Gas against wind

[Marlin]

This article (blog) is titled Gas against Wind but it does mention an impact about nuclear which makes a lot of sense but is not good news for the nuclear industry.

A chap called George Mitchell turned the gas industry on its head. Using just the right combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) – both well established technologies -- he worked out how to get gas out of shale where most of it is, rather than just out of (conventional) porous rocks, where it sometimes pools. The Barnett shale in Texas, where Mitchell worked, turned into one of the biggest gas reserves in America. Then the Haynesville shale in Louisiana dwarfed it. The Marcellus shale mainly in Pennsylvania then trumped that with a barely believable 500 trillion cubic feet of gas, as big as any oil field ever found, on the doorstep of the biggest market in the world.

The impact of shale gas in America is already huge. Gas prices have decoupled from oil prices and are half what they are in Europe. Chemical companies, which use gas as a feedstock, are rushing back from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Mexico. Cities are converting their bus fleets to gas. Coal projects are being shelved; nuclear ones abandoned.

http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/gas-against-wind

[HydroDave63]

replies will take it to PolySci quickly...

[hamsamich]

never gas against wind.   

[thenukeman]

Windmills in Pennsylvania now shutdown at night because they killed a rare bat.  I bet they would not been shut off if they killed a Human!!!!

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/20111018windmills_stopped_at_night_after_bat_death/srvc=home%26position=recent

[Higgs]

The comments are hilarious.

[LaFeet]

Has anyone ever considered the amount of toxins generated to produce these windmills?

Don't get me wrong, I want 4 (small ones) up just over my tree line for personal use, but still.  I live out in BFE Okieland. 

And don't start us all up Fracking this and Fracking that.  Sounds like a remake of Battlestar Galactica.

[thenukeman]

Evil wind!!!!  Killed a Bat!!!  I bet good old nuclear power hasn't killed a Bat. 

[Rennhack]

Evil wind!!!!  Killed a Bat!!!  I bet good old nuclear power hasn't killed a Bat. 

You'd be wrong.

[GLW]

You'd be wrong.

SFP FME discrepancy of the winged rad variety,...I know it well,......

Not to mention ventilation intake gratings,....

[thenuttyneutron]

SFP FME discrepancy of the winged rad variety,...I know it well,......

Not to mention ventilation intake gratings,....

I know an EO that almost operated a bat at the gas storage shed (outside) at the end of a night shift.  It was dark and he went to operate what he thought was the valve and it was actually a bat.  He yelled "Bat" over the radio.  We were all laughing so hard up in the Control Room.

[Rennhack]

He yelled "Bat" over the radio.  We were all laughing so hard up in the Control Room.

I can imagine that!  Bet the break room was unbearable for a long time.

Bat!

[spentfuel]

This article (blog) is titled Gas against Wind but it does mention an impact about nuclear which makes a lot of sense but is not good news for the nuclear industry.

Hmmm

Might turn out to be good for some nuclear business  

Try googleing gasbuggy or rulision

Might be worth another look  

And ya cats, rats, bats, owls, pigions, hawks, frogs, turtles, snakes Ive seen em all one time or another

sf

[HydroDave63]

Speaking of all of that shale gas...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/natural-gas-drilling-down-documents-4.html

[Marlin]

Speaking of all of that shale gas...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/natural-gas-drilling-down-documents-4.html

It is still running strong for a Ponzi scheme three years after that e-mail, here is a newer evaluation:

  (the excerpt is from the summary at the end of the article)

For a time, yes. The infrastructure to export shale gas as liquefied natural gas (LNG) is almost non-existent at the moment, but several projects are in the pipeline, and as exports rise the domestic price will become closer to the world price. In addition, as more gas-fired power stations are built, demand will rise and with it domestic shale gas prices.

Nevertheless US prices are likely to remain at a discount to world prices for many years to come. The US will win in another way; the country operates a current account deficit with the rest of the world in large part because of oil imports.

As oil imports have fallen this year, so has the deficit — imports up to August were the lowest since 1998, in part due to lower oil imports. On the flip side, a stronger current account means a stronger dollar, according to James Mackintosh on the FT’s Short View, which would not help US exporters of manufactured goods.

So on balance, shale oil and gas have much to offer the US.

It will probably usher in a prolonged period of energy supply independence — if not price independence.

It will reduce the demands made on the country’s military to police areas of the world it would probably rather not police.

It will provide, at least for a number of crucial years crawling out of the current crisis, access to cheaper energy relative to the rest of the world, which will benefit manufacturers and consumers.

And it will continue to provide a source of employment — so far estimated at 1.75 million — that is sorely needed in an economy that is not producing anywhere near enough new jobs for its rising population.

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/How-Big-a-Role-will-Shale-Gas-Play-in-Americas-Energy-Future.html