How American Science Made Government Regulations On Emissions Unnecessary
By Hank Campbell — May 18, 2018
In 2009 the U.S. government attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and pledged to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020.
To make it happen, the Obama administration directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to lead the way starting with carbon dioxide (CO2) and that resulted in the Clean Power Plan (CPP) in 2015. While the goal was laudable, no one is in favor of more pollution, it was a blunt instrument because it unfairly penalized fossil fuel power plants…
[…]
The Paris Agreement is now gone in America, what federal politicization of science giveth politicization of science can taketh away, but the emissions reductions the government sought still happened despite a lack of regulations and for that we can thank American science and technology.
Though the added regulations have not come to pass, that’s been a good thing. Without onerous cost increases on the poor, built-in higher rates due to solar and wind programs aside, the free market has continued to cause CO2 emissions to plummet, so much so that in 2017 America reached the CPP’s desired 2025 target. That’s not due to solar or wind, finds the study in Environmental Science & Technology, it is overwhelmingly due to natural gas. Thanks to modern natural gas extraction techniques such as hydraulic fracturing…
[…]
“Historical and projected CO2 emissions from the U.S. power sector in relation to natural gas prices (as delivered to electric generators). Projected emissions and gas prices are national averages based on scenarios in the AEO 2017 for the reference case and the high oil and gas resource and technology case.”
[…]
If the federal government stays out of picking winners and losers in energy, the trend toward lower emissions is likely to continue.
UC study finds no evidence of drinking water contamination from fracking
The three-year study found no relationship between methane concentrations in groundwater and proximity to natural gas wells.
By Michael Miller
May 18, 2018
A study of drinking water in Appalachian Ohio found no evidence of natural gas contamination from recent oil and gas drilling.
Geologists with the University of Cincinnati examined drinking water in Carroll, Stark and Harrison counties, a rural region in northeast Ohio where many residents rely on water from private underground wells.
The time-series study was the first of its kind in Ohio to examine methane in groundwater in relation to natural gas drilling. The results were published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.
“Some people had elevated concentrations of methane in their groundwater, but the isotopic composition showed it wasn’t from natural gas” said Amy Townsend-Small, associate professor of geology in UC’s McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.
“What we found is in most cases it was probably from underground coal in the area or biological methane produced in groundwater.”
[…]
They found no increase in methane concentration or composition in groundwater over the four years of the study, despite the presence of new shale gas wells drilled in the study area. Likewise, they did not find higher methane levels in closer approximation to shale drilling.
Researchers did find wide variability in methane concentrations in the drinking water, ranging from 0.2 micrograms per liter to 25.3 milligrams per liter, which is strong enough to catch fire in enclosed spaces. But researchers found no relationship between the methane observed in drinking water and the new gas wells.
[…]
“Some people had elevated concentrations of methane in their groundwater, but the isotopic composition showed it wasn’t from natural gas. It was from a different source,” Townsend-Small said. “What we found is in most cases it was probably from underground coal in the area or biological methane produced in groundwater.”
This should come as no surprise… As hard as the Obama maladministration EPA tried, they couldn’t find a single specific incident in which frac’ing was related to water pollution.
Apart from Gasland-style lies, there is no evidence of frac’ing polluting groundwater/
Locally, in Fort Lupton, CO, the film shows a resident igniting his tap water, leaving the impression that the flaming tap water is a result of natural gas drilling. However, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), which tested this resident‟s water in 2008, at his request,: “Dissolved methane in well water appears to be biogenic [naturally occurring] in origin. …There are no indications of oil & gas related impacts to water well.”(COGCC 9/30/08). This means that the natural gas in the resident‟s well water is of recent bacterial origin, which could result from the poor well completion and hygiene, or penetration of shallow coal seams. The film‟s implication that natural gas production and hydraulic fracturing are to blame is blatantly false.
Trump said “drill baby drill” and they’re doing it. I have seen new Wells being drilled all over OH and PA over the last few years during my travels as a truck driver. In fact there is one being drilled about a half mile from where I’m sitting right now at the Sapp Brothers truck near the junction of I-80 and PA Hwy 879.
All of this drilling and fracking activity just adds to the truck traffic I have to deal with. Lots of straight truck tankers servicing the wells plus a significant increase in truck and other traffic due to the booming economy makes trucking harder work these days.
Sounds like a nice set of problems. I always enjoy the pains that go with a growing economy. So much nicer than, say, the pains that go with a shrinking economy.
Yes, the upside for me is that I’m on track to make more money trucking this year than I ever have before in this business. And an doing it with more home time than I have had before.
“Drill, baby , drill” was Sarah Palin’s line well before Trump.
lloydr56
May 22, 2018 7:23 am
Canada, where I live, is being choked by the anti-pipeline people. The U.S. has made at least some progress against the anti-fracking people, and look at the results.
Which forces oil and gas to be shipped by rail and trucks.
At a holiday dinner, some friends were discussing their local Western Virginia fight against a pipeline.
I paused long enough to ask why they preferred the oil to be shipped via trucks, since the oil was going to be shipped anyway?
Deer in headlights group look, soon followed by the “Go away, you bother us” look.
Why complicate their simple NIMBY protests?
Later that evening, a close friend who was in that discussion, told me that she wasn’t protesting the oil; Instead she and her husband, (he couldn’t make the dinner), were protesting against the pipeline installation causing environmental damage.
She then went on to relate some examples.
My response was that protesting the pipeline wasn’t going to fix improper installation safeguards. Fixing improper installations required documentation and ideally pictures delivered to the responsible government overseers; local, state and federal.
The next look was a classic “It’s much easier to make a cheap sign and go make noise somewhere” look.
Oh well, some people go to block parties, others go to protests.
I mentioned this a while back (not that I expect anybody to remember, or have taken note, just stating for the record), but I have friends and acquaintances opposing a local pipeline due to eminent domain. This is perfectly valid in my opinion. Just because something might be more efficient…it doesn’t give the government the right to force private property owners to acquiesce to corporate demands. The government exists to protect the individual from the predations of bullies, not to be an accomplice in the bullying.
Philip Mulholland
Typical SNP Bollox!
A pox on them, and may they be gone by the time I come to retire back there in 5 years or so.
Socialist morons hiding behind a banner of nationalism.
The current SNP government have been dependent on the Greens for support, so this sort of rubbish is inevitable.
The SNP may lose their grip on the Scottish Government, but the other other parties in Scotland are signed up to the greenie agenda too. None of their representatives seem to have the brains/guts to stand up to this rot, even the Conservatives. I went to a Scottish Liberal Club meeting on energy (I moaned at my Liberal councillor on the doorstep about the stupid energy policies of all parties, he said ‘Go to this meeting’) , was the only CAGW sceptic there, and had the ‘consensus’ thrust at me. Lost cause. Haven’t been back.
More recently I was subjected to a ‘Greener Scotland’ propaganda advert the last time I went to the cinema. Nearly threw my ice-cream at the screen.
Don’t underestimate the SNP, ignorant of science/engineering they may be,but they’re canny politicians, and are about to flog the independence horse again now that their support is dropping. If they pull a Catalonia-style stunt I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m also due to retire soon, so I’m looking hard at my options, and will be keeping a keen eye on the political developments.
If you’re ever in Edinburgh we should go for a pint and have a blether. I haven’t found many like-minded folk here.
RWturner
May 22, 2018 7:55 am
Seems like the anti-frac movement has mostly died out now that Russian propaganda is being thwarted.
And at least part of their funding of so called environmental groups has been revealed.
JimG1
May 22, 2018 7:57 am
Coalbed methane Drillers on my friends ranch put in an irrigation outlet for him as part of the deal. It was also used for stock water. When used in that manner and the tap opened you got about 20 seconds of gas literally roaring out of the tap before the water showed up. We never lit it for fear of a grass fire, but it would have been fun to see. Big pipe, not a kitchen faucet. Water turned out to not match the soil properties well and required sweetening the soil etc. Cows didn’t mind though.
Paul S
May 22, 2018 8:19 am
Fracking had nothing to do with it. Fracking has been an industry standard since the 1940’s. What is new is the horizontal drilling into the shale layers
Frac’ing is at least 1/3 of the equation.
America! Horizontal drilling yeah!
America! Shale yeah!
Those phrases just don’t “sing” like America! Frac Yeah!
The knowledge that shale formations (source rocks) can be full of oil and gas is older than the oil industry.
Frac’ing has been a standard well completion procedure for at least 70 years.
Precise directional drilling has been around for more than 40 years.
The realization that massive frac jobs in horizontal wells drilled into shale formations could revolutionize US oil & gas production is the new-ish thing.
It took all three to create the shale boom. Maybe it should be… America! George Mitchell Yeah!
HotScot
May 22, 2018 8:20 am
Please, please, please can the UK borrow Donald Trump, just for a year?
Sorry man, I feel for you, but NO! The mayor of London doesn’t want him in the country, much less in his city. Besides, despite the fast pace of his accomplishments, even in two terms, he will not be able to fix all the damage that has been done here.
Rah
The Mayor of London is a jumped up nonentity. Politically meaningless outside the confines of the city.
If Trump continues as he is, I suspect Republicans will occupy the Whitehouse for a generation.
Maybe we can borrow him after his second term. I mean, Brexit will still be rumbling on here, so plenty of time I guess.
🙂
“The Mayor of London is a jumped up nonentity”
You may be underestimating him. Under his leadership London has topped New York in number of murders for the first time since way back in the early nineteenth century.
Drill, baby, Drill !!!
You know stuff like this literally makes greenie heads explode. Kingsman style.
Liberal claims of doom and gloom prove to be unfounded – go figure.
Trump said “drill baby drill” and they’re doing it. I have seen new Wells being drilled all over OH and PA over the last few years during my travels as a truck driver. In fact there is one being drilled about a half mile from where I’m sitting right now at the Sapp Brothers truck near the junction of I-80 and PA Hwy 879.
All of this drilling and fracking activity just adds to the truck traffic I have to deal with. Lots of straight truck tankers servicing the wells plus a significant increase in truck and other traffic due to the booming economy makes trucking harder work these days.
Yes truck traffic and noise are the complaints now. No study needed, you feel it.
Sapp Brothers truck stop.
Sounds like a nice set of problems. I always enjoy the pains that go with a growing economy. So much nicer than, say, the pains that go with a shrinking economy.
Yes, the upside for me is that I’m on track to make more money trucking this year than I ever have before in this business. And an doing it with more home time than I have had before.
God bless Donald Trump, but “Drill, baby drill!” was a prescient Republican slogan of the 2008 Presidential campaign.
“Drill, baby , drill” was Sarah Palin’s line well before Trump.
Canada, where I live, is being choked by the anti-pipeline people. The U.S. has made at least some progress against the anti-fracking people, and look at the results.
Which forces oil and gas to be shipped by rail and trucks.
At a holiday dinner, some friends were discussing their local Western Virginia fight against a pipeline.
I paused long enough to ask why they preferred the oil to be shipped via trucks, since the oil was going to be shipped anyway?
Deer in headlights group look, soon followed by the “Go away, you bother us” look.
Why complicate their simple NIMBY protests?
Later that evening, a close friend who was in that discussion, told me that she wasn’t protesting the oil; Instead she and her husband, (he couldn’t make the dinner), were protesting against the pipeline installation causing environmental damage.
She then went on to relate some examples.
My response was that protesting the pipeline wasn’t going to fix improper installation safeguards. Fixing improper installations required documentation and ideally pictures delivered to the responsible government overseers; local, state and federal.
The next look was a classic “It’s much easier to make a cheap sign and go make noise somewhere” look.
Oh well, some people go to block parties, others go to protests.
I mentioned this a while back (not that I expect anybody to remember, or have taken note, just stating for the record), but I have friends and acquaintances opposing a local pipeline due to eminent domain. This is perfectly valid in my opinion. Just because something might be more efficient…it doesn’t give the government the right to force private property owners to acquiesce to corporate demands. The government exists to protect the individual from the predations of bullies, not to be an accomplice in the bullying.
Meanwhile in Scotland..
Energy firm Ineos astonished over government’s stance on fracking
Philip Mulholland
Typical SNP Bollox!
A pox on them, and may they be gone by the time I come to retire back there in 5 years or so.
Socialist morons hiding behind a banner of nationalism.
The current SNP government have been dependent on the Greens for support, so this sort of rubbish is inevitable.
The SNP may lose their grip on the Scottish Government, but the other other parties in Scotland are signed up to the greenie agenda too. None of their representatives seem to have the brains/guts to stand up to this rot, even the Conservatives. I went to a Scottish Liberal Club meeting on energy (I moaned at my Liberal councillor on the doorstep about the stupid energy policies of all parties, he said ‘Go to this meeting’) , was the only CAGW sceptic there, and had the ‘consensus’ thrust at me. Lost cause. Haven’t been back.
More recently I was subjected to a ‘Greener Scotland’ propaganda advert the last time I went to the cinema. Nearly threw my ice-cream at the screen.
Don’t underestimate the SNP, ignorant of science/engineering they may be,but they’re canny politicians, and are about to flog the independence horse again now that their support is dropping. If they pull a Catalonia-style stunt I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m also due to retire soon, so I’m looking hard at my options, and will be keeping a keen eye on the political developments.
If you’re ever in Edinburgh we should go for a pint and have a blether. I haven’t found many like-minded folk here.
Seems like the anti-frac movement has mostly died out now that Russian propaganda is being thwarted.
And at least part of their funding of so called environmental groups has been revealed.
Coalbed methane Drillers on my friends ranch put in an irrigation outlet for him as part of the deal. It was also used for stock water. When used in that manner and the tap opened you got about 20 seconds of gas literally roaring out of the tap before the water showed up. We never lit it for fear of a grass fire, but it would have been fun to see. Big pipe, not a kitchen faucet. Water turned out to not match the soil properties well and required sweetening the soil etc. Cows didn’t mind though.
Fracking had nothing to do with it. Fracking has been an industry standard since the 1940’s. What is new is the horizontal drilling into the shale layers
Very true. Here in the west they can drill up to 40 wells off of one pad. A great saving on the environment.
Frac’ing is at least 1/3 of the equation.
America! Horizontal drilling yeah!
America! Shale yeah!
Those phrases just don’t “sing” like America! Frac Yeah!
The knowledge that shale formations (source rocks) can be full of oil and gas is older than the oil industry.
Frac’ing has been a standard well completion procedure for at least 70 years.
Precise directional drilling has been around for more than 40 years.
The realization that massive frac jobs in horizontal wells drilled into shale formations could revolutionize US oil & gas production is the new-ish thing.
It took all three to create the shale boom. Maybe it should be… America! George Mitchell Yeah!
Please, please, please can the UK borrow Donald Trump, just for a year?
Sorry man, I feel for you, but NO! The mayor of London doesn’t want him in the country, much less in his city. Besides, despite the fast pace of his accomplishments, even in two terms, he will not be able to fix all the damage that has been done here.
Rah
The Mayor of London is a jumped up nonentity. Politically meaningless outside the confines of the city.
If Trump continues as he is, I suspect Republicans will occupy the Whitehouse for a generation.
Maybe we can borrow him after his second term. I mean, Brexit will still be rumbling on here, so plenty of time I guess.
🙂
“The Mayor of London is a jumped up nonentity”
You may be underestimating him. Under his leadership London has topped New York in number of murders for the first time since way back in the early nineteenth century.