Crossing the Bridge

In my last post, I discussed hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. Many within the oil & gas industry, as well as some scientists, have pointed to natural gas as a "bridge fuel" that can help transition our dependence on dirtier fossil fuels (such as coal and oil) to clean, renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.). This is because natural gas burns in a way that puts less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than oil and coal do.

Taken at face value, that statement makes natural gas a shoe-in for a cleaner energy future.
As is usually the case, the issue is far more complex than that. Natural gas has a high level of methane, which is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Bringing natural gas to the surface for energy consumption opens up the chances for methane to leak into the atmosphere and become a major contributor to global warming. While burning natural gas may prevent methane from getting into the atmosphere, it still emits the by-product of carbon dioxide. There may be less carbon dioxide percentage-wise than burning an equivalent amount of coal, but it is still putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Recent studies have highlighted the risks of methane leaks from the natural gas infrastructure in America. Additionally, researchers have found that the process of obtaining natural gas, in particular "shale gas", is very energy intensive, and may actually decrease the overall "clean" benefits of natural gas. For example, hydraulic fracturing uses millions of gallons of water per instance of fracking, and a single well may be fracked many times. Water must be obtained and is usually trucked in from an off-site source. To construct a well, obtain water & chemicals for fracking, pump the water, and then remove the wastewater that is produced requires over 13,000 round-trip tractor-trailer truck visits. Most of these trucks use conventional diesel fuel, which is a dirty fuel, so local emissions of greenhouse gases rise when shale gas productions begins.

I want to re-iterate that I am not completely opposed to hydraulic fracturing, nor am I opposed to the use of natural gas. It's use is far better than that of regular gasoline or diesel fuel in vehicles and much cleaner than coal-fired power plants. My goal in writing this post is to make the general public aware of the faults that shale gas has. It is not completely clean and it is certainly not renewable. While it's likely that natural gas will be a major bridge fuel for the foreseeable future, I don't think we need to fall for industry claims that natural gas is our savior in the energy realm. We as consumers should be pressing for more viable options and for the continued expansion of the truly clean renewables, not settling for the least bad fossil fuel.

Water Supply and Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic fracturing is still quite a hot topic. While a great deal of public and grassroots furor has been made over its use in the United States, the practice still continues and is even spreading overseas. Many nations in Europe would like to give it a try, especially the UK. For me, the issue is not so much the fact that fracking is occurring. It is that there is a great lack of regulations over the industry here in the United States and a general lack of scientific understanding about its effects on the environment.

Natural gas is highly sought after, and it has the potential of being a "bridge fuel" away from dirtier fossil fuels and toward clean, renewable sources of energy. That particular statement is also a hot topic right now and I will explore this further in a different blog. Currently the demand both by consumers and producers means that hydrofracking will be with us for a while. Where it is done and how it is done is what we need to focus on.

A little more than a year ago, I researched the scientific evidence about water usage and hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale (a large geologic formation under the northeastern states). This is one of the major issues I am concerned with. Scientific evidence was lacking regarding the actual process of hydrofracking on water supply, but the evidence is plentiful about the effects on the water supply and that regulations are not effective enough at containing subsurface or surface pollution of drinking water supplies. I produced an informational poster for a course during my Master's program that highlighted the issue surrounding water and hydraulic fracturing. The poster details the problems of water consumption during hydraulic fracturing, loss of water from the total water supply, containment problems of polluted water, etc. The challenges are real, but something can be done about it. I present the poster here (you may have to zoom in to read the small print) so that readers can become informed about the real, scientific issues regarding this process.