The Environmental Protection Agency and the outgoing Martinez administration in New Mexico have produced a draft white paper and solicited comments on potential ways to reuse or manage the growing volume of wastewater produced by the state’s oil and gas industry. While the paper is a helpful outline of current produced water policy, New Mexico decision-makers should… Keep reading →
As oil and gas production increases, so does the risk of toxic waste leaking to the environment. The massive amount of briny wastewater generated from oil and gas development can cause serious damage if it comes into contact with the public or our environment. Consider what happened to the Johnsons, a 4th generation ranching family in… Keep reading →
The engineers and scientists who study the oil and gas industry’s wastewater know the term “beneficial reuse” well. It’s the seldom-used technique of taking wastewater produced from an oil or gas well, treating it, and then using it for other purposes — like watering crops (including organic crops) or feeding livestock. It’s a rare practice… Keep reading →
Among the most urgent concerns for the future is to have enough water to sustain a human population projected to reach 9.6 billion people by 2050.[1] The UN Millennium Development Goals recognize that access to water and sanitation is essential to economic development and poverty alleviation.[2] However, global consumption patterns indicate that we are becoming… Keep reading →
Recovery from the dramatic supply-driven oil price slide of 1986 took 5 years. Will the current cycle follow the same pattern? This piece plays a bit of Monday morning quarterback and suggests that if Saudi/Opec did more to moderate prices over the past 6 years the current supply glut could have been avoided. [Bloomberg via… Keep reading →
We all want easy answers. And often times the harder the question, the easier we want the answer to be. Increased natural gas use, for example, can help decrease U.S. greenhouse gas emissions as it has a lower carbon content compared to coal or oil. Natural gas also can help transition our energy mix to… Keep reading →
This [last] week, during a special hearing by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, legislators gathered a cross-section of industry, policy, and environmental leaders to testify about the economic impacts of increased natural gas development. I was one of the witnesses, on behalf of Environmental Defense Fund, arguing that natural gas can only be a net… Keep reading →
In a recent report titled “Produced Water: Asset or Waste?” – part of the Atlantic Council’s Energy and Water Nexus Initiative series – Blythe Lyons, Nonresident Senior Fellow (Energy and Environment Program), addresses water-related issues – in particular the treatment of ‘produced water’- in US oil and gas production as well as concomitant sustainable water… Keep reading →
New York State continues to hold the decision on shale gas development in stalemate, provoking calls for more transparency in the process. A decision on hydraulic fracturing in New York state has been in the works for several years. Former New York Governor David Paterson commissioned an Environmental Impact Study and Health Review in 2010,… Keep reading →
Opinion: Regulations Must Keep Pace with Water-related Fracking Risks
By Roman KilisekTo mark this year’s World Water Day, UNESCO and UN Water released the 2014 World Water Development report highlighting the key role that water and energy play in economic development. According to the report, some 768 million people do not have access to an improved source of water, while 2.5 billion people do not have… Keep reading →