larson, Vice President, Public Sector Consulting with IHS, said the fossil abundance unleashed by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing also lowered energy prices enough in the recession that the average household saved $1,000 overall on what energy would have cost. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 31, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Is Natural Gas Killing Solar?

By


With each passing month, it’s becoming more evident that increasingly inexpensive and abundant supplies of natural gas are overhauling America’s energy landscape. The price of natural gas is at a 10-year low and is roughly half of what it was this time last year, due largely to technological advances – in hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ especially – which allow for recovery of enormous stores of natural gas found in shale deposits. Fracking has in turn led energy magnates including General Electric CEO Jeffery Immelt to suggest that natural gas could be “permanently cheap,” and that the U.S. is entering a new era of domestically produced fossil fuels.

In response, analysts and pundits such as Thomas Friedman have expressed concern that the shale gas boom will significantly defer the transition to solar and other renewables. This is a valid point – the long-term goal of the solar industry has always been to be truly price-competitive with conventionally produced electricity, and cheap natural gas makes that a more difficult task. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 10, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Pennsylvania High Court to Hear Arguments on Local Control of Gas Drilling

By


Ongoing conflict between Pennsylvania’s booming natural gas industry and its opponents will reach a new focus on October 17 when the state’s Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over whether state law can pre-empt local regulations over gas development.

At issue is a section of Act 13, a wide-ranging new law that restricts the ability of municipalities to control the location of gas drilling within their bounds, as well as imposing impact fees and a host of other conditions on the industry drilling in the gas-rich Marcellus and Utica Shales beneath Pennsylvania. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 4, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Undecided Voters Lean to Obama on Energy, Environment Standards, Poll Finds

By

Comedian Seth Meyers hosts the NRDC’s 13th Annual ‘Forces For Nature’ Benefit at American Museum of Natural History on November 14, 2011 in New York City.

A majority of undecided voters in eight U.S. swing states favor policies that reduce carbon and mercury pollution and promote higher fuel efficiency standards and tax breaks for wind power, suggesting a clear advantage for President Obama among that section of the electorate ahead of the presidential election, according to a new opinion poll. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 3, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Fracking as a Solution to the Jobs Crisis?

By


The 20th century is often referred to as the “American Century” as it was during that time when the U.S. emerged as an economic and political superpower. But a decade into the 21st century, with the country mired in a jobs crisis alongside its eternal struggle to find new sources of energy, some companies in that sector, with the help of business-friendly research groups, are arguing that the practice of fracking would give the U.S. economy a much-needed boost.

 /  Published October 2, 2012 at 2:05 PM

Industrial Minerals: Unconventional Drilling a Boon for Sand Miners

By


Mining sand, clay and other industrial minerals for use by industrial concerns was a solid business for over 100 years, but the explosion of unconventional drilling that has helped boost US petroleum output to levels not seen in decades opened a new and lucrative market.

US Silica is a 112-year old company that got its start supplying sand to Pennsylvania’s glass industry, but around 2008 the firm began to supply proppants to companies that were hydraulic fracturing wells in order to tap liquid and gas hydrocarbons trapped in low-porosity geologic structures like shale. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 2, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Natural Gas Industry Seeks to Build Public Support in Philadelphia

By


Pennsylvania’s natural gas executives recently launched a new drive to build public support for the industry that has generated thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue for the state but is viewed with skepticism or outright opposition by some people.

“Learn About Shale”, a new website, is targeted at consumers in the five counties of metropolitan Philadelphia, an area that has not experienced the intensive gas development seen in many other areas of the state during the gas boom of the last five years, but which contains 45 percent of state’s population and contains strong resistance to the gas industry in some quarters. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 28, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Water and Energy: You Could Soon Pay More, or Use Less

By


Commodity derivatives trading in water?

It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds, and it may become part of the energy business soon. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 24, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Shale Gas Industry Hails Gains Despite Continued Attacks

By


Supporters and opponents of shale gas development resumed their war of words on Thursday as Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry gathered for Shale Gas Insight, its annual forum on the development of the Marcellus Shale, one of America’s biggest gas reserves.

Industry and government leaders argued that fracking for natural gas can and is being done without endangering public water supplies, and that industry is taking increasing steps to ensure that fracking chemicals don’t seep in to groundwater. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 21, 2012 at 11:45 AM
Page 17 of 231...131415161718192021...23