Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 06/07/2011 8:28:28 PM PDT by Fitzy_888
New York could see $11.4 billion in economic activity and up to 18,000 new jobs by 2020 if the state allows gas companies to tap the massive Marcellus Shale formation, according to a report released today by a conservative think tank.
The report, paid for by the business-backed Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, found that the state and local governments would gain $1.4 billion in tax revenues alone during the same time period. New York currently has a de facto moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing, a technique used in natural gas extraction in which millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals is blasted deep underground to unlock gas from shale formations.
The study’s authors—which have penned separate reports partially commissioned by the natural gas industry for Pennsylvania State University—also found that the typical Marcellus Shale gas well reaps about $4 million in economic benefits, while the environmental impacts come to about $14,000 per well.
Their study is based on a prediction of 330 horizontal wells in New York, which primary author Timothy Considine said is a conservative estimate.
“It could be much larger than the numbers projected in my report,” said Considine, a professor at University of Wyoming. “The $11.4 billion number is based on a fairly limited development scenario in the Southern Tier of New York, like Broome and Chemung counties.”
Considine said the drilling estimates are based on activity that has taken place in Bradford, Tioga and Susquehanna counties in Pennsylvania, where high-volume fracking has been permitted since 2008.
The report’s authors, however, have faced criticism for their past work on hydrofracking, including one of the Penn State reports.
A dean at Penn State said that report—which predicted a windfall of economic activity resulting from natural gas in Pennsylvania and spoke out against a proposed severance tax—should have been “more scholarly and less advocacy-minded.”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/57297330/Revised-Tconsidine-Frac-Report-Embargoed-Copy-1
What simpering genius came up with the idea of a ban?
Ping.
Assembly pauses fracking permits
Albany TU | By CASEY SEILER State editor
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Excerpt:
ALBANY — Arguing that the state needs more time to assess the potential effects of the natural gas drilling technique known as hydrofracking, the state Assembly on Monday passed a moratorium on the issuance of new permits until June 1, 2012.
The measure would cover drilling for oil as well as gas, and would cover vertical drilling using hydrofracking — a method already in use around the state — as well as the horizontal drilling that the drilling industry wants to begin using to tap the Marcellus and Utica shale formations, massive gas-bearing regions that stretch from Pennsylvania into New York’s Southern Tier.
The measure passed the Assembly 91-46, according to a preliminary tally. It faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where the narrow Republican majority views natural gas drilling as a major economic opportunity for hard-pressed upstate regions.
(...)
Read more at:
http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Assembly-pauses-fracking-permits-1412505.php
“What simpering genius came up with the idea of a ban?”
So say we all.
Greenies were complaining about reclaimed fracking water, having dissolved naturally occurring radioactive minerals such as thorium, being pumped into sewage systems. If this really was resulting in an unmanageable or unsafe situation, the solution of reusing the fracking water at other fracking sites would seem simple and obvious enough.
What simpering genius came up with the idea of a ban?
People who have their own water wells that are expensive and fragile.
Until it comes out of the legislature as a law, there is no moratorium or ban. There has to be more to the story.
I wonder how many of these “bans” will magically be lifted the closer we get to “re-election” time.
Whose wells were polluted or rendered inoperable by fracking?
I have read concerns regarding fracking. There seem to be lax standards regarding the disposal of waste water, and problems caused to well owners (occasionally) when processes go wrong. If companies are held accountable to keep things safe they should go for it. Unfortunately, NY is chock full of lefty ninnies who will fight our energy independence tooth and nail.
Talking about a 17-fold increase in methane presence (which, of course, came from the highly mobile natural gas being freed by the fracking) doesn’t say anything about what the absolute methane levels are. Methane can asphyxiate at high concentrations, but it is biologically non poisonous to humans. If it comes remotely close to hazardous, there is a true issue. But it would be very cheap, and a logical solution, for the drillers to fit such affected wells with methane vents and, perhaps as a compensation, to guarantee the well operation against any failure for fifty years.
That’s a whole lot of money to wave in front of that scum, I think they’ll grab at it. But then, they’ll try to renege somehow, after they get the dinero.
Yes, lift the fracking ban so we can get some cheaper fracking gas.
Thank You
No ones well anywhere has been affected by fracking. If there was an actual example; we would be hearing about it believe me. Fracking takes place far below the water table.
My family's well was screwed up by a city landfill. For years they allowed dry cleaner fluid to be dumped directly on the ground.
Because of fracking and other emerging technologies in the energy sector we now have several times more known economically exploitable gas and oil reserves in our country alone than we did ten years ago. This is creating panic in the eco-nut-ball world. They were counting on shortages of hydrocarbon energy sources to drive the price of energy to unaffordable levels by now.
We are going to be hearing an unbelievable amount of anti-fracking propaganda. This is the biggest threat to the environmental left in the past 50 years.
Fracking has been a common practice in Texas for over sixty years.
There is yet to be a single case of its causing contamination of water wells.
People in New York who have their own water wells would be advised to be suspicious of the people who are using them to forward an environmentalist agenda.
Sorry, we are now busy working in other areas that cooperated with business from the beginning. Maybe we can get to your state in a decade or so, after you demonstrate some common sense for a few years.
We have used hydraulic fracturing in the country for 6 decades without creating problems with water wells. It is no more a problem than global warming. It is just the latest scam by environmentalists to hold back energy production in this country.
If they don't issue the permits citing needs for more study, how is that different than a ban?
If it was due to hydraulic fracturing, they could measure chemicals for that operation. But they never have done so.
There has been methane recorded in water wells going back 100 years or more. Many sites in Pennsylvania and other locations have dealt with then long before there was drilling.
Duke Study on Methane in Water Wells
http://www.oilgaslawbrief.com/hydraulic-fracturing/duke-study-on-methane-in-water-wells/
The researchers stated that, despite widespread public concerns about drinking water contamination from hydraulic fracturing, such concerns "lack a strong scientific foundation."
For the wells they examined, the researchers found that methane concentrations generally were higher in samples from water wells located within one kilometer of an active gas well, as compared to samples from water wells located further from any active gas well. But there were exceptions. Further, the researchers found methane in 85 percent of the water wells they sampled, "regardless of gas industry operations." In other words, the researchers found methane in a large majority of the water wells they sampled in the Marcellus area, even when the water wells being sampled were not located near active gas wells.
Whenever I read articles like that - my first thought is always the situation in Dimmick pa.
Methane in Water Wells
http://www.drinknwaterplus.com/documents/Methane%20in%20Water%20Wells.pdf
FEBRUARY 1982
Methane gas can occur naturally in water wells and when it does, it presents unique problems for water well drilling contractors.
...
The gas that causes problems in water wells can occur in either bedrock or overburden wells. Methane is generated in source rock, then “stored” in a reservoir with some type of cap rock or impervious layer to contain the gas underground.
Natural Gas - the modern energy form
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vrIpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JuUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=960,3151007&dq=methane+in+water+wells+pennsylvania+history&hl=en
The Sydney Morning Herald - Jul 10, 1973
The modern history of natural gas began in the United States in 1821 when bubbles were noticed in a water well being drill at Fredonia, New York State. The well was only 27ft deep. William Hart, a local gunsmith, piped the gas into a nearby coaching inn to provide lighting using log “pipes”.
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