New York’s fracking ban is a mixed bag | Grist
New York guvnah David Paterson this weekend banned high-volume fracking in New York state for seven months. It's a half-yay because fracking (short for hydraulic fracturing) is as destructive as it sounds. The natural gas drilling technique involves mixing nearly 600 chemicals with freshwater, then blasting underground rock with up to 8 million gallons of it, polluting drinking water in the process. But Paterson vetoed a stronger drilling ban that would've stopped all natural gas drilling til mid-May.
The loophole green groups are worried about: Since the ban is only on horizontal drilling, companies might drill vertically instead. Not only can 16 vertical wells legally occupy the space of one horizontal well -- doing significant surface damage, according to NRDC -- but vertical wells can later be converted to horizontal ones, and vertical drilling poisoned 13 Pennsylvania families' drinking water earlier this fall.
Why drillers think it's no big deal: Writes Forbes' Christopher Helman, "Drillers don't much care about the New York ban because they have plenty of other places to develop." Like Pennsylvania. The Marcellus Shale, a swath of rock containing natural gas, lies beneath much of southern New York, but also parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio and almost all of West Virginia -- where regulations are lighter. (See this map.)
EPA's gonna get you: The EPA is investigating the effects of fracking on drinking water, and proposed legislation would make companies reveal what toxics are involved, notes The Hill. Even Forbes agrees: "[C]ompanies, like Halliburton, that lead the market for fracking, need to publicly reveal all the chemical
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Transborder Water Issues Canada/USA
Congenial relations between the United States and Canada have long been a source of pride for both countries. We characteristically speak about being each other's largest trading partners, and about the degree to which we have a shared, peaceful border. Over the years, the two countries have created a number of mechanisms for dealing with cross-boundary environmental matters relating to air, water and migratory wildlife.
One of the great accomplishments of the bilateral relationship between Canada and the United States in the past century has been the cooperative management of the many lakes and rivers that flow along and across our common boundary. The International Joint Commission (IJC) has provided a mechanism for joint management of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Great Lakes, and other boundary and transboundary waters. Two binational agreements, The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 have provided a framework for IJC undertakings.
But signs of disharmony in trade and environmental relations between the two countries have recently surfaced. Ongoing and potential conflict over water, or trade that is dependent on water, has become a political reality in Canada. Water scarcity has already affected many areas of the United States, and a few parts of Canada. The reasons for these shortages include increasing population, industrial development, climate warming, poor agricultural practices, poor prevention of water pollution, and watershed modification.
POWI has conducted research in a number of key areas relating to transboundary water. These include:
Legal instruments to protect Canada's waters from out of basin transfers
One of the great accomplishments of the bilateral relationship between Canada and the United States in the past century has been the cooperative management of the many lakes and rivers that flow along and across our common boundary. The International Joint Commission (IJC) has provided a mechanism for joint management of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Great Lakes, and other boundary and transboundary waters. Two binational agreements, The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 have provided a framework for IJC undertakings.
But signs of disharmony in trade and environmental relations between the two countries have recently surfaced. Ongoing and potential conflict over water, or trade that is dependent on water, has become a political reality in Canada. Water scarcity has already affected many areas of the United States, and a few parts of Canada. The reasons for these shortages include increasing population, industrial development, climate warming, poor agricultural practices, poor prevention of water pollution, and watershed modification.
POWI has conducted research in a number of key areas relating to transboundary water. These include:
Legal instruments to protect Canada's waters from out of basin transfers
POWI - Water/Energy Nexus & Security
POWI - Water/Energy Nexus & Security
The United States is now the world's largest energy user, and is rapidly becoming a net importer of energy. Much of this energy shortfall comes from Canada. Canada now supplies the United States with 24.2 per cent of its total energy needs in the form of natural gas, oil and electricity, and has replaced Saudi Arabia as the number one supplier of oil to the United States.
North American energy integration is now a fact of economic life. Few Canadians, however, appreciate how continental energy integration is already having an impact on Canada's water security as great or greater than foreseeable water exports.
The starkest link between energy integration and the future of Canada's water resources is most evident in the oil sands. Unlike conventional oil, Alberta's tarry deposits are among the most water intensive hydrocarbons on the planet. Separating tar from sand not only takes enormous amounts of natural gas but requires an average of three barrels of freshwater to make just one barrel of oil.
The United States is now the world's largest energy user, and is rapidly becoming a net importer of energy. Much of this energy shortfall comes from Canada. Canada now supplies the United States with 24.2 per cent of its total energy needs in the form of natural gas, oil and electricity, and has replaced Saudi Arabia as the number one supplier of oil to the United States.
North American energy integration is now a fact of economic life. Few Canadians, however, appreciate how continental energy integration is already having an impact on Canada's water security as great or greater than foreseeable water exports.
The starkest link between energy integration and the future of Canada's water resources is most evident in the oil sands. Unlike conventional oil, Alberta's tarry deposits are among the most water intensive hydrocarbons on the planet. Separating tar from sand not only takes enormous amounts of natural gas but requires an average of three barrels of freshwater to make just one barrel of oil.
Munk 14,October 2010
Todd Lane
Description
This conference is designed to inform public opinion about the potential impact of hydraulic fracturing on Canadian water supplies resulting from efforts to develop shale gas. Technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing previously thought too expensive or complicated to develop have made it possible to recover natural gas from shale formations with the aim of increasing domestic and continental energy security.
The conference will provide an opportunity for interactive public comment and dialogue from a wide range of experts representing government, environmental sciences, law, non-governmental organizations, First Nations, academe, industry and engineering.
Draft agenda available at www.powi.ca.
Description
This conference is designed to inform public opinion about the potential impact of hydraulic fracturing on Canadian water supplies resulting from efforts to develop shale gas. Technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing previously thought too expensive or complicated to develop have made it possible to recover natural gas from shale formations with the aim of increasing domestic and continental energy security.
The conference will provide an opportunity for interactive public comment and dialogue from a wide range of experts representing government, environmental sciences, law, non-governmental organizations, First Nations, academe, industry and engineering.
Draft agenda available at www.powi.ca.
Encanna,Hydrolic Drilling,& Contamination of water
Ironically, a Canadian company Encana- who are not just a Canadian company has some of the wells in Penn or NY where the contamination has gone as far as civil suits I beleive.
You probabably wont be able to tell anything by who eventually gets the leases in Quebec, let alone who bids on them. Chance are it is some junior company from Calgary, and as with all explorarion ownership shares and outright whole ownership will change along the way. If the leases do go all the way to commercial production they will have at least a large ownership chunk by the big players like Encana or Shell, who may or may not be the operator at that point.
But I would think that in Quebec most if not all of the leases have been sold. At that stage you are still a long way from drilling, and on most leases in the ened their wont be any serious activity at all.
All the companies will tell you how careful they are, how many procedures they have, some of them redundant even [as in commercial aircraft safety requirements]. And they are being truthful.
The problem is that with all, shit happens. You are blasting fissures into rock, a lot of which is in the water table, and you are pumping in vast quantities of solvents. Not to mention the huge amount of water required, that has to be cleaned before being discharged to waterways.
Where they are manipulating the truth systematically is around the probabilities of this stuff happening.
In the public persentations they just talk about all the safeguards. Unfortunately, thats enough for too many people who live over this. But for those who do push the PR people harder, they have all the answers that make it seem as unlikely as a nuclear reactor meltdown.
I goy $5,000 out of the company drilling here for our school library. Its funny, because I knew that be happy for what they would assume would be good PR. Cheap even. But this is an area where everything is known about everybody, so the fact I got the money was seen as locals fleece the
You probabably wont be able to tell anything by who eventually gets the leases in Quebec, let alone who bids on them. Chance are it is some junior company from Calgary, and as with all explorarion ownership shares and outright whole ownership will change along the way. If the leases do go all the way to commercial production they will have at least a large ownership chunk by the big players like Encana or Shell, who may or may not be the operator at that point.
But I would think that in Quebec most if not all of the leases have been sold. At that stage you are still a long way from drilling, and on most leases in the ened their wont be any serious activity at all.
All the companies will tell you how careful they are, how many procedures they have, some of them redundant even [as in commercial aircraft safety requirements]. And they are being truthful.
The problem is that with all, shit happens. You are blasting fissures into rock, a lot of which is in the water table, and you are pumping in vast quantities of solvents. Not to mention the huge amount of water required, that has to be cleaned before being discharged to waterways.
Where they are manipulating the truth systematically is around the probabilities of this stuff happening.
In the public persentations they just talk about all the safeguards. Unfortunately, thats enough for too many people who live over this. But for those who do push the PR people harder, they have all the answers that make it seem as unlikely as a nuclear reactor meltdown.
I goy $5,000 out of the company drilling here for our school library. Its funny, because I knew that be happy for what they would assume would be good PR. Cheap even. But this is an area where everything is known about everybody, so the fact I got the money was seen as locals fleece the
Natural Shale Gas Quebec Drilling
Both in Pennsylvania and New York has water contamination been noted. That would be awful to see happen here in Quebec. (Hopefully our government could regulate possibly environmentally damaging processes better than the Americans can.) I always thought that we should be working towards greener energy and Quebec as a province lacking in industry could provide a fertile ground for green innovation. Unfortunately the media has covered it very little which won't help opposition to the project, this issue could use a little bit of sensationalism. Perhaps CBC should air this documentary or something: (most epic trailer for a doc ever.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8
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