Dartmouth Study Finds Barium Leaches Directly from Marcellus Shale
In December MDN called attention to a newly published study by researchers at Dartmouth College (see Dartmouth Study: Fracking Causes Toxic Metal Wastewater). In reading over the Dartmouth press announcement at that time, it appeared to us that the researchers have found evidence that plain water itself, water without extra chemicals added to it, will, under pressure a mile or more down, facilitate or somehow combine with shale and cause barium to leach out of the shale. Those same researchers have continued their work and have just published another study that builds on the earlier work. Like the earlier work, we don’t detect an agenda on the part of the researchers. This appears to us to be legitimate research that helps us better understand the chemical reactions happening a mile or more below the ground when we shoot water down there. Here’s the latest from Ivy League school Dartmouth…
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The United States remained the world’s top producer of petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons in 2015, according to our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). U.S. petroleum and natural gas production first surpassed Russia in 2012. The U.S. has been the world’s top producer of natural gas since 2011 and the world’s top producer of petroleum hydrocarbons since 2013. We’re not only the Saudi Arabia of natural gas, we’re the Saudi Arabia of oil too! We love gloating about the fact that we’re #1 in the world! Energy = freedom. Fossil fuels = energy. Therefore, fossil fuels = freedom. If there’s a single word that still (for now) describes the good old U.S. of A.–it’s freedom. Tell the anti-American, anti-drillers to put that in their bongs and smoke it! Here’s the great news from EIA that we’re still the one…
In the past 12 months, some 27% of all E&Ps (exploration and production companies, what we call “drillers”) have defaulted on some of their bonds–the debt they owe. That’s huge. According to Fitch Ratings, before we turn the corner, they expect that number to grow to 30-35% of E&Ps. Defaulting on bonds doesn’t necessarily mean a company has filed for bankruptcy, but a plethora of bankruptcies have, according to Fitch, driven the bond default number way up. Here’s the latest on bond defaults and the sentiment that “it’s going to get worse before it gets better” from Fitch…
New research from the once-great Duke University actually supports shale drilling for a change–instead of denigrating it. In the past researchers from Duke, using money from the odious Park Foundation, have been bought off in their research efforts. This latest research, which concentrates on the benefits to local governments from shale drilling, wasn’t funded by Park and appears to be objective for a change. Two Duke U researchers conducted a three-year research project (between 2013-2015) funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. They traveled far and wide, to 16 states and interviewed over 200 local government officials along with gathering data and facts. The conclusion: on balance oil and gas drilling benefit local communities…
What has happened to one of the world’s finest research universities? A press release issued yesterday by Penn State touts their participation in helping set up a seismic monitoring system throughout Pennsylvania. In the announcement, Penn State researchers openly admit this about a series of tiny quakes in western PA that couldn’t be felt at the surface: “We have not done enough analysis of the data to make any conclusions yet, but there is a correlation spatially and temporally between the fracking and the earthquakes.” In other words–“We haven’t actually done the research, but we’re going to say there’s a connection between fracking and earthquakes–because we feel like it.” That’s not science–that’s politics. Real scientists observe first, then conclude. Penn State is reversing that order–they already have their conclusions, now it’s just a matter of warping the observations to fit their conclusions. Sad…
Here’s a little good news, for a change. Research firm Grand View Research (headquartered in San Francisco) has just published a pricey new research report (a single copy will set you back $4,700) that projects the global hydraulic fracturing market will be worth $81 billion by 2024–in just eight short years. Grand View’s researchers say much of that value/revenue will come in the “plug and perf” (i.e. fracking) part of the industry. It will be driven primarily by two countries–the United States and (wait for it….) China. We haven’t heard a lot about fracking in China, but that country is definitely making major moves to unlock vast shale reserves beneath its soil. The Chinese don’t have to worry about silly things like getting permission from citizens–not in a brutal dictatorship like China. They just do it. Although we haven’t seen the full report ourselves, Grand View has shared some of the key, high level insights they gleaned from their research. Here are some interesting facts and tidbits…
Creditsafe USA, which calls itself the world’s “most used supplier” of company business intelligence, on Tuesday released what they call “startling statistics” about “the troubled oil and gas sector.” They are, of course, trying to sell subscriptions to their service by releasing this “news.” However, we found their press release interesting, for a couple of reasons. One reason is because Creditsafe’s research shows that the oil and gas sector contributed a staggering, words-can’t-even-describe-it $220 billion to the U.S. economy in 2015. It represents a “significant percentage” of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). The big problem they identify is that oil and gas companies are starting to drop like flies–declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. What lies ahead for our economy if that trend continues?…
New research just published by Indiana University confirms what those with common sense already knew: If at least some of the fees paid by drillers go into the local township’s coffers instead of the county or state–people in that community are more accepting and favorable to drilling. IU questioned 453 PA residents in June 2014 (takes a long time to publish research) asking a variety of questions. The research shows that the public has more trust that revenues will be spent better by their local municipal government than by the county or state. Don’t you just love it when common sense breaks out? Of course PA’s far-left/liberal governor, Tom Wolf, is tone deaf when it comes to taxing the Marcellus industry. He wants to grab all the money he can and give it to teachers unions. PA has an impact fee which keeps 60% of fees raised local–a plan that works. Wolf wants to add a severance tax on top of the impact fee, which would create the nation’s highest severance tax rate (see 
We’ve heard of microwaving popcorn (one of our favorite things to microwave), but we’ve never heard of microwaving “nanoribbons.” We suspect you haven’t either. All’s it takes is a 30-watt microwave to nuke nanoribbons and voila–drillers have a new, cheap and better way to seal up tiny fractures in wellbores. Researchers at Rice University have discovered wellbores drilled to extract oil and gas can be “dramatically reinforced” with a small amount of modified graphene nanoribbons–added to a polymer and microwaved. Think of it as nuking a tiny bit of plastic over a rock and the plastic melts into and firms up the rock. It’s quite possible there will be a microwave coming to a well pad near you!…
You may recall a few months back when President Barack Hussein Obama signed the Paris climate treaty, referred to as COP21. As we wrote at the time, the treaty is not binding on the U.S. because it’s not been ratified by the Senate (see 
The U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) selected Penn State University to lead a consortium of nine universities in all that will study fossil fuel technologies for the next six years. NETL is giving Penn State $20 million of your money (i.e. taxpayer’s money) “to accelerate the development and deployment of fossil fuel-based technologies.” We can certainly think of worse uses for the money. Penn State will lead the Lucky University CoalItion for Fossil Energy Research (LUCiFER). Uh no! That’s not right! Let’s try it again: Penn State will lead the University Coalition for Fossil Energy Research (UCFER). There, that’s it! Here’s what the feds said, and what Penn State said, about the new grant and the new UCFER coalition…
It’s good to know that “research” can still be purchased at the once-great Duke University. For years now the radical Park Park Foundation has been buying its research from a few select professors at a few select universities. One of the scientists for sale is Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment (see 
If you happen to believe in the fairy tale of man-made global warming, you no doubt know all about CO2–carbon dioxide. CO2 is the stuff you exhale with every breathe you take, as every mammal does on God’s green earth. Somehow CO2 has been twisted into becoming a dreaded “greenhouse gas”. Go figure. At any rate, aside from breathing, when we burn fossil fuels it creates CO2–which is at the core of the neurosis of anti-drillers. Their kindergartenish solution to “solving” the “problem” of “global warming” is to stop burning fossil fuels. But the thing is, not all fossil fuels are created equal. Natural gas burns relatively clean and produces far less CO2 than other fossil fuels. You might think people who really care about the planet would welcome more natgas–but you would be wrong. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has just published an analysis of the biggest non-breathing cause of CO2 generation–burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. The EIA says in 2015 CO2 emissions were down 12% from baseline levels in 2005. With more population and more electricity being generated, how can that possibly be? Because of the shale revolution–that’s how. So-called renewable forms of electric power generation are still minuscule compared to burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. Because we now use more natgas instead of coal to generate electricity, the amount of CO2 being produced has dropped dramatically. Thanks to the miracle of fracking…