Public Backlash Against “Green” Energy – Have Renewable Energy Sources Reached Their Peak?
Canadian Stephen Murgatroyd has penned a sterling guest column in the Ponoka News (Alberta, Canada) on the subject of oil, natural gas and renewable energy. The column refutes the notion that fossil fuels, in particular oil, have reached their “peak”—the idea that we have reached a situation where we are using more oil and natural gas in the world than can be found in new reserves—and that we will run low or run out in the not-too-distant future (perhaps a generation or two from now).
Mr. Murgatroyd turns the table and makes the case that renewable sources of energy, like wind, solar, biomass and hydro instead are facing a “peak” in their use as the environmental problems with these technologies become more evident, and as their high costs become unacceptable due to subsidies being phased out by governments that can no longer afford to prop them up as they have done to date.
Dominion, one of the country’s largest producers and transporters of energy, has just announced they will build a large natural gas processing and fractionation plant along the Ohio River in Natrium, W.Va. to process shale gas from the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions. The plant’s first phase of construction will be completed by the end of next year. The new facility will provide construction jobs initially, and when completed, 40-50 permanent jobs. Dominion reports they have already pre-sold 90 percent of the first phase’s processing capacity of 200 Mmcf (million cubic feet) of natural gas per day and fractionation of 36,000 barrels of gas liquids per day. Dominion’s largest customer for the first phase is Chesapeake Energy, reserving 100 Mmcf of processing capacity.
The kick-off meeting for Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s recently appointed Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission happened yesterday at Rocky Gap State Park in western Maryland. It was the first meeting in what will be a three year process—a final report from the Commission is due in August of 2014. Such a long delay puts Maryland at the back of the pack for Marcellus shale drilling (
Even though the New York Times’ own public editor has written two articles criticizing the Times for its slanted and inaccurate coverage of the natural gas drilling industry (
Just last week, MDN wrote about New Martinsville, WV enacting a Marcellus drilling ban (
News of Chesapeake Energy’s major oil discovery in eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale prompted officials in Columbiana County to renegotiate their about-to-be-signed lease with Chesapeake. It was a smart move for the county—netting them an additional $255K:
Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields, who will soon be leaving office, is staunchly anti-drilling. He led the successful effort to have hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling banned in the City of Pittsburgh. The ban was enacted by City Council last November. Now that Mr. Shields has landed on the happy shores of no drilling, he wants to burn the ships to ensure future Council members can’t undo all of his good work. His method? Amend the City’s Home Rule Charter to permanently ban drilling anywhere in the city limits.
Ohio continues to be red hot with respect to leasing mineral rights for shale gas (and now oil) drilling. Some counties, like Belmont, can’t keep up with the lawyers and researchers who pour over property records at the County Recorder’s office:
Texas-based GreenHunter Energy, Inc. announced they’ve purchased acreage in West Virginia where they will establish a facility to treat and dispose of fracking wastewater. Part of GreenHunter’s plan includes disposing wastewater using an existing injection well with plans for additional injection wells. The press release (in full below) does not mention the exact location for the new facility and injection wells.
The quarterly reports from public companies continue to roll in, which sometimes makes for interesting reading. EXCO Resources, Inc. has just issued their quarterly report and includes the following operational update on their drilling activities in the Marcellus Shale. Of particular note is EXCO’s statement about IP, or “initial production”. IP for oil and gas wells is that initial burst of activity which is not sustainable through the life of the well. Usually a well produces the most right at the start—according to EXCO IP is a 24-hour period during the first few days a well goes online. But as EXCO points out below, their Marcellus wells sometimes don’t hit peak performance until a month or two after they have come online.
On May 31 of this year, NY Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to force the federal government “to commit to a full environmental review of proposed regulations that would allow natural gas drilling – including the potentially harmful "fracking" technique – in the Delaware River Basin” (
The leading and most visible organization representing the Marcellus drilling industry in Pennsylvania is the 
The U.S. Department of Energy is funding a number of research projects to help find ways to extract more energy from unconventional oil and gas resources while reducing environmental risks. The DOE grants amount to $12.4 million.
Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon on Monday appeared on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show on CNBC to talk about the company’s new, oil-rich discovery in the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio. He had some fascinating things to say, including that he expects there to be some 25,000 wells drilled in the Ohio Utica Shale, and that there will be $10 billion per year for at least 20 years (or $200 billion) of investments in the Ohio Utica Shale alone. Yikes! No wonder Gov. John Kasich is “gushing” about Chesapeake’s discovery. An investment of 1/5 of a trillion dollars is a major big deal for Ohio—not only for landowners but also for businesses and for those who will be employed by drilling and associated industries. You cannot overstate how important this discovery is.
Once again New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens has delayed the start of Marcellus gas drilling—this time by at least an additional 30 days, maybe longer. The “nearly” final draft drilling regulations, called the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), were released on July 8 (originally supposed to be released July 1 as ordered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo). At that time, Mr. Martens said there would be a 60-day public comment period that would begin in August. Then the DEC would review those comments, tweak the regulations, and issue the final regulations sometime late this year.
MDN has previously commented on the obvious vendetta by the New York Times against the natural gas industry, most particularly in articles written by Ian Urbina (