I'm struggling to get anything out, although when you find out who gets stuck with the bill you will be ready to s***.
"Insiders sound alarm on natural gas rush; Documents, data analysis counter rosy forecasts" by Ian Urbina, New York Times / June 26, 2011
NEW YORK — Natural gas companies have been placing enormous bets on the wells they are drilling, saying they will deliver big profits and provide a vast new source of energy for the United States.
But the gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells.
In the e-mails, energy executives, industry lawyers, state geologists, and market analysts voice skepticism about lofty forecasts and question whether companies are intentionally, and even illegally, overstating the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves.
Many of these e-mails also suggest a view that is in stark contrast to more bullish public comments made by the industry, in much the same way that insiders have raised doubts about previous financial bubbles.
“Money is pouring in’’ from investors even though shale gas is “inherently unprofitable,’’ an analyst from PNC Wealth Management, an investment company, wrote to a contractor in a February e-mail. “Reminds you of dot-coms.’’
“The word in the world of independents is that the shale plays are just giant Ponzi schemes and the economics just do not work,’’ an analyst from IHS Drilling Data, an energy research company, wrote in an e-mail on Aug. 28, 2009....
If the industry does not live up to expectations, the impact will be felt widely. Federal and state lawmakers are considering drastically increasing subsidies for the natural gas business in the hope that it will provide low-cost energy for decades to come.
That is what they are THROWING TAX MONEY AWAY ON as they CUT SCHOOLS and HEALTH!
And I'll just the government regulators are cozy with industry!
But if natural gas ultimately proves more expensive to extract from the ground than has been predicted, landowners, investors, and lenders could see their investments falter, while consumers will pay a price in higher electricity and home heating bills.
Yeah, I NOTICE WE ARE ALWAYS PAYING the PRICE!!!!
There are implications for the environment, too. The technology used to get gas flowing out of the ground — called hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking — can require over a million gallons of water per well, and some of that water must be disposed of because it becomes contaminated by the process.
Are you thirsty, readers?
See: Sunday Globe Special: Bubbles in the Bathtub
Just what we need, more radioactive and poisoned ground water while encouraging earthquakes -- funded by taxpayers!
If shale gas wells fade faster than expected, energy companies will have to drill more wells or hydrofrack them more often, resulting in more toxic waste.
The e-mails were obtained through open-records requests or provided to The New York Times by industry consultants and analysts who say they believe that the public perception of shale gas does not match reality....
It seldom does here in AmeriKa.
:-(
In the e-mails, some people within the industry voice grave concerns.
Then government and industry really ought to listen.
--more--"
I may be a while, readers.
