Posted on 05/31/2011 5:18:50 AM PDT by BillKneer
Houston-based New York Times correspondent Clifford Krauss writes of the shale oil boom in West Texas, where the fields have attracted an influx of oil field workers. Production has ramped up so rapidly that the roughnecks have taken up quarters in RV parks due to a housing and hotels in the area:
CATARINA, Tex. — Until last year, the 17-mile stretch of road between this forsaken South Texas village and the county seat of Carrizo Springs was a patchwork of derelict gasoline stations and rusting warehouses.
Now the region is in the hottest new oil play in the country, with giant oil terminals and sprawling RV parks replacing fields of mesquite. More than a dozen companies plan to drill up to 3,000 wells around here in the next 12 months.
The Texas field, known as the Eagle Ford, is just one of about 20 new onshore oil fields that advocates say could collectively increase the nation’s oil output by 25 percent within a decade — without the dangers of drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the delicate coastal areas off Alaska.
Krauss then goes on about the concerns of the environmental lobby because of the technique used to coax the oil out of the tightly packed layers of shale. Hydraulic fracturing — aka “fracking” — involves the injection of water, sand and chemicals into the rock to force the crude out of it. And it’s the chemicals, mostly, that the greens object to, claiming that the compounds leach into the water table.
But at Just One Minute, Tom Maguire points out that groundwater contamination due to fracking is not settled science:
(Excerpt) Read more at patriotstatesman.com ...
It is close to 2012 and the dims are on the ropes. They will probably allow this production and try to take credit for it.
The Enviros are trying to shut down the Permian Basin over a 3” sand lizard.
They will "allow" it, but slow roll all the permits so no drilling actually ever gets done.
Can't save 'em if their already gone, eh?
Oil companies are on track to drill 300 holes this year with an increase to 600 holes in 2012. The feds can go pound sand.
We have plenty of fracking rich areas here in NY...The governor has basically shut us down because of a Pennsylvania event....which looks like a big farce from here.
People who live out there say they have never seen one, but I do like your idea.
Well hell, force the enviros to come up with a population that will prove they even exist !
Not if the Democrats have their way.
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