Gas Drillers Tap Coal Beds

USA TODAY ^ | Friday, July 5, 2002 | George Hager

[BOBTHENAILER]

POWDER RIVER BASIN, Wyoming - Eight years ago, Duane Zavadil was driving through this vast prehistoric basin in northeastern Wyoming hunting for natural gas prospects, when his boss looked out the car window and wondered out loud, "What are those little boxes?"

[BOBTHENAILER]

Currently, there are thousands of wells in Wyoming. Environmental/EPA opposition is increasing daily and has been used to limit the number of wells drilled in Montana portion of the Powder River Basin. Please give support to Mike Taylor's Senate campaign against Max Baucus for Montana's Senate seat. Taylor supports CBM development, Baucus does not.

[Migraine]

This is an interesting and educational issue. Thanks for posting it.

[aculeus]

Pre WWII big northern cities like NYC got all their gas from coal. The gas was "baked" out of the coal. The leftover product, coke, was then marketed to home owners as fuel, Koppers Koke being the leading brand name.

The German Uboat attacks on the East Coast led to the construction of the Big Inch pipeline used to transport petroleum products (or possibly crude) during the war. The pipeline was converted to gas after the war and coal gas and Koppers Koke disappeared.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Big National Security Energy Ping. Current estimates (conservative) are that there is enough gas in the Powder River Basin coals to power California for twenty to thirty years.

During the senate debate on the Energy Bill, almost all the opponents to ANWR, would utter the same refrain: "We're not opposed to drilling, we just don't want to see it in this 'Pristine' wilderness area. Well, it seems their enviro buddies don't want in the Powder either. Currently stalled are thousands of well permits from a federal lawsuit by, you guessed it, Powder River Basin Resource Council, Wyoming Outdoor Council and Biodiversity Associates.

Please note the "footprint" taken up in the picture of your average wellhead. Each well is capable of producing between 150,000 to 500,000 cubic feet of gas per day. An average home uses about 150,000 cubic feet of gas per year for heating, cooling and electricity.

[BOBTHENAILER]

This is an interesting and educational issue. Thanks for posting it.

My pleasure. I'm going to try and keep posting articles like this one to reinforce in everyone's mind, the fact that environmental groups will never stop anywhere in their attempts to slow energy development.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Interesting information, thanks for sharing it. Coal bed methane development throughout America has huge potential.

[MeekOneGOP]

Enviro-Nazi bump!

[hchutch]

We have to break through this. Congress needs to adjust the jurisdiction of the courts in this matter.

[EternalVigilance]

Definitely bookmarked and BUMPED!

Thank you, sir!

EV

[BOBTHENAILER]

Congress needs to adjust the jurisdiction of the courts in this matter.

Couldn't agree more. The usage of enviro-lawsuits has to stop.

[RonF]

"The fact that environmental groups will never stop anywhere in their attempts to slow energy development."

If you don't like environmental groups' agendas, fine. But what's your response to the actual issues brought up? On the face of it, this kind of action very likely may drop the water tables, and thus harm agriculture in the region. And it's a documented fact that using water with too many salts in them (whether the salts be naturally occuring, or from fertilizer runoff) can reduce or destroy the productivity of agricultural land.

[EternalVigilance]

Another example of how the Daschle Democrats are impeding our national security in the area of energy.

[EternalVigilance]

Agriculture? Have you seen that country?

If we were talking about Iowa here, I might give some credence to your concerns, but the Powder River Basin is hardly prime farmland.

Real farmers farming real agricultural land can't even get a decent price for their crop because of government policies...the impact of any crops grown in that region on our agricultural productivity as a nation is negligable, to say the least.

[backhoe]

I will include this story in the next mass email and DUBOB 9 update.

Never Forget what clinton did to coal:

The Utah Coal Lockup: A trillion dollar Lippo payoff?
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/lippo.htm

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument: Conservation and ...
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument: Conservation
and Controversy. Petrified Woody's ...
Description: "This million-plus acre area needs protection from uncontrolled development, but at what cost?...

-``Behind Closed Doors: The Abuse of Trust And Discretion In The Establishment Of The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.''--

-Four Years Later, Locals Still Decry Clinton Monument --

-Coalgate--that ugly Lippo-Klink-Redford connection to tyranny--

-Clinton's Utah deal not justified-WND story--

Energy and Mineral Resources, Grand Staircase - Escalante ...
Utah Geological Survey. ... A Preliminary Assessment of Energy and Mineral Resources
within the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument. ...

[BOBTHENAILER]

And it's a documented fact that using water with too many salts in them (whether the salts be naturally occuring, or from fertilizer runoff) can reduce or destroy the productivity of agricultural land.

Try telling that to most of the ranchers in the area, ace. You sit wherever in your high and mighty seat and spout sh!t you know nothing about. I've been there, am involved in production there, have friends working there and I know the water situation. The ranchers welcome it for irrigation and stock tanks. Several companies have built small ponds and lakes for ranchers that are now stocked with fish.

That's some real bad water huh, expert.

[Willie Green]

Big National Security Energy Ping. Current estimates (conservative) are that there is enough gas in the Powder River Basin coals to power California for twenty to thirty years.

The enviro-nut NIMBYs don't WANT clean-burning natural gas to supply energy: Airport, power plant at odds.

The heck with the dimbulb Kalifornicators -- there are 49 other states that will welcome this source of fuel.

[another cricket]

deposits thousands of gallons of water - drinkable but a little too salty for irrigation - onto the bone dry high prairie.

A small distillation plant would solve this problem wouldn't it? You could then used the water for irrigation if you wished.

a.cricket

[capitan_refugio]

That process which you refer to is called "coal gasificiation." Coal, being a hydrocarbon fossil fuel, exudes natural gas. Tapping the gas given off by the coal can be an important local source of the "clean burning" fossil fuel.

[Salgak]

Heck, if it's THAT wide open, you can use a solar still to purify the water, let the tree-huggers complain about THAT. . .

[BOBTHENAILER]

Excellent point and comparison.