Posted on 02/04/2013 6:55:01 PM PST by neverdem
The United States is sitting on massive natural gas and oil reserves that have the potential to shift the geopolitical balance in its favor. Worries are increasing in Russia and the Arab states of waning influence and falling market prices.
Williston, North Dakota, is a bleak little city in the vast American prairie. It's dusty in the summer and frigid in the winter. Moose hunting is one of the few sources of entertainment. But despite its drawbacks, Williston has seen its population more than double within a short period of time.
The city is so overcrowded that new arrivals often have no place to stay but in their motor homes, which, at monthly parking fees of $1,200 (€880), isn't exactly inexpensive. And more people continue to arrive in this nondescript little town.
The reason for the influx is simple: Geologists have discovered a layer of shale saturated with natural gas and oil deep beneath the city. The Bakken formation, spanning thousands of square kilometers, has become synonymous with an American economic miracle that the country hasn't experienced since the oil rush almost 100 years ago.
North Dakota now has virtual full employment, and the state budget showed an estimated surplus of $1.6 billion in 2012. Truck drivers in the state make $100,000 a year, while the strippers being brought in from Las Vegas rake in more than $1,000 a night. President Barack Obama calls the discovery of Bakken and similar shale gas formations in Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Utah a "stroke of luck," saying: "We have a hundred years' worth of energy right beneath our feet."
A Vital Nerve
The future of the American energy supply was looking grim until recently. With its own resources waning, the United States was dependent on Arab oil sheiks and erratic dictators. Rising...
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Despite mocking Republicans viciously, for the “drill baby drill” mantra and claiming that it would take at least ten years to bring new oil and gas on line — here it is.
Despite their best efforts to *not* have a reliable oil and gas supply — here it is.
Despite all that, the Dems will soon be claiming credit for “making America energy self-sufficient”. It’s just a bit maddening.
Finding help that could pass a urine test has always been a problem. Many people have figured out s way to take someting and an our later tey are clean
I see Lefties show up every couple of months with the “fracking dirties ground water” claim on some other forums.
There’s a clip of Lisa Jackson saying she has almost no examples of it in Congressional testimony on YouTube. They usually shut up for a time after being confronted with that.
Earth First!
We’ll drill the rest later.
-——but in their motor homes, ——
This is a fundamental misunderstanding by the author. The reason they are called motor homes, actually trailers not motorized vehicles, is that they are in fact homes. It is the home away from home for traveling workers. It is superior to a motel.
Overlooked was the truck. The vehicle pulling the fifth wheel home is a pick up. The place where they park includes 50 amp electric service, water, a sewage connection and cable TV. so, $1200/month is not all that expensive. It may be, however wrong. The $1200 per month might very well be the nightly rate multiplied by 30. The long term rate is likely somewhat less.
-——the Americans have been able to reduce their CO2 emissions associated with energy production-——
Does burning natural gas produce less CO2 per BTU of energy produced than coal?
I think coal produces a higher BTU content but has many other combustion by products that are problematic. Natural gas is cleaner producing mostly Co2 and Water vapor.
Yes. There is a far higher ratio of hydrogen to carbon in Natural Gas so less CO2 is produced for the same BTU's. It does produce more water vapor than coal.
I think coal produces a higher BTU content but has many other combustion by products that are problematic
It is not producing more BTU content, but rather contains more BTU content, depending on how you measure them. Since one is a solid and one is a gas, are you going to measure them by mass? volume?
At some point in the next four years I suspect that energy will be nationalized in the USA so that the government can take all the profits. Of course the profitability will largely disappear as bureaucracy replaces entrepreneurs and political considerations replace profit. America can then resume its decline into third world status.
Moose hunting in Williston? is suppose because of all the swampy terrain in the Badlands. The closest I ever saw a moose to North Dakota was about ten miles east of Crookston MN.
The source is Der Spiegel. Maybe it's some literary license. I wouldn't be surprised to find moose in most of the states adjacent to Canada with the exception of the rust belt.
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