The Anti-Fracking Canard is Dead....

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Beaufort Observer:

A reliable source within the Governor's office tells us that the Governor was told by DENR sometime ago that the report was accumulating substantial scientific data that would lead to a conclusion that fracking not only can be done safely but that it holds significant economic potential for the state. Knowing that Perdue's position had been the opposite we are told DENR gave her advance notice and in effect sought clearance to release the report which would have been contrary to her position.

We are told that the evidence is so overwhelming that if Perdue stuck to her position that the report would be a major contradiction of her position. So they had two choices: Either DENR could try to kill the report, somehow; or Perdue could change her position.

[...]

Moreover, another source tells us that the first source was probably correct but that another factor came into play. It is believed that the Obama Administration is on the verge of announcing a reversal of their position on natural gas exploration, not only from fracking but also in offshore drilling. "The DOE (Department of Energy) has already sent the message that if gasoline prices continue to climb that they will change their position on fracking."

Democrat politics and economic damage go hand in in.

I would add that her flip-flop paves the way for those Democrats currently running to do so as well without accruing the same political damage they otherwise would have.




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NC Democrats Fracked Themselves ...

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Under the Dome:

Gov. Bev Perdue's move Wednesday toward fracking is putting the Democratic candidates vying to replace her on the spot.

Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton's campaign issued a statement Thursday trying to take a middle-of-the road approach. Dalton supports fracking but suggests it needs more study before moving forward to know if it can be done safely.

"There may be great benefits to and lots of jobs created from fracking, but it is unwise to rush into a decision until all the facts are reviewed," spokesman Pearse Edwards said. "For example, we need to thoroughly assess the risks that fracking may cause to our drinking water, ensure that proper regulations are in place, and determine whether exploration is economically viable. We must also hear from the people of North Carolina. The Lieutenant Governor is hopeful that working together we can find the safest way tap our state’s natural gas reserves and bring much needed jobs to the state."

Bob Etheridge's campaign initially declined to comment but issued a statement Thursday taking a similar approach supporting fracking if the water supply is protected. "We should

Fighting energy availability, which at base is what Democrats have been doing, really has no place in intelligent discussion, much less public policy.

This anti fracking nonsense was a stupid move during a depression. Now it has been made doubly stupid due to the rise in fuel prices caused by the Federal Reserve.

Enjoy watching the Dems dance.





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Good News on the Fracking Front From ... Bev Perdue?

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Under the Dome:

Jon Romano, the governor's communications director, said Perdue's trip to Pennsylvania convinced her that fracking is possible in North Carolina. "She believes based on what she saw that it can be done safely," he said.

Some liberals seem to have a modicum of sense. Good for North Carolina.




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Antifrackers Fracturing Prosperity...

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The Fiscal Times:

...Here’s the story: the EPA says tests it conducted in Pavillion, Wyoming “indicate that ground water in the aquifer contains compounds likely associated with gas production practices, including hydraulic fracturing.” However, it turns out that the EPA drilled two monitoring wells to some 900 feet – much deeper than water wells which are usually at about 300 feet – and indeed found hydrocarbons. In short, they drilled into the natural gas reservoir that has long attracted industry producers. It may the single most productive moment in EPA history.

Antifrackers already know the answers, they just need the "science" to bridge the gap between what we know and those answers. Until then expect endless questions regarding safety, regulation, how this may effect that, and every possible future outcome that does not positively effect our state and nation.

If history has proven anything it is that prosperity is difficult enough to achieve without luddites not only fearing, but actively rejecting that which nourishes prosperity.





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Frackers Fracking Windmills ...

polifrog



It is easy to discount the problem solving capabilities of innovation as it resides in a human blind spot, the future, and for that reason economists and scientists alike, unable to measure it, discount it.

Just as the unknown gives rise to superstition, the immeasurably of the future gives rise to science's equivalent ... conjecture.

Of course, the future always arrives with technology in hand and the carcasses of conjecture can be found from Malthusian Doctrine to Global Warming to Peak Oil.

Enter the combination of horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing.

It makes one wonder how long the antifrackers will play the part of Don Quixote and how much damage they will do tilting at our windmills.

WSJ...

The U.S. is in the midst of an energy revolution, and we don't mean solar panels or wind turbines. A new gusher of natural gas from shale has the potential to transform U.S. energy production—that is, unless politicians, greens and the industry mess it up.

...

The resulting boom is transforming America's energy landscape. As recently as 2000, shale gas was 1% of America's gas supplies; today it is 25%. Prior to the shale breakthrough, U.S. natural gas reserves were in decline, prices exceeded $15 per million British thermal units, and investors were building ports to import liquid natural gas. Today, proven reserves are the highest since 1971, prices have fallen close to $4 and ports are being retrofitted for LNG exports.

Of concern to our Greensboro NC. artists, writers and others wowed by "burning water"...

Fracking contaminates drinking water. One claim is that fracking creates cracks in rock formations that allow chemicals to leach into sources of fresh water. The problem with this argument is that the average shale formation is thousands of feet underground, while the average drinking well or aquifer is a few hundred feet deep. Separating the two is solid rock. This geological reality explains why EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, a determined enemy of fossil fuels, recently told Congress that there have been no "proven cases where the fracking process itself has affected water."

A second charge, based on a Duke University study, claims that fracking has polluted drinking water with methane gas. Methane is naturally occurring and isn't by itself harmful in drinking water, though it can explode at high concentrations. Duke authors Rob Jackson and Avner Vengosh have written that their research shows "the average methane concentration to be 17 times higher in water wells located within a kilometer of active drilling sites."

They failed to note that researchers sampled a mere 68 wells across Pennsylvania and New York—where more than 20,000 water wells are drilled annually. They had no baseline data and thus no way of knowing if methane concentrations were high prior to drilling. They also acknowledged that methane was detected in 85% of the wells they tested, regardless of drilling operations, and that they'd found no trace of fracking fluids in any wells.

There is much more at the link.



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Frackers Tilting at Windmills...

polifrog



It is easy to discount innovation as it resides in a human blind spot, the future, and for that reason economists and scientists alike, unable to measure it, discount it.

Just as the unknown gives rise to superstition, the immeasurably of the future gives rise to science's equivalent ... conjecture.

Of course, the future always arrives with technology in hand and the carcasses of conjecture can be found from Malthusian Doctrine to Global Warming to Peak Oil.

Salon:

Are we living at the beginning of the Age of Fossil Fuels, not its final decades? The very thought goes against everything that politicians and the educated public have been taught to believe in the past generation. According to the conventional wisdom, the U.S. and other industrial nations must undertake a rapid and expensive transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy for three reasons: The imminent depletion of fossil fuels, national security and the danger of global warming.

What if the conventional wisdom about the energy future of America and the world has been completely wrong? …

If gas hydrates as well as shale gas, tight oil, oil sands and other unconventional sources can be tapped at reasonable cost, then the global energy picture looks radically different than it did only a few years ago. Suddenly it appears that there may be enough accessible hydrocarbons to power industrial civilization for centuries, if not millennia, to come.

So much for the specter of depletion, as a reason to adopt renewable energy technologies like solar power and wind power. Whatever may be the case with Peak Oil in particular, the date of Peak Fossil Fuels has been pushed indefinitely into the future. What about national security as a reason to switch to renewable energy?

The U.S., Canada and Mexico, it turns out, are sitting on oceans of recoverable natural gas. Shale gas is combined with recoverable oil in the Bakken “play” along the U.S.-Canadian border and the Eagle Ford play in Texas. The shale gas reserves of China turn out to be enormous, too. Other countries with now-accessible natural gas reserves, according to the U.S. government, include Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, France, Poland and India.

It makes one wonder how long the antifrackers will play the part of Don Quixote and how much damage they will do tilting at our windmills.



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