Fracking!

[Flubber]

yup it's true, people hate fraking because it's not the result of environmental regulationn.

only pussified liberals want things like clean drinking water!



and earthquakes, when did one of those ever hurt anyone?

1. EnCana has put forth several statements severely criticizing the Pavillion report at EnCana.com. . Main criticisms seem to include that the water monitoring wells were drilled into a known natural gas prone area and zone so it's no surprise they found natural gas there. ( this has been a consistent issue for industry. Where people say industry activity introduces natural gas into a water reservoir when it was naturally occurring beforehand. That's why industry typically does water testing before , during and after their activities.. So they can assess if there are impacts on the water). EnCana Also claims that the EPA found chemicals tht EnCana did not use and also found contaminants in a relatively large number of their quality control samples. ( highly purified water which is tested to see if their are any issues with their sampling and testing methods.)

2. Earthquakes.. While a connection based on timing appears to exist, these is not yet much proof as to causation. Three decades of data is really nothing in geological terms and most of these earthquakes are not discernable without modern instrumentation. ... So we truly have very limited data. Personally I am concerned about this one as " don't know" is just that. The spike in seismic activity is something to investigate.

[kentonio]

Actually fracking companies hesitation to provide their formulas is all about them wanting to maintain any performance advantage they have over competitors. It's just like big pharmaceuticals in that if you develop a wonderful mix, you don't want to just list your ingredients to the world so everyone copies you.

This was an issue for me doing a drilling contract. We needed to know the chemicals involved at a site as we were responsible for disposal of waste liquids and the fracking company would only give enough information to allow us to ensure disposal regs were followed. It was along the lines of " it's all these types and not those types"

This could be a complete misunderstanding on my part, but I understood they were refusing to provide full breakdowns to the regulators as well. It's understandable if its just not wanting to give trade secrets to competitors, but surely the people monitoring the industry need to know that stuff?

[Wezil]

...resulting in some of the lowest CO2 emissions in 20 years.

I suspect the recession has had a little something to do with that.

[C0ckney]

flubber, i'm not familiar with all the in and outs, but contaminated drinking water and earthquakes seem to be the main concerns that are brought up when fraking is discussed. i was just pointing out to HC that these are the things that people are concerned about and that they are perfectly reasonable concerns (stating the obvious i know, but this is HC).

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I notice that a lot of these fracking "earthquakes" are less than 3.0 magnitude. That's roughly similar to a fat girl taking up tap-dancing.

[The Mad Monk]

yup it's true, people hate fraking because it's not the result of environmental regulationn.

only pussified liberals want things like clean drinking water!


and earthquakes, when did one of those ever hurt anyone?

Come on, you've been here long enough to know quotes without links go nowhere.

[The Mad Monk]

Just as an aside, earthquakes are a likely outcome whenever you push fluid under pressure into the ground. Like, when you build dams. Fluids get pushed into old faults and lubricate them, causing earthquakes (because they can slide easier) of considerably lower magnitude (because they can slide easier). There is nothing new here.

[Hauldren Collider]

I suspect the recession has had a little something to do with that.

Maybe something to do with it, but reduced car usage and energy usage could not possibly account for most of that dip.

[Wezil]

Maybe something to do with it, but reduced car usage and energy usage could not possibly account for most of that dip.

Manufacturing output...

[Hauldren Collider]

Regarding clean water, well water in these rural areas rarely meets drinking water safety regulations anyway--a lot of people put filtration systems in.

So we've identified two problems--

1. Earthquakes. Okay, basically trivial earthquakes that are barely even noticeable, as Bugs pointed out.
2. Water pollution. This is a simple one. Just give the folks who use wellwater and don't already have filtration systems a filtration system. Not a big deal.

So what's easier in terms of reducing carbon output? Massively cutting the amount of energy we use, or passing out oversized Brita filters to folks who probably need them anyway?

Manufacturing output...

I actually hadn't thought of that , I will look to see if there's a breakdown somewhere.

[Hauldren Collider]

Here we go:

In a little-noticed technical report, the U.S. Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said this month that energy related U.S. CO2 emissions for the first four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. Energy emissions make up about 98 percent of the total. The Associated Press contacted environmental experts, scientists and utility companies and learned that virtually everyone believes the shift could have major long-term implications for U.S. energy policy.

While conservation efforts, the lagging economy and greater use of renewable energy are factors in the CO2 decline, the drop-off is due mainly to low-priced natural gas, the agency said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GAS_DRILLING_CO2_DROP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-16-22-39-40

[Wezil]

I actually hadn't thought of that , I will look to see if there's a breakdown somewhere.

It was readily apparent in this province as ON is heavy on manufacturing (the biggest consumer of power). Our emissions are down these days but mainly as we have many shuttered factories, not because of "green" efforts. If/when the economy picks up our emissions will rise again.

[Wezil]

There's not a lot of fracking going on in Ontario HC...

[Hauldren Collider]

We're not talking about Ontario, though, we're talking about the US.

[DaShi]

No but it seems you believe that everything that helps the environment that is a result of enormous government intervention must be evil, which puts you in the same league as Speer. Congrats !

This.