SOME NAT GAS FACTS

Sixty Lame Minutes
James Howard Kunstler, November 15, 2010 (Energy Bulletin)

"…America is lately addicted to lying to itself, and 60 Minutes has become the "go-to" patsy for funneling disinformation into an already hopelessly confused, wishful, delusional, US public…[Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy] told the credulous Leslie Stahl and the huge viewing audience that America "has two Saudi Arabia's of gas." …[McClendon said] his company will free America from its slavery to OPEC…

"First…[he was] talking about methane gas, not liquid gasoline or oil. There are large deposits of methane gas locked into shale deposits roughly following the Appalachian mountain chain from New York State through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, into Ohio, but also hot spots out west. It's hard to get at. You have to basically blow up the shale rock deep underground with high pressure water that is loaded up with chemicals and sand particles to keep the rock fragments separated once they are blown apart. Chesapeake Energy specializes in this rock fracturing (or "fracking") method for drilling. You can get gas out of the ground this way. The question is how much, over what time period, at what cost."

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"…[S]hale gas sounds like a dream-come-true…Here are some facts…[1] Over a 50 year period ahead, all the shale gas drilling of the Marcellus fields in New York State will produce the equivalent of three years US consumption…[2] A price of $8 per unit is required to make shale gas fracking economically viable…Gas is currently around $4. Expect to pay at least twice as much for gas…[3] [Fracking is arguably uneconomical because it] requires huge numbers of rigs…[and] wells produce nicely for a year, average, and then deplete very steeply – meaning…Chesapeake can make a lot quick money over the next few years of intense drilling and they don't care what happens…[4] Chesapeake itself estimates that 5.5 million gallons of fresh water are needed per well, often delivered in trucks, which require fuel.

"…[5] It takes three years, average to prepare a drilling "pad" and the up to 12 wells on it, working 24/7 in rural areas with significant noise and electric lighting…[6] fracking fluid is a secret proprietary…[chemical mix]…Of the 5.5 million gallons of fluid injected into each well, 27,500 gallons is the chemical cocktail…[7] McClendon said on 60 Minutes that it couldn't possibly harm the public's water supply because they were drilling so far below…most water wells…[but] they have to drill through those drinking water layers…and pump the fracking fluid through it, and then get the gas up through it…[and] the concrete casings of drill holes sometimes crack and leak…"

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"…[8] The fracking fluid cannot be re-used…[some] inevitably comes back up with the gas…[and] is stored on the surface in lagoons. Often it contains heavy metals, salts, and radioactive material…Liners of flowback fluid lagoons have been known to fail…[9] Gas well failures in Pennsylvania, where production was ramped up quickest in recent years, have ended up polluting well water to the degree that residents can no longer use their wells…[10] Little is known about the migration of fracking fluids underground…

"…[T]he chief mass delusion associated with this…is that Americans…[can] shift to driving cars that run on natural gas…Between the cost of fracking production…[and the costs of making a new] car engine…installing the infrastructure for methane gas…[and] supply…[we will] be too broke…The lying starts at the very top, not just in Aubrey McClendon's office at Chespeake, but in every executive suite throughout the land - including the Oval Office - where any lie is automatically swallowed and then upchucked for public consumption in the interest of keeping a nation based on addictive rackets stumbling on without having to change…"