1. (continuing 5. from Friday) Natural gas and oil form in similar ways from similar materials in similar geologic settings but once they come out of the ground, there are some important differences:
d. oil and natural gas are consumed for different reasons- natural gas more for space heating and electricity generation and oil more for transportation; as a result, the consumption of natural gas exhibits heavy seasonal fluctuation (high use in winter)
2. At the country level, the decision to develop domestic petroleum reserves (as opposed to imported) is a win-win-win-lose (or a win-win-win-lose-win/lose).
Win 1: the American people win because they either overwhelmingly support domestic sources of energy (either explicitly or implicitly) or just don't give a (care)
Win 2: American companies win when they profit from exploiting domestic reserves make money by providing Americans with domestically produced energy
Win 3: American politicians of both major parities win when they are able to take credit for facilitating win 2
Lose: the extraction of any natural resources, even in a "best-case-scenario", damages the affected area in some way. These damages can be relatively small or catastrophic
Win/lose: those who inhabit areas with particularly intensive extractive activities can see both direct benefits and harm (economic, social, environmental)
3. Pollution can be thought of in terms of scheduled and unscheduled releases of toxic material into the environment. An unscheduled release is an accidental spill that is not part of the day-to-day routine and scheduled releases are (often) legal releases that are part of the day-to-day routine and are sometimes monitored at the local, state or federal level (as in the USEPA's TOXMAP). In order to effectively understand and describe the environmental consequences of activities with high potential for pollution, one must be able to distinguish between scheduled and unscheduled releases.
4. Why is fracking in the Marcellus shale so controversial? for one thing, it underlies a more densely populated portion of the USA than, say the Bakken Formation. For another thing, there is the very real concern that ground water resources could be (and are being) polluted by fracking. You should be able to discuss the various potential mechanisms for drinking water aquifer pollution (and other issues) including leakage of natural gas (NG) and fracking fluid (FF) where the borehole intersects the aquifer, induced fractures that propagate all of the way from the shale layer into the aquifer thereby allowing for the movement of NG and/or FF into the aquifer, induced fractures that propagate into areas of existing fractures that then extend into the aquifer allowing for the movement of NG and/or FF into the aquifer, disposal of FF (treatment or injection), spillage of FF, and earthquakes from fracking or from FF injection in terms of their relative potential, probability, and severity as well as the mechanisms for preventing or mitigating problems related to fracking.
Slides shown in lecture are available on Sakai. Wednesday, we will finish with our discussion of the fracking controversy and move on to a look at the homework. Your reading assignmhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifent for Wednesday is What the Frack? Is there really 100 years’ worth of natural gas beneath the United States? by Chris Nelder posted Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011 on Slate online magazine.
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