Natural gas is domestically abundant (2,587 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas in the United States) and it burns cleaner than oil and coal (30% and 50% less carbon dioxide emissions respectively), but removing the hydrocarbons from mile deep shale beds has proven to be a dangerous and environmentally damaging endeavor.
The Ukrainian government, long reliant on imported sources of energy to power the country, is aggressively pursuing the latest advances in natural gas drilling in hopes of tapping into large reserves trapped in shale deep underground.
The former Soviet state is working with major energy
A large U.S. producer of natural gas from underground shale formations says it will suspend the controversial drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at seven well sites until it has investigated the causes behind a drilling accident last week.
Chesapeake Energy has halted its
Natural gas extracted from shale deposits by a process known as hydraulic fracturing generates more greenhouse gas emissions over a 20-year period than conventional gas, oil, and coal, according to a Cornell University study.
Researchers said that during the lifespan of the average shale-gas drilling operation — in which a mix of water, chemicals, and sand is pumped into the ground to release natural gas trapped in shale formations — about 4 to 8 percent of the total gas production leaks into the atmosphere in the form of methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide.
While methane does not linger in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, over the course of two decades the total carbon footprint of drilling for and burning shale gas is at least 20 percent greater than the footprint for coal production and combustion, and perhaps twice as great, said Robert Howarth, the lead author of the study, published in the journal Climatic Change Letters.
Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.
Three years after unveiling his plan for U.S. energy independence, which won praise from environmentalists for its reliance on wind power, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is back with a proposal to convert the U.S. trucking fleet to natural gas. But as his new plan gains traction, questions arise over how green it really is.
Remember the Pickens Plan?
About 5 percent of the world’s natural gas production is squandered each year through gas flaring, a process in which unused gas is burned while drilling for oil, a new analysis by General Electric has found.
In addition to wasting a potentially valuable energy resource — roughly 30 percent of the current consumption in the European
The first hybrid solar power plant in the world was inaugurated in Florida by Florida Power and Light Company at FPL’s Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center. It is one of three solar facilities commissioned by FPL.
It features 190,000 solar panels that work in conjunction with an existing natural-gas
A California company has developed a method that uses solar-powered steam to coax oil from the earth, an innovation they say is cleaner and cheaper than using natural gas to generate the steam.
At its pilot plant in Kern County, GlassPoint Solar uses a row of foil mirrors inside a greenhouse to concentrate solar heat
Attacks on climate change regulations, thawing permafrost in National Parks, and attempts to cut funding for climate research. Climate change has had some bad news this month. There’s at least one (sort of) bright spot, though: the state of US greenhouse gas emissions. Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency
A recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune featured a Montevideo, Minn., business owner who upgraded his energy equipment with the help of his local utility. On the surface, it may not seem newsworthy – thousands of businesses in Minnesota and across the country partner with their local utility to take advantage of energy efficiency rebate programs.
The United States is poised to bet its energy future on natural gas as a clean, plentiful fuel that can supplant coal and oil. But new research by the Environmental Protection Agency—and a growing understanding of the pollution associated with the full “life cycle” of gas production—is casting doubt on the
Congress isn’t going to regulate hydraulic fracturing any time soon. But the Department of Interior might. For starters, Interior is mulling whether it should require drilling companies to disclose the chemicals they use to frack wells drilled on public lands, and already the suggestion has earned Interior Secretary Ken Salazar an earful.
The Washington Post has announced that in 2010, not a single new coal-fired power plant was constructed in the United States. This marks the second year in a row in which this has occurred. Coal remains the most abundantly used source of electricity, accounting for half of all power generation. However, a number of factors, such as the economy, lower natural gas prices, and
In a scramble for new sources of natural gas, European energy companies are increasingly turning to hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a drilling technique that has generated controversy in the U.S. because of potential harmful environmental effects.
In Poland, Halliburton has constructed a well for the state-owned Polish Oil and Gas