QUICK NEWS, June 27: NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT NAT GAS BOOM; HOUSE BILL DISSES NEW ENERGY; UTILITY BUILDING WIRES; GEOTHERMAL BEATS W.VA’S COAL

NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT NAT GAS BOOM
Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush
Ian Urbina (w/Robbie Brown), June 25, 2011 (NY Times)

"Natural gas companies have been placing enormous bets on the wells they are drilling, saying they will deliver big profits and provide a vast new source of energy for the United States…But the gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells.

"…[E]nergy executives, industry lawyers, state geologists and market analysts voice skepticism about lofty forecasts and question whether companies are intentionally, and even illegally, overstating the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves…in stark contrast to more bullish public comments made by the industry, in much the same way that insiders have raised doubts about previous financial bubbles…"

(from the NY Times - click to enlarge)

"Company data for more than 10,000 wells in three major shale gas formations raise further questions about the industry’s prospects. There is undoubtedly a vast amount of gas in the formations. The question remains how affordably it can be extracted…[T]here are some very active wells…[but] often surrounded by vast zones of less-productive wells that in some cases cost more to drill and operate than the gas they produce is worth… Also, the amount of gas produced by many of the successful wells is falling much faster than initially predicted…making it more difficult for them to turn a profit over the long run…

"…[I]f natural gas ultimately proves more expensive to extract from the ground than has been predicted, landowners, investors and lenders could see their investments falter, while consumers will pay a price in higher electricity and home heating bills…There are implications for the environment, too…If shale gas wells fade faster than expected, energy companies will have to drill more wells or hydrofrack them more often, resulting in more toxic waste…"

(from the NY Times - click to enlarge)

"Although energy companies routinely project that shale gas wells will produce gas at a reasonable rate for anywhere from 20 to 65 years, these companies have been making such predictions based on limited data and a certain amount of guesswork, since shale drilling is a relatively new practice…Gas production data reviewed by The Times suggest that many wells in shale gas fields do not level off the way many companies predict but instead decline steadily…"

[E-mail from official, Schlumberger oil and gas services:] “All about making money…[Well’s performance looks] like crap…but operator will flip it based on ‘potential’ and make some money on it…Always a greater sucker…”


HOUSE BILL DISSES NEW ENERGY
House Bill Would Cut Clean Energy and Efficiency Programs by 40 Percent; Appropriations bill puts renewable energy and efficiency funding about $1 billion below current levels, roughly equaling dollars doled out in 2005
Elizabeth McGowan, June 21, 2011 (SolveClimate News via Reuters)

"Even though Republicans have vowed an 'all-of-the-above' approach to America's energy future, Democrats are accusing them of clinging to a narrow, antiquated, hydrocarbon-heavy past…[in] the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition…2012 energy and water appropriations bill…[T]hey claim [it] shortchanges President Obama's efforts at innovation and competition in favor of an addiction to oil, coal and natural gas…

"Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona was the sole Republican who joined 19 Democrats in opposing the bill that passed on a 26-20 vote. The full House will be considering the measure, one of a dozen sweeping federal spending bills, after Independence Day…[T]his version of the bill snips $1.9 billion [ – 40 percent of current funding – ] from the White House request for investments in energy efficiency research, renewables such as solar, wind and geothermal, fuel-conserving vehicles, weatherization, biomass and other programs…[Energy insiders] doubt the Senate will approve such draconian paring of clean energy enterprise…"

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"Overall, this appropriations legislation is designed to provide annual funding for the various agencies and programs under the Department of Energy, including the National Nuclear Security Administration, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and various regional water and power authorities…Coalition members are most alarmed that the GOP engineered a bill…slashes close to $500 million from DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)…

"…[T]he White House 2012 budget request for EERE programs is the largest ever. It rings in at a total of $3.2 billion, which is bordering on 11 percent of the total DOE budget. That's significant because it's a jump of $983 million — or 44 percent — above 2010 appropriations…[T]he legislation increases funding for DOE's Fossil Energy Office by $32 million while decreasing designated dollars for Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) by $80 million…"

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"Obama had asked that the chronically underfunded ARPA-E receive about $650 million next year. The GOP House bill would jeopardize the relatively new initiative designed to fund early-stage innovation projects that are deemed riskiest and most transformative…Savings for the president's budget figure of $520 million would have come from peeling away money for fossil energy research and development, as well as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve…

"The last actual appropriation for ARPA-E was $389 million for fiscal year 2009. DARPA, the military program Chu is mimicking…allows an idea to morph into a prototype that is deployed throughout branches of the military before spilling over into the civilian marketplace…"


UTILITY BUILDING WIRES
Transmission Overhaul: BPA's Upgrades To Allow 1.9 GW Of Wind
22 June 2011 (Renew Grid)

"The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has proposed two transmission-line upgrades in Washington and Montana that, with four new high-voltage lines already under construction or consideration, would deliver an additional 3.2 GW of electricity, including 1.9 GW of wind power…The two new projects are the result of BPA's Network Open Season, a process designed to better gauge demand for new transmission..

"The first project - the Northern Intertie Reinforcements - would combine substation, line and other equipment upgrades to increase capacity on BPA's interconnection with Canada. This effort includes a proposed transmission project involving Puget Sound Energy."


Get it done! From BonnevillePower via YouTube

"The second project - the Colstrip Upgrade Project - would combine system upgrades in order to increase transmission capacity in eastern Washington and Montana. According to BPA, this project will allow wind resources from Montana [which are strong when Washington winds are slow] to be delivered into the Northwest grid. This project needs to be coordinated with a project planned by NorthWestern Energy to upgrade the Colstrip Transmission System further into Montana...

"BPA will now complete preliminary engineering and an environmental review of the projects, which could take one to two years. After these processes are completed, BPA will decide whether to proceed…"


GEOTHERMAL BEATS W.VA’S COAL
Bonanza: Heat from below
Editorial, June 25, 2011 (Gazette-Mail)

"A couple of years ago, West Virginia University scientist Brian Anderson received a $1.2 million federal stimulus grant for three years of research into how to exploit a potential gold mine -- geothermal energy seething at 350 degrees F. deep under north-central West Virginia, beneath his feet in Morgantown. Additional researchers from three other U.S. universities joined to study the Appalachian 'hot spot.'"

[Anderson, Geothermal in Coal Country, July-August issue of Sierra magazine:] "…[A West Virginia] hot spot 2.4 miles under the Appalachian foothills could [help power the state for millennia and] deliver 18,900 megawatts of energy -- more than what West Virginia coal generates."

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"…[It] may not be quite hot enough, at such extreme depth, to drive electricity plants directly, but it could heat hundreds of buildings in winter -- even using steam pipe networks to warm entire cities -- or dry timber industry sawdust and waste for conversion into synthetic gas for power plants or liquid fuel for vehicles…[If the] northern West Virginia [resource] can be tapped…[it will] create jobs and boost the state's economy."

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"Geothermal heat rises from Earth's molten core and from radioactive decay of underground minerals -- and even from solar energy absorbed by the planet's surface. It's easy to harness this power where tectonic faults let the fiery force rise in geysers, hot springs and the like. Elsewhere, expensive deep wells must be drilled -- down-shafts to send water into the hot zones, and up-shafts to bring raging steam to the surface. It costs millions, but the result is free, nonpolluting power.

"Around the world, 24 nations generate more than 10,000 megawatts of electricity from geothermal power, and much more energy is tapped for community heating and industrial use…Last year, researchers at Southern Methodist University studied temperature readings from 1,400 West Virginia wells and discovered the [state’s] underlying hot spot…"