{"id":34808,"date":"2012-01-08T21:54:27","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T04:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=34808"},"modified":"2012-01-08T21:54:29","modified_gmt":"2012-01-09T04:54:29","slug":"fracking-is-essential-to-our-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/01\/fracking-is-essential-to-our-future\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Fracking’ is essential to our future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thomas<\/a>

Thomas Molitor<\/p><\/div>\n

Mora County Commissioner John Olivas wants a ban on oil and gas drilling<\/a> in his county because he is concerned about the environmental impact of a drilling process used to extract tight shale gas named hydraulic fracturing<\/a> \u2013 or \u201cfracking\u201d as it is colloquially called.<\/p>\n

Mora County is not alone in its concern about fracking. Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and San Miguel counties have halted or discouraged drilling and fracking with ordinances and moratoriums.<\/p>\n

In a hydraulic fracturing job, \u201cfracturing fluids\u201d or \u201cpumping fluids\u201d consisting primarily of water and sand are injected under high pressure into the producing formation, creating fissures that allow resources to move freely from rock pores where it is trapped.<\/p>\n

Typically, steel pipe known as surface casing is cemented into place at the uppermost portion of a well for the explicit purpose of protecting the groundwater.<\/p>\n

In 2004, the EPA concluded<\/a>, \u201cthe injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids into coal-bed methane wells pose little or no threat to underground drinking water.\u201d However, last month the EPA announced<\/a>\u00a0for the first time that fracking may be to blame for groundwater pollution.<\/p>\n

The EPA found that compounds likely associated with fracking chemicals had been detected in the groundwater beneath Pavillion, a small community in central Wyoming. The EPA emphasized that the findings are specific to the Pavillion area. The agency said that fracking that occurred in Pavillion differed from fracking methods used elsewhere in regions with different geological characteristics.<\/p>\n

A deceitful movie<\/h3>\n

So why are county commissioners in New Mexico jumping on the \u201cban wagon?\u201d\u00a0Maybe they have been watching too many Michael Moore-like documentaries on Netflix. An Oscar-nominated documentary, \u201cGasland,\u201d<\/a> says fracking contaminates our water supply with chemicals. In the movie, some homeowners set their tap water on fire.<\/p>\n

The movie got a lot of attention (maybe Commissioner Olivas\u2019?), but the movie\u2019s arguments against fracking turn out to be deceitful.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the dramatic tap water blaze had little to do with fracking. In many parts of America, there is enough methane in the ground to leak into people\u2019s well water. The best fire scene in the movie was shot in Colorado, where the filmmaker is in the kitchen of a man who lights his faucet.<\/p>\n

But Colorado investigators went to the man\u2019s house, checked out his well and found that fracking had nothing to do with his water catching fire. His well-digger had drilled into a naturally occurring methane pocket. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), which is overseen by the Department of Natural Resources in Colorado, made this report<\/a>\u00a0investigating the claims made by the Gasland filmmakers.<\/p>\n

Gasland features three Weld County landowners, Mike Markham, Renee McClure, and Aimee Ellsworth, whose water wells were allegedly contaminated by oil and gas development. The COGCC investigated complaints from all three landowners in 2008 and 2009. The COGCC concluded that Aimee Elllsworth’s well contained a mixture of biogenic and thermogenic methane that was in part attributable to oil and gas development, and Ms. Ellsworth and an operator reached a settlement in that case. However, using the same investigative techniques, the COGCC concluded that Mike Markham’s and Renee McClure’s wells contained bi0genic gas that was not related to oil and gas activity. Unfortunately, Gasland does not mention the McClure finding and dismisses the Markham finding out of hand.<\/p>\n

So the Tower of Babel stretches high on this issue of whether fracking is the devil incarnate or just needs professional oversight to continue exploring a possible game-changer for America to break its dependance on unfriendly foreign fossil fuel sources.<\/p>\n

Fracking in New Mexico<\/h3>\n

Fracking was used as far back as the 1860s to access oil and gas reserves. \u201cIn New Mexico, the majority of the 52,000 oil and gas wells in production have undergone fracturing,\u201d according to the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.<\/p>\n

In early August of 2011, the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association took a pre-emptive step and asked the state to require companies to disclose fluids 45 days after a well is complete. The information must be posted on a new public website called FracFocus<\/a> or submitted in writing to the Oil Conservation Division.<\/p>\n

\u201cFracking is the key to increased domestic production,\u201d says Steve Henke, executive director of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association. \u201cWithout this tool, many of these unconventional shale formations become uneconomical to drill.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Big Picture<\/h3>\n

The world\u2019s centers of gravity for hydrocarbons are spreading out from the Middle East. And the reason is new exploitation of \u201cunconventional sources\u201d such as shale. Within the oil and gas industry, this new output is called the \u201cshale gale.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not overstating the case to say that unconventional hydrocarbons have shifted the world\u2019s energy balance of power. The \u201cshale gale\u201d has spread the wealth around. Vast volumes of hydrocarbons are not just Middle Eastern plays anymore.<\/p>\n

This shift has been enabled by new technology \u2013 revolutionary, really. Across the world, we\u2019ve seen vast, stunning improvements in applied mathematics and computational abilities. Just on that basis along, today\u2019s energy industry works with much-better exploration tools than in the past \u2013 better seismic and geochemistry.<\/p>\n

Then there are new dramatically improved capabilities in directional drilling, with better drill bits and better fluids. After the holes are drilled, there\u2019s fracking. The modern energy industry has more powerful pumps, more control of down-hole pressures and even better nanomaterials for holding the cracks open in the fractured shale and other tight rocks. What\u2019s more, there are better post-completion treatments.<\/p>\n

Here in the United States, the shale gale has eliminated the need for liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, likely for several decades and perhaps longer. In addition, the shale gale has the potential to significantly reduce Russia\u2019s influence over the European natural gas market. At the same time, the shale gale will dramatically diminish the \u201cpetro power\u201d of other major OPEC players, such as Iran and Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Fracking is important to New Mexico<\/h3>\n

Fracking plays a very important role in energy production nationally and in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

A recent report from the American Petroleum Institute concluded that if Congress were to place additional federal regulations that govern the oil and gas industry practice of fracking, the number of new U.S. wells drilled would plummet 20.5 percent over a five-year period.<\/p>\n

The study also concluded that elimination of the use of fracking would be catastrophic to the development of American natural gas and oil, with a 79 percent drop in well completions, resulting in a 45 percent reduction in natural gas production and a 17 percent reduction in oil production by 2014.<\/p>\n

The oil and gas industry provides significant revenues to the State of New Mexico and local municipalities. For fiscal 2010, oil and gas revenue payments in the form of taxes, royalties and other revenues totaled nearly $2.2 billion. That represents a 27 percent contribution to the state\u2019s general fund.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s up to the energy industry here in New Mexico to keep pressing its efforts to move ahead with new technology and improved internal controls.<\/p>\n

While at the same time, it\u2019s up to the policymakers of New Mexico to keep up on those latest technological and safety improvements in the industry in order to be better-informed about an industry that is of such vital importance to the revenue and energy development of New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Natural gas is not risk-free, but no energy source is. Perfect, Commissioner Olivas, is not one of the choices.<\/p>\n

Thomas Molitor is a regulatory analyst with the American Action Forum in Washington D.C.\u00a0<\/em>You can reach him at\u00a0tgmolitor@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fracking plays a very important role in energy production nationally and in New Mexico. Natural gas is not risk-free, but no energy source is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,1],"tags":[119,147],"class_list":["post-34808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-molitor-columns","category-uncategorized","tag-energy-policy","tag-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}