When the biggest story of the week is whether the press will be able to produce a picture of a vice presidential candidate without a shirt on, I think that’s when you can officially say you’re dealing with a pretty slow week of news. Continue reading
Tag Archives: shale oil
Credit Card Pitchman Shouldn’t Quit His Day Job
Alec Baldwin – yes, that Alec Baldwin – recently took to the Huffington Post to explain what he deems to be “The Truth” about hydraulic fracturing. There was only one problem: Mr. Baldwin’s claims, like most of his movies and his persona as Jack Donaghy in “30 Rock,” are not exactly based on or in reality. Continue reading
The “Get Rich Quick” Plan Government Doesn’t Want You to Know About
We’ve all daydreamed about winning the lottery and imagined what we’d do with the extra cash—buy a home, retire early, donate to charity, upgrade to the Porsche. But in some areas around the country, winning the lottery doesn’t require a ticket from the local 7-Eleven. Farmers and ranchers in states like North Dakota are sitting on top of winning lottery tickets with the right combination of mineral rights and geology. If a company drills for oil on your private land, royalties from that operation could generate tens of thousands of dollars in monthly income. Continue reading
Fracking concerns are legitimate, international energy chief says
The head of the International Energy Agency took aim at natural gas producers that dismiss public concerns about hydraulic fracturing, calling on them to increase transparency of the controversial extraction technique. Continue reading
Posted in Development, Fracking, Oil and gas
Tagged irrational fears, natural gas, shale oil
Peter C Glover: Whatever Happened to Peak Oil?
Why are peak oil-ers like Jehovah’s Witnesses? Answer: When the definitive JW prediction of the ‘Day of Wrath’ failed in 1914, they did what false prophets have done in every generation: shifted the goalposts (to 1975 in the case of JW’s – and wrong again). It’s what false prophets do to save face, enabling them to keep fleecing the inherently gullible. Peak-oilers do likewise. Continue reading
Posted in Development, Fracking, Oil and gas, Tar sands
Tagged deepwater drilling, natural gas, offshore drilling, oilsands, peak oil & gas, peakers, shale oil
Can University of Texas Dispel Concerns About Fracking Study?
Last month, a nonprofit watchdog group revealed that prominent geologist Charles “Chip” Groat, the lead author of a report on fracking conducted by the University of Texas (UT), Austin, did not disclose financial ties to an energy company that conducts fracking. The university quickly said that Groat, former head of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), should have reported that potential conflict of interest. Continue reading
Natural Gas and Its Role In the U.S.’s Energy Endgame
The boom in natural gas production has undeniable benefits for the United States. Continue reading
America’s Unconventional Energy Revolution May Add 3.6 Million Jobs, Plus 3% GDP Rise
A surge in U.S. natural gas development has spurred $226 billion in spending plans on pipelines, storage, processing facilities and power plants. The “reindustrialization” of America could add as many as 3.6 million jobs by 2020 and increase the gross domestic product by as much as 3 percent. Continue reading
Is the era of oil nearing its end?
The handwringing about running out of hydrocarbons is really quite absurd. The Fisher-Tropsch process is not particularly efficient nor economical but it is perfectly serviceable. In other words the coal resources we have can keep us supplied with liquid fuels for centuries to come. More efficient processes sourcing hydrogen from natural gas rather than water could be developed (they are known to work but no one has yet scaled them up to try industrial-scale CTLs, as far as I know), so the bottom line is that we have ample hydrocarbons for centuries to come. ‘Peak hydrocarbon’ is just not on the horizon nor in the foreseeable future. Continue reading
Posted in Coal, Oil and gas
Tagged coal-to-liquids, ctl, deepwater drilling, Fisher-Tropsch, natural gas, offshore drilling, oilsands, shale oil
New N.W.T oil prospect raising economic hopes and environmental concerns
A potentially enormous new shale oil prospect in the Northwest Territories is giving some communities hope that the resource-driven economic boost they’ve long been waiting for may finally be close. Continue reading
Geoffrey Styles: Are Films the Answer to Understanding Energy”s Complexities?
The issues and choices surrounding our use of energy have rarely been more complex than today, yet our main channels for information about them are discouragingly shallow. Continue reading
The Coming Oil Boom
Forget America’s fiscal cliff, Europe’s currency troubles or the emerging-markets slowdown. The most important story in the global economy today may well be some good news that isn’t yet making as many headlines — the coming surge in oil production around the world. Continue reading
Posted in Development, Fracking, Oil and gas, Tar sands
Tagged deepwater drilling, offshore drilling, oilsands, shale oil
John Merline: Do Greens Have A None-Of-The-Above Energy Policy?
Two environmental groups in April filed suit to block an energy project they said would seriously harm the local ecosystem. Continue reading
William O’Keefe: Country’s Economic Welfare Can’t Take More Poor Energy Policy
Whatever the outcome of November’s elections, our economic well being requires that the dysfunctional relationship between the White House and Congress change. Governing needs to replace posturing. Continue reading
Posted in Coal, Development, Fracking, Keystone XL, Oil and gas
Tagged deepwater drilling, energy infrastructure, natural gas, offshore drilling, shale oil
Bakken Crude and Canadian Oil Sands in Battle for Space on U.S. Pipelines
Dispute between Enbridge and small U.S. pipeline operator offers glimpse of the industry’s future as North Dakota oil booms. Continue reading
Posted in Development, Keystone XL, Oil and gas, Tar sands
Tagged energy infrastructure, KXL, natural gas, oilsands, shale oil
Ivo Vegter: It’s A Disaster That ‘Peak Oil’ Is Not A Disaster
It seems that betting against the “consensus” of left-wing academics, regulatory-state bureaucrats and anti-capitalist activists can be a rather profitable sideline. First nuclear power, and now peak oil. At the rate George Monbiot is changing his mind, we’ll all soon agree that the disaster of the peak oil non-disaster is not much of a disaster after all. Continue reading
Posted in Development, Fracking, Oil and gas, Tar sands
Tagged deepwater drilling, energy infrastructure, natural gas, offshore drilling, oilsands, shale oil
Man-made, drilling-related quakes getting harder to ignore
Cliff Frohlich figures his new study has good news and bad news for the oil and gas drilling business. Continue reading
Tech Professor says concerns over fracking unfounded
The controversy over hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – continues to heat up in Lubbock, after three local locations were leased to a drilling company. Continue reading
Robert Bradley Jr.: Energy Freedom Bus Tour: Hitting the Open Road for Consumers, Taxpayers, and Common Sense
“We will take the vision for affordable energy, common sense regulation, and safe technology to the American people; then return to Washington D.C. to deliver the message — it’s time to free the American people from costly, unnecessary regulations and bureaucracy. It’s time for Washington to untie the hands of American energy producers and manufacturers, and free these job creators to put our country back to work again.” Continue reading
Cultural Problems which Prevent Progress in the Fracking Debate
Suppose I told you there was a form of energy so plentiful it could encourage huge economic growth, a source so plentiful here in the United States that it could truly make America energy independent and vastly enhance our global political influence. That would be good news, right? Continue reading
