Ethonomic Indicator of the Day: 45% -- The amount of fracked natural gas the U.S. will use in 2035.
Natural gas is the good-looking younger brother to much maligned nonrenewable resources like coal and petroleum; it's still plentiful, and relatively low in greenhouse gas emissions (just ask T. Boone Pickens!). But the good-looking brother has a dark secret: getting gas out of the ground is a really, really dirty process. According to Methane and the Greenhouse-Gas Footprint of Natural Gas from Shale Formation, a soon-to-be-published paper in the Climatic Change Letters journal, natural gas produced from shale is actually responsible for spewing significantly more greenhouse gases than coal.
The problem is high-volume hydraulic fracturing (aka "fracking"), which involves injecting a fluid at high pressures into methane gas deposits to draw out natural gas. Natural gas is largely made up of methane (a potent greenhouse gas), and over the lifetime of a well, 3.6% to 7.9% of its methane escapes into the atmosphere through venting and leaks. This is, needless to say, not good--methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. As a result, the study claims, "Compared to coal, the [greenhouse gas] footprint of shale gas is at least 20% greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years." So while burning natural gas emits fewer greenhouse gases than burning coal, the impact of fracking combined with burning natural gas is ultimately worse than the emissions from coal.
This issue isn't going away anytime soon--the Energy Information Administration estimates that fracked gas will make up 45% of U.S. natural gas supply in 2035, compared with 14% in 2009. But there are solutions. The study suggests that better storage tanks and compressors, smart-automated plunger lifts, and vapor recovery units could all help clean up the fracking process. As could a new name that doesn't sound quite so evil.
So far, the natural gas industry has shown little interest in adopting these technologies. And why should it? Everyone already thinks natural gas is better than coal; there's no reason why the industry would waste its money improving operations.
COMMENTARY: According to the new Congressional Research Services (CRS) report, an updated version of a 2009 paper, the United States’ resources are larger than Saudi Arabia, China and Canada, combined. The report estimates that the U.S. has 163 billion barrels of recoverable oil and enough natural gas to meet the country’s demand for 90 years.
The CRS report is being made public at a time when oil and gas prices are skyrocketing and the Department of Interior is embroiled in a battle with oil companies over offshore drilling. Last week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Michael Bromwich, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, appealed a court decision that ordered them to act on five pending drilling permits.
Moreover, earlier this week it was reported that President Obama is considering tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a response the rising gas prices. On Monday, the national average for a gallon of gas was $3.51 – up 39 cents since the unrest in Libya began in mid-February.
The rising cost of oil is putting immense pressure on the White House to act. And Obama, said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is “very cognizant of the fact that Americans are experiencing a sharp rise in prices at the gas pump that affects them and their family budgets.”
According to the U.S. Energy Informaton Administration, the U.S. consumed 24.133 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2010. The U.S. had 6,731 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves at the end of 2010. There is enough natural gas to last 250 years at 2010 consumption levels.
The world’s largest proven gas reserves are located in Russia. With the Gazprom company, Russia is frequently the world’s largest natural gas extractor. Major proven resources (in billion cubic meters) are world 175,400 - Russia 47,570 - Iran 26,370, Qatar 25,790 - Saudi Arabia 6,568 - and United Arab Emirates 5,823.
The world’s largest gas field is Qatar’s offshore North Field, estimated to have 25 trillion cubic meters of gas in place—enough to last more than 200 year at optimum extraction levels. The second largest natural gas field is the South Pars Gas Field in Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf. Located next to Qatar’s North Field, it has an estimated reserve of 8 to 14 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The U.S. is also ranked No 2 in world in natural gas from shale deposits.
Natural gas shale deposits are plentiful and located throughout the U.S.
That's a hell of a lot of natural gas. I don't like spending $4.00+ for gasoline at the pump. Obama, we need to find a way to use natural gas so that it burns a whole lot cleaner.
Courtesy of an article dated April 11, 2011 appearing in Fast Company, an article dated March 10, 2011 appearing in The Daily Caller, an article dated February 25, 2011 appearing in Exploredia and an article dated April 6, 2011 appearing in Jude Clemente's Energy Blog
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