Posted on 02/16/2012 8:20:26 AM PST by Gritty
A funny thing is happening on the way to the clean energy future–reality is setting in. There is ‘incontrovertible evidence’ about the economic growth and job creating effects of America’s unconventional oil and gas production boom – more than 600,000 jobs directly attributable to shale gas development. Even President Obama is praising the job creating benefits of ‘America’s resource boom’. America is getting its energy mojo back and that is good news but not the entire story.
How Much Shale Gas is there in the United States? In July 2011 US EIA released a [Review of Emerging Resources: US Shale Gas and Shale Oil Plays produced by INTEK. This is an updated assessment of onshore lower 48 states technically recoverable shale gas and shale oil resources. The assessment found the lower 48 states have a total 750 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas resources with the largest portions in the Northeast (63%), Gulf Coast (13%), and Southwest regions (10%) respectively. The largest shale gas plays are the Marcellus (410.3 trillion cubic feet, 55 percent of the total), Haynesville (74.7 trillion cubic feet, 10 percent of the total), and Barnett (43.4 trillion cubic feet, 6 percent of the total).The INTEK assessment was incorporated into the Onshore Lower 48 Oil and Gas Supply Submodule (OLOGSS) within the Oil and Gas Supply Module (OGSM) of NEMS to project oil and natural gas production for the Annual Energy Outlook 2011 (AEO2011) to provide a starting point for future work.
Total US recoverable natural gas resources (includes conventional, unconventional in lower 48, Alaska and offshore) totals 4.244 quadrillion cubic feet according to the Institute for Energy Research:
• Enough natural gas to meet US electricity demand for 575 years at current fuel demand for generation levels
• Enough natural gas to fuel homes heated by natural gas in the United States for 857 years
• More natural gas than Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkmenistan combined.
The US has Three Times the Proven Reserves of Saudi Arabia in Shale Oil. Global oil shale resources exceed 10 trillion barrels. More than 1.8 trillion barrels of oil are trapped in shale in Federal lands in the western United States in the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, of which 800 billion is considered recoverable–three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. The INTEK assessment for EIA found 23.9 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil resources in the onshore Lower 48 States. The Southern California Monterey/Santos play is the largest shale oil formation estimated to hold 15.4 billion barrels or 64 percent of the total shale oil resources followed by Bakken and Eagle Ford with approximately 3.6 billion barrels and 3.4 billion barrels of oil, respectively...
(snip: more at the Link)
Mostly biomass but also wind and small hydro. Some solar. We just had a hearing on a bill to do with RPS. Some people want to mess with it. I don’t see any point in messing with it now. Yes, our power costs more than average by quite a bit but there’s no guarantee of lowering it by tampering with the formula. We also are a next exporter of power which I think is a good thing.
What Harry Reid is not telling the public is that the United States remains a net importer of crude oil and petroleum products. Total imports of crude oil and petroleum products in 2011 were 4 times more than the petroleum products that were exported. In fact, the United States spent more than $433 billion on crude oil and petroleum imports in 2011, over $100 billion more than the $333 billion spent in 2010 and over 4 times the value of the petroleum we exported. Nevertheless, Senator Harry Reid suggests the purpose of importing Canadian oil via the proposed Keystone Pipeline is to export it in the form of petroleum products.
Yes, we import far too much crude oil, about 9 MMBPD. But that is upstream of our refineries.
We need more access to federal land and waters. We need permits issued timely and more sensible regulations.
And even if the goal was taking in raw bitumen to create jobs and better trade balance exporting products, would that be bad? It would also leave us in the better position of maintaining surplus refining capacity for when our economy finally turns around and our own demand grows.
See you and I fundamentally agree. We need access to more and less costly energy in order to grow our economy. The O and his ilk will never allow it to occur. The EPA is operating by edicts....none of which are based on science...and the Greenies love it
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What is your electric cost in terms of fans and combusting said pellets?
We didn’t notice a significant increase in the electric bill. The blower runs while burning, and shuts down shortly after. The model we have has a thermostat.
We have a 2-story, 2500 sq. Ft. House, but we put the stove in the corner of the side great room, which is way off center.
On a typical winter Massachusetts day, the great room will be 78, and the remotest room will be 63. Unlike a wood stove, the heat is remarkably even, since it’s convection versus radiation.
In January, when night time temps get into single digits, we’ll supplement with oil heat.
Any other questions, feel free to ask. I love not paying so much for heat!
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