Posts Tagged by fracking
Don’t Miss This Article on Natural Gas Fracking
| October 21, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
For those interested in keeping up with the debate on natural gas fracking, here’s a terrific article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Perhaps most disturbing is the underlying message: it’s impossible to know whom and what to believe.
Natural Gas Prices Present Interesting Challenges for Renewable Energy
| June 22, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels, Renewables - Business |
It’s clear that the abundant supply of (and thus low price of) natural gas presents challenges for the renewable energy industry, just as the artificially low price of gasoline generated by subsidies for the oil companies creates a challenge for electric transportation. But you won’t hear too much moaning about that subject here at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum.
Occasionally a speaker will remind the audience that fracking comes at an environmental cost that is still not well understood, but in the main, the subject is taken as just another factor in the overall equation. Why this calm demeanor in the face of such robust competition? I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s that intelligent and mature people don’t curse their luck. Maybe we’re just trying to be “the adult in the room.”
In fact, several times I’ve heard that this phenomenon with natural gas is actually a good thing for clean energy, as it represents the “perfect partner” for renewables — a low-cost provider of energy to deal with the intermittence of wind and solar. But to me, this seems like “sour grapes” in reverse, i.e., we’re stuck with this; let’s find a way to like it.
All of us who follow and advocate for clean energy acknowledge that it is, at the end of the day, a considerable challenge on several levels: technologically, economically, and politically. Even putting aside the politics of the situation, which is clearly not on our side, we still need to face the fact that renewable energy is replacing something that works perfectly well. The lights generally don’t go out, and the cost of energy, at least as the externalities of fossil fuels remain external to its cost/price structure, is quite affordable. Thus until the world is willing to pay for a clean solution to the energy situation that is good for national security, no one here is expecting a precipitous adoption curve — at least until the point of grid parity in a few years.
My advice: Fasten your seatbelt and settle in for a long ride.
New York Times: Let’s Pretend Renewable Energy Doesn’t Even Exist
| March 26, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
I just learned something quite valuable. To my astonishment, it’s possible for credible journalists to discuss the dangers of nuclear power and the relative safety of natural gas, going on at length about the world energy situation, without once mentioning solar, wind, and biomass. Until I read the above-linked article in the New York Times, I would have said that simply couldn’t happen in the year 2011.
Of course, one question is how safe natural gas actually is, given that its extraction relies on hydraulic fracturing of the bedrock in the Earth’s crust. As journalist Marie Baca notes in her response to the Times article: “What about the concerns that hydraulic fracturing can mobilize radioactive material in bedrock? Or the documented cases of methane migration? Or the San Bruno disaster, anyone? Any of these worth mentioning, maybe?”
But again, the most shocking thing about the piece is its blatent ignoring of the alternatives that truly are safe. Most of the rest of the world is moving quickly toward clean energy. Not only are we refusing to play a leadership (or even an effective followership) role here, some of us, apparently, would like to pretend it doesn’t exist.
US Policy on Clean Energy – The Road Not Taken?
| June 29, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
A friend from the UK asked for my take on a new Swiss movie on Jimmy Carter’s efforts to reduce the United States’ dependence on oil at the end of the 1970s. He points out, “I am sure it will not be well known in the States. Perhaps it should be.”
The movie in question, “The Road Not Taken,” is a documentary centering around President Jimmy Carter’s having a series of solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. At the time, he told the crowd gathered to mark the installation of the new units:
“A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people – harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”
A few years later, President Ronald Reagan famously had the solar panels removed.
I wrote back:
In my mind, there is no doubt that the conversation, mute as it is in the US, has already added luster to Carter’s star and, I suppose, some tarnish to Reagan’s. But I’m more interested to know what this means in terms of the future. We’re still subsidizing fossil fuels. There are still 7000 lobbyists cruising around the Beltway influencing lawmakers to ensure that that oil, coal, and gas remain at the core of our energy future until the last drop of crude is sucked out of the Earth, we’ve ripped the top off the last mountain, and fracked the planet’s crust to smithereens.
Having said that, there are hundreds of lively discussions in the blogosphere every day about the R&D for clean energy. Bill Gates’ 2010 TED talk is getting some very good distribution. Perhaps this stark dichotomy between these two US presidents and the concept of the “road not taken” will be viewed as an iconic piece of US history — and perhaps it can be spun into the idea that “it’s not too late to get back on the right road.”
We can hope.
NOW on PBS – Fracking, Natural Gas, and Renewable Energy
| March 28, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
If you happen to be home on a Friday night, you’ll find it a great time to watch PBS, with its weekly programs: Washington Week, NOW, and Bill Moyers Journal. Generally, I think these programs depict the world fairly, and make an honest attempt to inform viewers in an objective and unbiased manner.
Yet I took exception to David Brancaccio’s NOW this week, in its gross oversimplication of the migration to renewables. In an attempt to inflame the viewer about the dangers of fracking (hydraulic fracturing, injecting water and chemicals deep underground to pry out gas locked away in tight spaces), the show told its views flatly, “We have renewable energy technology right now.”
At a certain level, this, of course, is true; there are a dozen or so clean energy technologies that are quite functional. But without context, this statement is horribly misleading. Sure we have the technology now, but there are hundreds of issues that many thousands of people are diligently working on — that will ultimately enable renewables to be deployed in an economically, legally, and ecologically sound way. As a friend of mine is fond of saying, “There’s plenty of clean energy if you don’t care how much you pay for it.”
If you want to stir up viewers, David, I would urge you to find a way to do so without feeding them a load of half-truths. I would say that to anyone — but especially to a man with a well-educated audience that can deal quite ably with the complete set of facts.
