"Shale gas boom has benefits and risks; Lower energy costs welcomed, but harm to environment feared" by Erin Ailworth |
Globe Staff
April 29, 2012
A proposal to expand a major local pipeline could bring
cheap, plentiful supplies of natural gas to New England from Northeast
shale formations, but it also thrusts the region into a raging debate
that pits economics against environment, industry against community, and
sometimes neighbor against neighbor.
The focus is often on a controversial technique, known as fracking,
that pumps chemical-laced, pressurized water deep into the earth to
unlock natural gas trapped by shale rock. The technology has helped
bring jobs, businesses, and money to poorer communities that desperately
need it in places like western Pennsylvania.
At what cost?
But drilling has also disrupted rural ways of life and been blamed
for polluting air and water. In Dimock, Pa., a community of about 1,400
in the Susquehanna River Valley, Julie and Craig Sautner have been
forced to truck water to their 3.7-acre property for more than three
years, since their well became polluted with methane, iron, uranium,
aluminum, and other substances. They blame it on nearby gas drilling.
“We’re sick and tired of it,’’ said Craig Sautner. “I came home one
night and the water was all cloudy. There it was, you could see it in
the glass. It looked like white smoke swirling around.’’
Bottoms up!
The opening of shale gas fields in recent years has changed the
energy equation for the United States, providing cheap supplies to feed
its hunger for energy. Natural gas prices are at their lowest point in a
decade, contributing to lower heating and electricity bills, and
supporting the nation’s recovery.
For New England, the proximity to abundant natural gas in the
Northeast could reduce one of the greatest disadvantages for the
region’s economy: high energy costs. The Marcellus, a shale formation
stretching beneath a half-dozen Northeastern states, including
Pennsylvania and New York, is estimated to hold nearly one-third of the
nation’s shale gas reserves.
That has led Spectra Energy Corp. of Houston to propose expanding
parts of the 1,120-mile Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline that serves
New England. US Representative Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat and
ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, called access
to such a nearby source of energy “one of the single biggest issues in
21st-century New England’s history.’’
“It’s going to potentially transform our ability to compete in
manufacturing, the price that people will pay to heat their homes,’’
Markey said. “It is a very good thing for our economy, for our
consumers, for our environment - as long as the price is paid upfront to
ensure that methane does not leak into the atmosphere, that the water
is not contaminated.’’
This guy is supposed to be one of the lead greens in Congress.
Environmental concerns often center around the drilling process. One
particular technique, called hydraulic fracturing - the formal name for
fracking - has become the flashpoint for protesters. It uses large
amounts of pressurized water, mixed with sand and a cocktail of
chemicals, to crack densely-packed shale rock to release trapped gas.
The water, and later the gas, must travel thousands of feet in
cement- and steel-encased wells, and through the water table to the
surface. If these wells are not constructed or operated properly,
chemicals and gas can seep into groundwater or escape into the air.
At Craig Sautner’s home, drinking water from his well tarnished
silverware and left laundry with a funny smell. It sometimes made his
family woozy or caused rashes. A YouTube video, posted last month, shows
him lighting a jug of the water on fire.
Okay, I'M CONVINCED!
“They keep on saying there’s nothing wrong with the water,’’ he said.
They aren't the ones having to drink and bathe in it, are they?
Industry has struggled against such perceptions. In an effort to be
more transparent, many companies are disclosing the chemicals used in
fracking on websites like FracFocus.org.
“The biggest challenge we have now is helping people understand that
the process has been used safely over a million times,’’ said Kathryn
Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an association of
drilling and related companies with 300 members. “Nine out of 10 onshore
oil and gas wells in the US have been developed with hydraulic
fracturing technology.’’
Yeah, poor, misunderstood industry.
Some communities welcome drilling. In Lycoming County, Pa., which
includes South Williamsport, home of the Little League World Series, the
economy has boomed in the past three or four years, with drilling
helping to bring an estimated 2,000 jobs, said Vincent Matteo, head of
the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce.
In that same period, more than 100 new businesses opened, including
hotels, to serve the influx of workers from gas production companies
such as Anadarko Petroleum Corp. of Houston and Range Resources Corp. of
Fort Worth. In 2010, the most recent year available, Williamsport was
the seventh fastest growing metropolitan area in the nation, according
to the US Department of Commerce.
Last year, the county’s average annual unemployment rate dropped more than a percentage point to 7.7 percent.
“I’ve been in economic development 31 years and I’ve seen good times
and bad times,’’ Matteo said, but “I’ve never seen anything like this on
the good side.’’
Yeah, to hell with your health and the health of your children. Let the good time$ roll!
Many communities, however, remain divided over drilling. In
Milanville, Pa., a community of about 500 along the Delaware River, the
debate has created rifts among longtime neighbors, many of whose
families have owned their properties since they were granted by the
state’s founder, William Penn.
Some see drilling as a way to cash in, others worry it will disrupt
their lives and ruin the environment. Only test wells have been drilled
in the area, but tensions are rising, said Grady Avant, a Milanville
resident and fracking opponent.
“Every year, there are just more and more signs, ‘Stop fracking,’ ’’
said Avant, a founding board member of FrackAlert, a group that lobbies
against drilling. “It’s already changed things socially, pitting
neighbor against neighbor.’’
And when you are fighting with your neighbor forces above you can operate with a free hand.
In Dryden, N.Y., a town inhabited by dairy farmers and commuters to
Cornell University in Ithaca, a drilling ban was instituted last year
after local leaders decided the community wasn’t prepared for changes
the gas industry might bring - especially after witnessing the impact in
Pennsylvania communities.
“Truck traffic, the out-of-town workers, the pressure on housing
prices,’’ said Town Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner, “there were just too
many things for us to feel like we could get a grip on it quickly enough
to feel safe.’’
Gee, what kind of crazies would turn down a jobs-producing, economy-growing gas well? Or nuclear plant? Or casino?
Such debates are only expected to continue as state, local, and
national policy makers work to balance the benefits of cheap, abundant
energy against the risks to air, water, and community.
Why can't we have both?
The
Environmental Protection Agency has been in the middle of those
difficult negotiations, and earlier this month announced new rules
designed to cut harmful gases released through fracking by 95 percent,
while also giving the drilling industry a grace period until 2015 to
develop the technology needed to meet the new emissions goal. Both
environmentalists and industry offered praise for the balance struck in
the new rules.
Some shale gas is already making its way into New England to heat
homes, power factories, and generate electricity. More is likely to
come. As it does, lawmakers, policy makers, and environmental advocates
say the region can’t ignore the debate over drilling and its impact.
“Shale gas is in Massachusetts,’’ said Mark Brownstein, chief
counsel of the energy program at the Environmental Defense Fund, an
advocacy group. “It is in all our homes. The fundamental question is how
do we make sure that as shale gas is being produced, the public health
and the environment are not endangered?’’
When controlled-opposition environmentalists are behind this thing you know you are being drilled.
--more--"
Related:
"Enlarged natural gas pipe proposed for N.E." April 25, 2012|Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff
A
Houston pipeline company has begun exploring the expansion of a major
regional pipeline to bring abundant supplies of natural gas to New
England from nearby shale formations, a move that could help lower
heating and electricity costs here.
Spectra Energy Corp. estimates
that increasing pipeline capacity in Southern New England by about 15
percent would save gas and electric customers - including roughly 3
million in Massachusetts - up to $651 million a year. It would allow the
area to further benefit from the boom in natural gas production in
Pennsylvania and New York....
--more--"
Also see: What the Frack?
Boston Globe Bathroom Break
Yeah, who cares if it causes earthquakes and the water taste like shit?
