…[It] was public research dollars, over the course of thirty years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock – reminding us that Government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground.

- Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the Union Address

On Thursday, Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu visited the National Energy Technology Laboratory in South Park, PA:

Chu said the Department of Energy’s experiments between 1978 and 1992 helped develop the widespread practice of horizontal drilling and fracturing that made capturing natural gas from rock formations such as shale cost-effective enough that private industry could take over. (Source.)

This is some pretty serious revisionist history, and it’s all directed at justifying continued “investment” in green clean energy research*.

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Around these parts, we have a word that aptly describes shale formations: ubitquitious. (sic)

Every conventional oil and gas basin must have a hydrocarbon source, and that source is a shale. And since shales are low in permeability, we’re finding that the source rock still contains plenty of hydrocarbons, if you can figure out how to get the stuff out.

One of the newly-emerging plays is the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, which is being explored in a wide arc that cuts across central Louisiana and southern Mississippi.

Although the promise of the Marine Shale has yet to be proved, there is reason for optimism: if you follow that arc to the west, roughly parallel to the Texas coast, you’re smack-dab in the middle of the Eagle Ford trend of south Texas, currently the site of one of the hottest oil drilling plays in the country. The Tusc is equivalent in age to the Eagle Ford, and the newest well just tested almost 800 barrels of oil per day.

Yes, the shales are indeed ubiquitious.

Tuscaloosa shale promising

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Phelim McAleer and his wife Ann McElhinney are journalists and documentary filmmakers. You may remember Not Evil Just Wrong (2009), their takedown of Al Gore and Global Warming hysteria.

Now they want to tell the truth about natural gas development and hydraulic fracturing in a full-length documentary titled FrackNation. McAleer says:

FrackNation will skeptically examine some of the scarier claims made by anti-fracking activists and look at how shale gas is helping some of the poorest communities in the US and potentially across the planet. It will feature small farmers, the working class and others who are benefiting from this economic boom. We will look at the backgrounds and motives of those opposing fracking.

[Click here to see the producers' Kickstarter pitch for the project. (2:53)]

FrackNation will go head-to-head with GasLand II, Josh Fox’s planned sequel to GasLand (2010), the highly effective anti-gas propaganda piece. With scant concern for earth science and demonstrable fact, GasLand earned an Academy Award nomination and stirred up anti-fracking hysteria nationwide with its memorable footage of flaming faucets. PBS and HBO will jointly bankroll Gasland II to the tune of $750,000. It is set to air on HBO this fall.

Here’s how you can fight back: To tell their grassroots tale, McAleer, McElhinney and co-producer Magda Segieda will rely on grassroots financing. The website kickstarter.com provides a fundraising platform for creative projects. FrackNation‘s goal is a modest $150,000.

For as little as $1.00, you can support a professional, fact-based counterargument to GasLand II. $20 donors will receive a copy of the DVD upon release. All donors will be named executive producer of the project.

But why fracking?

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This is an abbreviated version of a post at my personal blog. There you will find more detailed text, additional figures and references.

In 1956, M. King Hubbert predicted that crude oil production in the U.S. (ex-Alaska) would peak in rate around 1970, to be followed by a long, irreversible decline. Hubbert nailed the timing of the peak, and in doing so, cemented his status as a technological visionary among neo-Malthusians and opponents of the “fossil fuels”. But Hubbert’s paper also contained a similar forecast for gas.

In 1956, Hubbert’s estimate of the amount of natural gas that would ultimately be consumed in the U.S. was 850 trillion cubic feet (TCF).

In the 1978 update, Hubbert increased his estimate to 1,103 TCF, but considered that value to be on the high side.

Lower 48 Gas Production, 1900-2010

By the end of 2010, we had produced and marketed 1,131 TCF from the Lower 48, more gas than Hubbert thought would ever be possible. We find ourselves in the midst of a natural gas boom, with gas production now exceeding the peaks of 1973: rates are over three times higher than the 7 TCF per year Hubbert foresaw for 2010. The Lower 48 resource base is some 3,100 TCF, three to four times Hubbert’s earlier estimates.

Peak Oilers rarely mention Peak Gas. Hubbert expected his method to work for all resources; why did it fail with respect to gas? The answers to that question shed light on the shortcomings of Peak Oil Theory, and reveal the reasons why it should not be used as a policy-making tool.

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In Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address, President Obama said:

Over the last three years, we’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration, and tonight, I’m directing my Administration to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources.

Taking the show on the road,

Obama Promotes Energy Agenda in Las Vegas

Fending off critics who say his policies have stifled domestic energy production, President Obama today announced that his administration would open 38 million acres of oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Wow! The guy is finally getting aggressive!

Not so much, according to the House Natural Resources Committee:

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We’ve heard it all before, except now the message has been repackaged to deal with the evolving reality in the Energy Sector. In “fossil fuels”, we have two big success stories: the Shale Revolution and the continued success of domestic oil development. What we didn’t hear much about was rebuilding the economy based on Green Jobs. The new Green Economy had more than a few stumbling blocks (Kaiser/Solyndra and exploding Chevy Volts).

Of course, we heard not a peep about Keystone XL.

I keep circling back to the central irony of the Obama Presidency: Obama could have been the Energy President. Clean, responsible North American energy security is within our grasp, and nothing would jump-start our economy faster than to make that commitment. Think Kennedy/Space Program or Nixon/China: every president since Nixon has promised progress on energy, and now, the president in 2012 is in a position to deliver.

But will he?

It would mean making workable compromises with industry. It might mean giving in on ANWR. It might mean telling the anti-development Luddite environmentalists who have loyally backed him to go pound sand. It might mean acknowledging that we’ve been sold an elitist bill of goods in Global Warming. It might mean backtracking on alternative energy giveaways.

Ain’t gonna happen.

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Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D’OH), have filed a bill aimed at controlling gasoline prices. Styled the “Gas Price Spike Act”, H.R. 3784 would establish a “Reasonable Profits Board” which would have the power to confiscate 100% of oil company profits above a level that they deem to be “reasonable”.

I know: “You had me at ‘Kucinich’.”

Kucinich is either a naive buffoon, a craven panderer to his electorate, or a throwback to Soviet-style central planning. (Not that those descriptions are mutually exclusive.) That he could find five other elected nitwits (Reps. Woolsey^[1], Langevin, Conyers, Fudge and Filner^[2]) to put their names on such an unconstitutional socialist fantasy is an indication that the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party has “progressed” right off the reservation.

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The drilling rig Scarabeo 9, visible in the distance. Image taken from the northern coast of Cuba near Havana. Drilling operations are expected to commence within a week.

Fact #1: In U.S. waters, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico is off-limits for drilling. The only way to legally drill for oil within 125 miles of the Florida coast is to drill in Cuban waters, which reach within 45 miles of Key West.

The Florida Straits, showing the locations of Havana, Cuba and Key West, FL. Photo credit Wikipedia.

Fact #2: In 2011, the average price of gasoline was the highest of any year in history, including 2008 when the price spiked above $4.00 per gallon.

Open thread, sucker.

Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom were pikers compared to the Government’s “Green Energy” schemes.

Bialystock and Bloom plotted to make millions with a guaranteed Broadway flop. Against all odds, Springtime for Hitler became a runaway hit, and The Producers went to jail.

But at least Mssrs. Bialystock and Bloom produced something of value – a hit musical.

Our Green Initiative produces flop after flop, but precious little energy. Instead of throwing the perpetrators in the hoosegow, we keep reelecting them.

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In a New York Times editorial celebrating the recent demise of the ethanol subsidy, the Old Grey Lady once again descends into outright falsehood to malign the industry that Progressives love to hate:

Congress should now focus on the oil industry, which has long enjoyed a web of arcane and unnecessary tax breaks — deductions for well depletion and intangible drilling costs. They are unique to the industry and, when combined with other subsidies, cost roughly $4 billion a year.

President Obama has tried twice to kill these subsidies, without success. We hope he tries again in his coming Budget Message. The Congressional Research Service says that ending the subsidies would have no effect on gas prices for consumers and only a trivial effect on industry profits, which have been at record highs. [Emphasis added.]

Where to begin?

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1. Despite a natural gas drilling moratorium in New York, that state’s Chemung and Broome Counties are feeling the economic lift from drilling next door in Pennsylvania. But to the New York Times, the ex-pat workers, largely from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, have awfully low-brow tastes, don’t you know. (NYT link below the fold.)

2a & 2b. The Daily Beast seems to have turned over reporting on energy issues to complete idiots. They should stick with things they do best, like candid upskirt photos of the Kardashian sisters. (Two DB links below the fold.)

3. Betty Sutliff is a member of the Upper Wayne County Property Owners Alliance. Her northeastern Pennsylvania county is prospective for Marcellus gas development, but a board called the Delaware River Basin Commission (representing New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the U.S. government) has blocked development. In addition an influx of well-heeled interlopers who own second homes in NE PA are vocal in their anti-gas rhetoric, although they have almost no skin in the game.

There exists a minority of those who vehemently oppose natural gas development. They would oppose it if it were 200% safe. For this group it really isn’t a question of safety. Instead, it is a new ideology aimed against anything fossil. Simplistically, these folks look at any fossil fuel development as an addiction that should be conquered “cold turkey.”

Most of these individuals own very little land and think (mistakenly, as UGI [retail natural gas price cut] demonstrates) they have nothing to gain economically from natural gas exploration and production. They also are typically residents who do not reside here full-time or have moved to the area after living elsewhere. They don’t want their peace and serenity, not to mention their viewscape, tampered with at all for any reason.

However well-funded, well organized, and vocal they may be, they do not speak for the majority of residents here who have called this area home for generations. This is noticeable by the landslide victories of pro gas candidates in local elections which show the majority of people in favor of moving forward with exploration and production of natural gas.

Well said, Ms. Sutliff. The loudest voices in the debate are the ones with the least knowledge and the least stake in the game. And they would be the first one to cry “Conspiracy!” if the cost to heat their home doubled, or if there were no gas available at all.

These elitists portray natural gas as bad for the environment (a very tenuous position), but in reality they know that cheap gas is the #1 enemy of their Mother Gaia-approved alternatives.

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On an annual basis, retail gasoline prices hit an all-time high in 2011. The average price for all grades was $3.576 per gallon, vs $3.299 in 2008.

Meanwhile, the shale gas revolution has set the stage for declining prices per mmbtu of natural gas.

Natural gas spot prices. Source: http://www.eia.gov.

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Current and former candidates for the Republican nomination for the Office of President of the United States fall into two distinct groups. See if you can guess what distinguishes Column A candidates from those in Column B.

Column A

• Mitt Romney
• Newt Gingrich
• Rick Perry
• Rick Santorum
• Michele Bachmann
• Herman Cain
• Mitch Daniels
• Tim Pawlenty
• Thad McCotter
• Mike Huckabee

Column B

• Ron Paul
• Gary Johnson
• Donald Trump
• Buddy Roemer

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On Wednesday of the week just past, the Department of the Interior conducted the first sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico since BP’s Macondo oil spill. Measured by the statistics touted in Interior’s press release, the sale would appear to be a rousing success:

NEW ORLEANS – The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced that its Western Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 218, held [December 14] in New Orleans, attracted $337,688,341 in high bids and included 20 companies submitting 241 bids on 191 tracts comprising over a million acres offshore Texas. The sum of all bids received totaled $712,725,998. This announcement is consistent with steps President Obama announced in May 2011 to expand domestic oil and gas production safely and responsibly.

By comparison, the previous Western Gulf sale, Sale 210 in August 2009, saw high bids totaling $115 million for 164 tracts. More money for more tracts: what’s not to like?

A detailed look at the leasing history, however, reveals a different story. While deepwater remains active, the shallow water Gulf saw little leasing action. Many of the shallow water bidders from recent sales stayed home for Sale 218.

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Another day, another distorted and fear-mongering attack from the Old Grey Lady on America’s natural gas industry.

Headline: Add Quakes to Rumblings Over Gas Rush
(originally published under the headline “Some Blame Hydraulic Fracturing For Earthquake Epidemic”; link may require subscription/signup)

Nine quakes in eight months in a seismically inactive area is unusual. But Ohio seismologists found another surprise when they plotted the quakes’ epicenters: most coincided with the location of a 9,000-foot well in an industrial lot along the Mahoning River, just down the hill from Mr. Moritz’s neighborhood and two miles from downtown Youngstown.

At the well, a local company has been disposing of brine and other liquids from natural gas wells across the border in Pennsylvania — millions of gallons of waste from the process called hydraulic fracturing that is used to unlock the gas from shale rock.

Here, the Times conflates two dissimilar processes in an attempt to create fear and worry about natural gas. Follow below the jump, and allow me to explain.

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On Monday, Canada’s Environment Minister Peter Kent announced that his country would exercise its legal option to end its participation in the Kyoto Protocols. The Protocols were a United Nations initiative, adopted in 1997 with a goal of rolling carbon dioxide emissions back to 1990 levels in an effort to stop Global Warming. Failure to meet those goals would incur stiff monetary penalties.

Canada will not meet its 2012 goal, so as a treaty member it would incur penalties of $14 billion in 2012, or $1,600 for every Canadian family. Kent characterized Kyoto as an “impediment”, citing the absence of the world’s two largest carbon-emitting countries, China and the U.S., from its membership.

(The United States never ratified the Kyoto Protocols. China was exempt from the penalties. China’s carbon emissions are now highest in the world, eclipsing U.S. emissions by nearly 50% in 2008.)

Canada Withdraws From Kyoto Protocol
(NYT link may require subscription/registration.)

“To meet the targets under Kyoto for 2012 would be the equivalent of either removing every car, truck, ATV, tractor, ambulance, police car and vehicle of every kind from Canadian roads or closing down the entire farming and agriculture sector and cutting heat to every home, office, hospital, factory and building in Canada,” Kent said. [Emphasis added.]

To quote Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber, “So you’re saying there’s a chance!”

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Iron Eyes Cody cried at the sight of polluted waters and skies in a famous public service announcement, first aired in 1971. Old Iron Eyes may have been a faux-Indian, but his message resonated with people. The Crying Indian PSA was one of the most successful ever.

It resonated because it was true. In the early ’70s, the environment was a mess. Urban skies were noticeably tinged in sepia/grey. Rivers and streams were often clogged with discarded debris and fouled with chemical sludge.

April 1970 saw the first Earth Day. In December of the same year, the Environmental Protection Agency was born.

The Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, with the Clean Water Act to follow in 1972. 1973 brought the Endangered Species Act. [Note: see comments. The Fish & Wildlife Service & NOAA are the lead ESA agencies, with EPA in a support role. I stand corrected. Ed.]

Gradually, the environment improved. The bald eagle and the American alligator came back from the brink of extinction. Air quality improved, there was less litter, and the phosphate foam disappeared from streams.

And, rightly or wrongly, EPA got the credit. As the hippies of my generation greyed, they remembered their Earth Day Groove-In fondly.

Fast forward to 2011: the EPA has become a stifling, job-killing bureaucracy. What happened? When did the EPA jump the shark?

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On Tuesday, the Institute for Energy Research issued its North American Energy Inventory (.pdf link), a report which documents the government’s own estimates of oil, natural gas and coal resources for the U.S., Canada and Mexico. (The IER is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)3 organization that is dedicated to advancing America’s supply using free market principles.)

In a nutshell, North America contains a vast bounty of energy sources in the form of oil, natural gas and coal. Reports that we are “running out” of energy sources use semantics and terminology to play with the facts. Simply put, we have chosen not to exploit potential sources close to home, finding it more expedient or convenient to depend on faraway sources for our energy.

Based on the ongoing tangible successes in North Dakota and Pennsylvania, one would think that the jobs/growth potential presented by aggressive energy development would tantalize any politician who is truly interested in helping the economy. One would think.

The following video will give you a quick run-down of the key points of the report, but I would encourage anyone interested to download and read the full report. It is extremely well-documented and although it is chock-full of facts and figures, I found it to be an easy read.

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In its never-ending quest to stop the peril this country faces from natural gas, the New York Times takes on Rep. Dan Boren, the sole Democrat in Oklahoma’s congressional delegation. He co-chairs the House Natural Gas Caucus and serves as a member of the House Natural Resources Committee. As a representative of the #3 gas-producing state, it’s not surprising that his voting record is decidedly pro-industry, and specifically, pro-fracking. (Boren, one of the more conservative Democrats in the House, has announced that he will not be seeking reelection in 2012.)

Of course, the Times tries to portray the Congressman’s voting record as corrupt, since he has income from a (silent) interest in a family enterprise (on the order of $100K/year). Added to that, his father, former U.S. Sen. David Boren (D-OK) receives compensation for his service on the board of a successful oil company. (David Boren, as the Times chooses not to report, is president of the University of Oklahoma since 1994, and a member of several corporate boards.)

The congressman’s income has jumped in the last six years, thanks to two family businesses he partly owns that have signed more than 300 mineral leases, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many of those deals are with Chesapeake Energy, a top donor to his campaigns. …

House ethics rules do not prohibit lawmakers from taking steps to aid industries in which they have a financial stake. But some ethics experts say such actions are still inadvisable. [Emphasis added.]

“Some experts say…” It wouldn’t be a Times article without that chestnut.

“Even if it is legal, if every member of Congress pushed for industries that they have financial ties to, there would be an outcry from the public,” said Robert M. Stern, a California lawyer who has helped draft state ethics and campaign finance laws.

You gotta be kidding me, chief.

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M. King Hubbert is the father of Peak Oil theory. In a 1956, he paper correctly called the timing of the peak in U.S. crude oil production in the early 1970s.

Neo-Malthusians and Progressives make sure you know about Hubbert’s pessimistic outlook for conventional crude oil. They made Hubbert a household name, the only oil technologist whose name they use without adding “sellout” or “whore”.

But here’s what they never tell you about what Hubbert’s wrote…

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