Updated Outline for First Section

Here is the (hopefully) final outline for my section of the paper.

EPA Fracking Study Plan Draft

The EPA (in typical government fashion) still has not completed a study on fracking and its effect on water supplies. They do, however, have a plan for an initial study that will be completed by 2012. I found it most useful for its description of the fracking process as well as the types and locations of uncvonventional natural gas fields that fracking is used in. It deals extensively with the environmental impact of fracking, but its unfinished nature may make it difficult to use as a resource on that subject.

EPA Study Plan

NYT Article on Fracking

Here's a NYT article on fracking for shale oil. It is extremely bullish on the issue and only briefly mentions possible environmental hazards. It gives a very good look at the economic possibilities that fracking opens up. Companies estimate that the boom this fracking will set off will add two million new jobs, and bring tens of billions of dollars to the states where the fields are located (one of which is Ohio). It also brings up the possibility of increased energy independence. Yergin is quoted as saying that "this is like adding another Venezuela or Kuwait by 2020, except these tight oil fields are in the United States."

Shale Boom in Texas Could Increase U.S. Oil Output

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

CATARINA, Tex. — Until last year, the 17-mile stretch of road between this forsaken South Texas village and the county seat of Carrizo Springs was a patchwork of derelict gasoline stations and rusting warehouses.

OOGA Presentation

The link below will take you to the Ohio Oil and Natural Gas presentation

http://www.umich.edu/~twod/oil_osu/ooga_fracking_interview_may11.pdf

outline for section 2 of report

My section of the report covers the question, 'Is fracking safe?' which is a more complicated question than it sounds because of the various methodologies that are all used in fracking processes in different situations. Here's a basic outline of what my report will cover:

YERGIN CHAPTER 35 -- JUST ANOTHER COMMODITY?

The oil boom exceeded all previous booms in size, moving vast sums of money from consumer to producer countries. The oil price boom was accompanied by a boom in the price of real estate, drilling crews, geology majors, geologists. There was a general belief that the world was entering a period to be characterized by dwindling oil stocks and ever-higher prices. Shale oil technology became a popular avenue for seeking new oil supplies. As oil price and demand dropped, shale oil became non-viable. Ghost towns appeared where previous oil shale development had been going on.

CHAPTER 34 OUTLINE -- WE'RE GOING DOWN

Chapter 34 is entitled, 'We're going down.'

In a youth revolt, sixty-three American embassy workers in Iran were taken hostage. Thirteen were quickly released, but the remaining fifty were the subject of a drawn-out international affair.

The hostage takers were upset that the US had accepted the Shah into the country for treatment for his leukemia. The US attempted to conceal his presence but word quickly got out. Iranian authorities demanded that the Shah be handed over to them for examination to see whether he was faking his illness.

Yergin Chapter 33 Outline

Chapter 33 is entitled 'The Second Shock: The Great Panic".

A newspaper article, possibly by the Shah's employees, harshly criticized the Shah's opponent, the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Chapter 31 outline

Here's a much more full outline of chapter 31:

Chapter 31 is called OPEC's Imperium

OPEC began extremely week and neglected, only first coming into real power in the middle of the 1970's, with "OPEC's golden age" occuring between 1974 and 1978, as oil pricing became a dominant issue in international affairs.

Chapter 30 Outline

Here's a bare-bones outline of chapter 31 from Yergin:

The embargo signalled the beginning of the politicization of oil.

14% of world oil supplies were taken off the market; US furious.

Gas lines appeared in the US and lack of oil frightened the American people.

Nixon talked a good talk about solving America's oil problems, but failed to.

Large oil companies found themselves far more deeply involved in politics than they expected.

The Shah was merciless in his attitude toward the developed world.

The new troubles with oil prices led to a rash of bilateral deals, which politicized oil prices even more and lead to friction between the US and its allies.

The Arab world finally caved and lifted the embargo, partially with help from Saudi Arabia's king Faisal and Anwar Sadat, but it was too late for Nixon, who was on the road to resignation by this point.

chapter 29 outline

Here's a bare-bones chapter 29 outline:

The US oil import system was a loop-hole filled mess as the demand for imported oil continued to climb. Nixon finally abolished the quota system.

The radicals in OPEC began to push for the end of the Tehran agreement, wanting to send prices higher.

Anwar Sadat decided to go to war with Israel.

Once the US reached 100% production, it had lost just about all meaningful leverage for oil prices. Faisal initially did not want to go along with an embargo to raise prices, but finally caved in.

Sadat got support from Faisal for the invasion of Israel.

STRONGER report

STRONGER (State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations.) They issued this report relating to Ohio's environmental regulations of the oil and Natural gas industry. (It is worth noting that membership on this committee includes well respected and notable environmentalists)

A link to their report is below. Mitchell will have considerably more on this in his section of the paper. Briefly, however, the report concludes that Ohio is "well-managed, professional and meeting its program objectives."

http://http://strongerinc.org/documents/Final%20Report%20of%202011%20OH%20HF%20Review.pdf

Techincal Issues

Sorry guys...I've been having technical issues relating to uploading the presentation and research by the OOGA. The scanner I used came in black and white only, so all the charts and illustrations came out poorly. I am in the process of attempting to procure a color copy, and when I do i'll have that research up

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/05/17/cities-cant-treat-brine-from-new-gas-wells.html?sid=101

Heres an interesting article that focuses on the disposal of the wastewater; local communities were competing for the right to treat the wastewater at their treatment plants. The Ohio EPA shut that down, noting that long term effects are uncertain. (Treatment of the water continues, however, in the intermediary)
Deep water injection wells are still the top method for disposal

The Fracking Process

Here's a nice, short video that gives a simple description of the fracking process.

Deceptive Environmental Report

A few prominent House liberals today released a report alleging that "thousands" of gallons of carcinogenic waste has been injected into wells throughout America. Their report is deceptive.

Type II deep water injection wells are the safest way to depose of fracking fluid (99.56% of which is just plain water.) These wells are rigorously regulated for safety, and they are completely safe. They are constructed in such a way that any possible contamination is disposed of without harm to any individual, plant, or natural formation, including groundwater. All accidents that have been associated with fracking are because the water was not injected into these wells, where the water was just stored in above-ground containment vessels or left in a retention pond, which would contaminate groundwater.


___________________________________


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/17/fracking-report-carcinogens-water-wells_n_850159.html?ncid=txtlnkushuff00000003

French Lean Toward Ban . . .

From an article Prof. O'Donnell pointed us toward, it looks as though France may well ban fracking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/business/energy-environment/11shale.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

The French cite security concerns, but on top of that there's the fact that the French are known for a general antipathy toward fossil fuels. The proposed ban would not stop the French from importing oil or natural gas recovered by fracking, but would only ban fracking in France itself, which has an unknown amount of frackable oil, perhaps as much as 10 billion recoverable barrels.

Interview Opportunity

Tomorrow, Wednesday May 11th, we will have an opportunity to meet with and interview Tom Stewart, Executive Vice-President of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. (www.ooga.org)

Its not 100% official yet, but it is provisionally scheduled for 5:00 tomorrow afternoon. If that time works for you, let me know and we can arrainge a carpool downtown. Also, we can meet before or after that to review the research that has already been collected.

Methane Contamination from Fracking

I just ran across an interesting study that might be relevant to Mitchell's section. The study was done by a team from Duke University and was just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately, it found potentially dangerous concentrations of methane in water-wells near fracking sites. However, the good news is that there was no evidence of any leaked fracking fluid, and the study's conclusions urge caution but are hardly damning. They call for "greater stewardship, data, and - possibly - regulation . . . to ensure the sustainable future of shale-gas extraction and to improve public confidence in its use."

Here's the abstract:

OUTLINE

Here is a brief, general division of labor for the final project. As discussed, we are going to break down the assignment into three broad parts. The first will try to answer the question. "What is Fracking?"

Secondly, Mitchell will look into the safety and environmental concerns of the process. Is it safe?

Finally, I will look at Fracking in the political realm, trying to answer, "Is it good public policy?"

Initial Outline for First Section

Here is a (very) rough outline that I came up with when I started to think about what questions I wanted to address in my section. 

• Description of the process
• How is fracking done?
• What technologies are used?
• What technologies are on the horizon?
• In what situations is fracking necessary? Why?
• History of fracking
• Potential Supplies
• What does fracking unlock?
• What are the locations and sizes of the plays in the US?
• What effect will these supplies have on the possibility of American energy independence?
• What will be the economic effects of exploiting these supplies?

Let me know if you can think of anything else I should look at or if there is anything in the outline that you think I should leave out. I know that the last 2 bullet points especially could overlap with Blaise's section, but I wasn't sure if he was focusing solely on Ohio or not and I think it's important to address those issues somewhere in the paper. 

Update on work, etc.

As Blaise will post shortly, we've arrived at a rough division of labor, in which I'm assigned the question of whether fracking is safe. We'll approach the question not from the angle of trying to find the ultimate answer, but of trying to understand the factors involved and the various groups arguing pro and con.

So here's a link to a newsweak article which discusses the safety problem we've heard about in class: above-ground spills of the fracking liquids caused not by the fracking process itself but by human error:

http://www.newsweek.com/2008/08/19/a-toxic-spew.html

The basic gist of the story is this:

A woman named Cathy Behr was nearly killed after what she described as contact with spilled fracking chemicals. The company blamed for this, Weatherford, was unable to give Newsweek a yes-or-no answer as to whether they might be to blame. In the wake of this incident, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission tightened regulatory controls over fracking in August 2008. On the non-governmental environmental groups involved in this process was the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, which we may be able to tap for more information. Newsweek speaks oddly, and, if you ask me, somewhat dishonestly about the contents of fracking liquid, calling the stuff 'largely unregulated' and 'secret', but then admitting that the EPA, which has access to the recipes, found fracking liquids safe for water in 2004. Fracking fluids, typically used far below the water table, are exempt from the Safe Drinking Water act of 2005. There is concern that under current laws companies might not be required to file any paperwork with the government when spills occur, as happened in this case when 130 gallons of ZetaFlow, a fracking mix, were spilled.

On Why Fracking is Controversial

Fracking, as established by earlier articles, has been around commercially since at least the 1940's. So why the controversy? This article by the Independent online explains part of the issue:

http://www.iol.co.za/business/companies/shell-cites-history-to-allay-karoo-fears-1.1063899

As the article explains, while fracking has been around for some time, there are some major new developments with fracking. Recently, there's been a move toward using synthetic liquids formed from natural gas to help with the extraction of gas, and in some cases the synthetic liquids are gelled by using additional chemicals. This goes significantly beyond the early sorts of fracking.

The Case for Fracking

Here is a short presentation produced by the American Petroleum Institute (the main US trade association for the oil and natural gas industry) that presents a pretty compelling argument in favor of fracking. Of course given the source, this report is probably at least slightly biased, but I think it still provides plenty of great information. However, we must be sure to look at opposing viewpoints as well.

Anyway, here is the presentation, and - after the break - a summary of what I thought were the most pertinent points it contained.

API Report