Ch. 25: Gas Pains Presented by Derek Nordby

“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” Every form of energy is going to come with a cost to humans/the environment. Hydropower Flooding of rivers and streams. Oil & gas Land usage for drilling an pipelines. Oil spills. Coal Mines tear up the land. Hydrocarbon combustion Large quantities of CO 2 emissions.

Gas Hydraulic fracturing is used in extraction Additives cause concerns about water regulations. 2004: EPA study says that there is no evidence that fracturing is a danger to drinking-water. IPAA claims >1 million wells have been drilled in the past 50 years and no documented cases of contaminated drinking-water. Lustergarten reports on ground water contamination in WY. 2009: EPA does 2 nd study and finds 11 of 34 wells contaminated.

Politics Industry opponents want more federal oversight. Determining where some companies are drilling. While site locations are being limited, the U.S. still needs many new wells.

Well Production Some new wells’ production will drop 80-90% within the first year. Overall well productivity is also decreasing. 1971: 435,000 ft 3 /day 2008: 113,000 ft 3 /day Forces companies to look for new wells. 2008: 60,000 new wells in U.S.

Upsides Gas industry continues to improve. Drilling from farther away. TCU Horned Frogs’ stadium. Water usage is not as big of a deal as it’s made out to be. Marcellus Shale (Pennsylvania) If increased to drilling 3,000 wells/year 30 million gallons of water each day Pennsylvania electric sector ~5.9 billion gallons/day (200x more than natural gas projections)

Conclusion Natural gas is not a perfect fuel, but it is the greenest of the hydrocarbons. In order to get away from using hydrocarbons, we have only one choice. Nuclear power.

References Bryce, Robert. Power Hungry: The Myths of "green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future. New York, NY: PublicAffairs, Print.