Bloomberg reports that fracking is being adversely affected by tariffs and lower-cost alternative sources. The Bloomberg article is behind a paywall, but the take-away is clear. Fracking isn’t thriving with the glut of gas. Yet energy producers refuse to leave it in the ground.
Fossil energy is expensive to produce even with fracking, and that production cost does not include pricing in the costs and damage from burning it as fuel or making it into plastics.
It’s evil. It’s IBG/YBG. . . the attitude that says, “I’ll be gone and you’ll be gone,” so we needn’t worry about long-term consequences. Enjoy the money, exploit the moment, “Devil take the hindmost. I don’t have to outrun the ravenous bear; just be a bit faster than you.
Sidebar: Does it honor out nation’s flag to display it over a symbol of environmental ruin? Most of us are not proud of our reliance addiction to fossil fuels. We don’t think it’s remotely patriotic or civic-minded to permit these depredations.
Here is an online tool to help you know and understand the threats present in the air and water at fracking sites.
Energy companies and those who enable their environmental damage downplay the effects of toxic substances in produced water and releases of vapor and gas into the atmosphere. Nothing that happens around fracking improves the environment or the health of those exposed.
LNG increases health risks by supporting additional wells and production. But it also brings added risks of its own. Leaks and flares produce hazards for the locals. (You knew these facilities would not improve the air or safety of the neighborhood, didn’t you?) And having large volumes of gas under extreme pressure in huge spherical tanks . . . what could possibly go wrong? What mischief could a rogue band of terrorists make?
There is a special word that experts use to describe the hazard: “BLEV.” Here’s what you get when you Google the word:
- Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE):This refers to a specific type of explosion characterized by the rapid vaporization of a liquid due to a sudden pressure drop.
- Mechanism:When a vessel containing a pressurized liquid, like propane or another chemical, is heated to a temperature exceeding its boiling point at normal atmospheric pressure, the liquid inside becomes superheated. If the vessel ruptures, the pressure inside drops suddenly, causing the superheated liquid to flash into vapor.
- Consequences:This rapid vaporization leads to a significant expansion of volume, generating a powerful explosion. The explosion can be accompanied by a large fireball, blast waves, and the projection of debris from the ruptured vessel.
- Danger:BLEVEs are extremely dangerous, posing risks of injury, death, and significant property damage.
If the explosion is preceded by leaked gas that spreads through the neighborhood, mixing with air, the horrendous effects are multiplied because the explosive gas/air mix is everywhere, and the explosion envelops everything. With LNG tanks, the amount of stored energy is vast, and the radiated heat from the expanding fireball sears and ignites everything that can burn. Read more here.
How many of the politicians and investors who seek LNG terminals want to live near one?
(I hear only the crickets.)
Managers have a practice of arranging a set of benchmark statistics into a “dashboard” to have a way to provide critical performance information at a glance. Tracking benchmarks is an early warning system for emerging problems. This article discusses monitoring such a dashboard for those who drill for oil and gas.
There are thousands of “Notices of Apparent Violation” or NOVs. Pennsylvania is not known for being strict or strong on enforcement action. This record speaks volumes about the Energy Industry and lack of Stewardship.
Injection wells are blamed for small earthquakes and, if not done right, the waste water can migrate to the aquifer. The injection well itself is a puncture of the layers of strata that would otherwise isolate the aquifer from the nasty stuff in the fracked layers below. The energy industry thinks it has the right to put produced wastewater back into a frack hole they don’t use for production. What could possibly go wrong?
LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) makes it possible to transport large quantities of fossil energy to foreign countries that want to make plastic or burn it as fuel. Neither of these uses is kind to Mother Earth.
Solution: Keep it in the ground.