Fracking blowback spooks energy industry
The energy industry has been taken aback by all the negative attention and protests over fracking and says it is looking for ways to improve.
HOUSTON — The oil and gas industry is reeling from attacks on what it considers one of its most important technologies — fracking.
Protests across New York State, have temporarily banned the practice. Unfavorable coverage in the media and a scathing documentary film that was nominated this year for an Oscar also seem to have scared the industry.”We’ve done a terrible job at getting our message out to the public,” one gas company executive said during a roundtable discussion on the practice at IHS CERA’s annual energy conference. “Now we’re locked out of New York.”
Technically known as hydraulic fracturing, the process uses water, sand, chemicals and pressure to crack rock deep beneath the earth’s surface, releasing vast amounts of previously unattainable oil and gas.
Billions of barrels of untapped U.S. oil
It’s unlocked a huge amount of new domestic energy, helped cut oil imports, and provided thousands of well paying jobs. Much of the technology has been used to increase natural gas supplies, which have the added benefit of being about twice as clean as coal when burned to make electricity. (CNNMoney)
Saturday, March 12, 2011 • John Pfahlert
YOUR correspondents, Bob Hughes (March 7) and Megan Hunt (March 9) suggest that because there has been environmental damage from shale gas development in the USA, that we shouldn’t be doing it here.
Hughes repeats the myth that fracking is the “latest method to extract oil and gas from the earth’s crust”. This technique has been used successfully all over the world for the past 50 years, including in New Zealand. (Gisborne Herald)
