The shale gas industry continues to reel under the unrelenting economic realities of today’s price for natural gas from their own self-inflicted mad rush to get as much shale gas out of the ground as possible over the last 5 years. Now this is resulting in major shale gas asset write offs. Incredibly some here in Pennsylvania now believe the answers lie in yet more taxpayer dollars to drive demand under Senator Bob Casey’s “STATE Natural Gas Act” to mandate more use of natural gas while Gov. Corbett vows to fight on for PA ACT 13 provisions to strip local townships of their ability to enact zoning restrictions against shale gas drilling in their local municipalities.
Even discounting the horrendous environmental impacts and solely looking at the fiscal returns of shale gas operations, I have never been able to fathom its business case as an individual entity. High start up costs, short production time due to dramatic decline rates and the creation of a gas glut causing the price to fall does not sound like a sound business proposition.
(There again, some of the extremely dodgy investments that banks have foisted upon the general public and small businesses in a boilerhouse scam style operations also weren't sound propositions, either)
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools - Douglas Adams.
I think your comment in brackets nails it, r-b. It's all to do with making money. It seems like nothing has anything to do with public good any more.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
emordnilap wrote:I think your comment in brackets nails it, r-b. It's all to do with making money. It seems like nothing has anything to do with public good any more.
Although I'm struggling to understand how poisoning water supplies to get around 2 years' production of fracked gas (if the gas co is lucky) has got anything to do with the public good...
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools - Douglas Adams.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
DECC wishes to gain a well-balanced and analytically robust view of the prospects for unconventional gas production taking into account a wide range of sources. The successful bidder would be expected to provide a quantitative assessment of global prospects
for unconventional gas production over the next 20 years. The winning bidder will be expected to provide a robust quantitative assessment of the implications of unconventional gas production on UK wholesale gas prices (NBP) consistent with the view of production.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
I was under the niave belief that DECC's job WAS to provide 'a well-balanced and analytically robust view of the prospects for unconventional gas production ' among other things.
If this job is being put out to tender, won't they get the answer they want to hear? Who, other than the oil and gas industry, or affiliated academic groups, is going to tender for this work and be accepted?
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Heath Aston, Sydney Morning Herald, September 30th 2012
How far would a mining company go to keep track of its opponents? About 2500 kilometres might be the answer.
That's the distance travelled across America by executives of the coal seam gas giant Santos who arrived at an isolated ranch in Wyoming just a week after the NSW Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham.
Mr Buckingham, a mining opponent, believes he was trailed across the US. But Santos insists it was pure coincidence that its fact-finding team of two visited the same property in Pavillion, Wyoming, population 231, in the heart of Brokeback Mountain country.
Note that the decision to assess health impacts in New York state occurred just before the Canadian state of New Brunswick's decision, following a public outcry, to finally release the state chief environmental health officer's health impact report which the state governor had previously wanted to keep secret -- http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot ... eport.html
Shift by Cuomo on Gas Drilling Prompts Both Anger and Praise
Danny Hakim, New York Times, 30th September 2012
A few months after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was poised to approve hydraulic fracturing in several struggling New York counties, his administration is reversing course and starting the regulatory process over, garnering praise from environmental groups and stirring anger among industry executives and upstate landowners.
Ten days ago, after nearly four years of review by state regulators, the governor bowed to entreaties from environmentalists to conduct another study, this one an examination of potential impacts on public health. Neither the governor nor other state officials have given any indication of how long the study might take.
Then on Friday, state environmental officials said they would restart the regulatory rule-making process, requiring them to repeat a number of formal steps, including holding a public hearing, and almost certainly pushing a decision into next year.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change certainly hopes to live up to its name.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
