A Look at Shale Gas and Climate Destabilization

Yodrak said:

From today's New York Times (27 Sept 2011):

Gas Flaring in North Dakota
Every day across the western half of North Dakota 100 million cubic feet of natural gas is deliberately burned by oil companies rushing to extract oil from the Bakken shale field and take advantage of the high price of crude. The gas bubbles up alongside the oil, and with less economic incentive to capture it, the drillers treat the gas as waste and simply burn it. (the underline is mine)

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cwerdna said:

Sorry to resurrect an old thread...

Yodrak said:

From today's New York Times (27 Sept 2011):

Gas Flaring in North Dakota
Every day across the western half of North Dakota 100 million cubic feet of natural gas is deliberately burned by oil companies rushing to extract oil from the Bakken shale field and take advantage of the high price of crude. The gas bubbles up alongside the oil, and with less economic incentive to capture it, the drillers treat the gas as waste and simply burn it. (the underline is mine)

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I didn't realize that flaring waste was so bad until NBR had some recent coverage of it.

Skip to about 9:15 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WAKuyLNL-k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Crazy! If they only could generate electricity from that and run it to areas that could use it instead of wastefully burning it, generating no useful work.

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As natural gas production rapidly increases across the U.S., its associated pollutionhas reached the stage where it is contaminating essential life support systems — water, air, and soil — and causing harm to the health of humans, wildlife, domestic animals, and vegetation. This project was designed to explore the health effects of products and chemicals used in drilling, fracturing (frac’ing, or stimulation), recovery and delivery of natural gas. It provides a glimpse at the pattern(s) of possible health hazards posed by the chemicals being used. There are hundreds of products in current use, the components of which are, in many cases, unavailable for public scrutiny and for which we have information only on a small percentage. We therefore make no claim that our list is complete.

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All meaningful environmental oversight and regulation of the natural gas production was removed by the executive branch and Congress in the 2005 Federal Energy Appropriations Bill. Without restraints from the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, and CERCLA, the gas industry is steamrolling over vast land segments in the West. Exploitation is so rapid that in less than 6 months in one county, 10 new well pads were built on the banks of the Colorado River, the source of agricultural and drinking water for 25 million people downstream. Spacing has dropped from one well pad per 240 acres to one per 10 acres. From the air it appears as a spreading, cancer-like network of dirt roads over vast acreage, contributing to desertification.

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