The hydraulic fracturing industry is repeatedly under fire from those who would love to prove that natural gas extraction is not only harmful to the environment, but a constant danger to the employees who work on the job. From environmental groups to newspapers, it seems a small army has aligned to demonize an entire industry. More often than not, these attacks are so intent on proving their point that they only provide half the story.
Category Archives: Industry News
United States Oil and Gas Independence Could Change the World
Every year, the US Department of Energy puts out a statistical analysis of the country’s oil and natural gas standing. How much we’re using, how much we’re buying, that kind of thing. This Annual Energy Outlook (AEO), which is produced by the DOE’s statistics branch, the Energy Information Agency, also includes a prediction on the country’s net oil and gas usage over the next few years. This year’s AEO had some pretty big surprises for not only the industry, but the entire world.
A Cease in Federal Subsidies May Cause Severe Harm to the Oil & Gas Industry
Last month, a new study found that cutting $4 billion in federal subsidies to the oil and gas industry would have limited impact on production and consumption. Gilbert Metcalf, an economics professor from Tufts University, concluded in his report for the Council on Foreign Relations, “Cutting oil drilling subsidies might reduce domestic oil production by 5 percent in the year 2030. As a result, he [Metcalf] thinks, the worldwide price of oil would inch up by only 1 percent. He assumes the price of oil will hardly be affected because other countries would increase production as the flow of U.S. crude slowed. Demand would hardly budge, as the price of gasoline at the pump would rise by at most 2 cents a gallon.”
However, those conclusions are misleading.
Oil & Gas Restrictions Fail to Make the November Ballot in Colorado
After a long, much talked about campaign, Initiatives 75 and 78 have been defeated. The two anti-fracking ballot initiatives were aiming for inclusion on the November Colorado, but were defeated when the Colorado Secretary of State declared that proponents of the initiatives failed to produce the requisite number of signatures that would have seen the measures move forward. Though they have been defeated on this front, anti-fracking protestors have pledged to continue their quest to restrict hydraulic fracking projects across the state.
Encroaching Environmental Hazards May Pull the Plug on Louisiana’s Oil and Gas Industry
For several years, scientists and industry experts have been keenly aware of the problem brewing on along the Louisiana coastline running along the border of the Gulf of Mexico. Day after day, the shoreline is disappearing into the Gulf, exposing the infrastructure of the state’s oil and gas industry, and threatening longterm havoc if the problem goes untended.