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Pennsylvania Fracking Study Preliminary Results Released
Kevin Begos, AP via Huffington Post
A project examining the local health impacts from natural gas drilling is providing some of the first preliminary numbers about people who may be affected, and the results challenge the industry position that no one suffers but also suggest the problems may not be as widespread as some critics claim…
(25 August 2013)
Democrats will soon have a big, fat fight over fracking
Lisa Hymas, Grist
Most Democratic politicians say nice things about renewable energy and less-nice things about coal and earnest things about the need for climate action. But when it comes to fracking for natural gas, Dems and enviros are increasingly at odds…
(19 August 2013)
The Darker Shades Of Shale
Ilargi, The Automatic Earth
No, I wasn’t going to write a third article on shale in 2 weeks, absolutely not. But what I’ve read these past few days doesn’t leave me much choice. It turns out that the entire plethora of doubts I have raised in Shale Is A Pipedream Sold To Greater Fools and London Is Fracking, And I Live By The River are now also being raised on a larger scale: the media are – belatedly as usual – waking up. But that doesn’t mean they understand what’s going on. They’re clueless.
What we see in for instance an article from Bloomberg, and an editorial from the Guardian, is that they do not understand the effect of depletion rates; it’s not even mentioned. Neither do they understand how much of a straightforward and outright speculation scheme bubble shale has been to date. Instead, they seem to think that lower than expected reserves are the main topic, or at best environmental concerns…
(20 August 2013)
Ukraine region rejects shale gas project
Euractiv
A shale gas deal in Ukraine hit a setback yesterday (20 August) when a local council rejected the government’s draft production-sharing agreement with US energy company Chevron amid warnings by nationalists regarding likely damage to the environment. Officials told Reuters that deputies in Ivano-Frankivsk region, in western Ukraine, had sent the draft back to the government, pressing for guarantees which would address their concerns over the exploration plans.
Chevron wants to tie up a deal to explore the Olesska shale field in western Ukraine. Royal Dutch Shell has already signed a $10 billion (€7.45 billion) deal for shale exploration and extraction at the Yuzivska field in the east of the ex-Soviet republic…
(21 August 2013)
Estonia becomes self-sufficient on shale gas boom
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph
“We are the most energy independent country in the European Union, and we will not compromise our energy security. We have a large neighbour,” said Juhan Parts, the economy minister.
“I am a right-wing person and I am not a supporter of the war on fossils. We must look after the competitiveness of our industries. We must respect European environmental regulations of course but I am sceptical about these climate issues.”…
Oil shale is a combustible rock containing kerogen, and releases oil when heated. It is different from the shale oil and gas in America’s Marcellus or Barnett fields, or Britain’s Bowland Basin, obtained by hydraulic fracking deep underground. The word order is reversed, a source of confusion…
(21 August 2013)
