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Hungry Jack 
Group: Members
Posts: 1294
Joined: Nov. 2002
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Posted on: Dec. 08 2012, 10:07 am |
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Welcome to Saudi America!
I was doing some household accounting this morning and saw that my heating/cooking gas bill for 2012 was half of what it was for 2008--and that is after adding a kid to the mix, and countless loads of laundry, dishes, and nightly baths.
Global warming has helped, but I think the new reality is that natural gas will be cheap and abundant in the US for the foreseeable future. Or at least until the EPA does something drastic to regulate fracking (which I do not anticipate).
The other positive development is that energy providers have a stronger incentive to retire coal-burning plants and switch to gas-fired turbines, which are significantly cleaner (in terms of airborn particulates) and lower in greenhouse gases. Here in Chicago, the City just awarded a contract to purchase gas for all of its households at a lower rate (opt-outs permitted). The City specifically chose a provider who uses non-coal sources. The City has two coal-burning plants within its borders, and the incidences of respiratory problems in these neighborhoods is criminally high. No offense to those mining coal in southern IL and in other parts, but coal is a scourge on our public health. Gas is much better, and we now have lots of it.
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| Post Number: 2
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double cabin
Group: Members
Posts: 15442
Joined: Nov. 2005
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Posted on: Dec. 08 2012, 10:49 am |
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Uh oh, the mention of AGW means this will likely go TPA. Or not, you never know around here.
Wyoming is the Natural Gas Nexus of the Known Universe. Incredibly important to our Economy.
Regulations on Fracking are already coming with more States requiring companies to reveal the recipes of their secret 500 plus chemical concoctions they're pumping into our groundwater. We just got some restircitons on Fracking put in down in the Hoback.
I have friends that work in coal, but I'd personally be ecstatic if we could move a little farther down the road to cleaner skies and lungs.
Given the recent political climate I believe Watershed Security will be talked about a lot more than it has been recently. I'd personally like to put every bottle water company out there out of business.
"Up the Rebels..."
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We have nothing to fear but an industry of fear...and man skirts.
http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=129511480442251
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WalksWithBlackflies
Resident Eco-Freak Bootlicker
Group: Members
Posts: 8760
Joined: Jun. 2004
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Posted on: Dec. 08 2012, 10:58 am |
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Lower prices just means people will use more of it.
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When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. - Lao Tzu
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| Post Number: 4
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Hungry Jack
Group: Members
Posts: 1294
Joined: Nov. 2002
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Posted on: Dec. 08 2012, 11:04 am |
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Using more gas and less coal is not necessarily a bad thing.
Lower energy costs are also driving new jobs to the US, including manufacturing jobs.
It's not all doom and gloom
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| Post Number: 5
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blue_sage
Group: Members
Posts: 1616
Joined: Jul. 2002
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Posted on: Dec. 08 2012, 2:45 pm |
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There is no free lunch. I spent Thanksgiving day in Williston ND visiting a step-daughter and her husband who sold their Wyoming business and moved to the boom town to tap into the craziness. I really do not think the public has any real idea of wild west like madness in the Bakken fields of the Upper Missouri.
The scene was all the more surreal after a slushy rush of snow had turned to trashed highways into mud slicks. Even Thanksgiving morning driving into Williston the roads were dominated by water and mud haulers. Stopped in a C-store in Fairview MT for coffee. The whole store was filthy. Cases of Slim Jims and chips scattered in the aisles. Turned for door when I stopped the coffee station; the covers were off and the air reeked of sulfurous water and bitter grinds.
I was a seismo-monkey in the 70's, more precisely I worked on geophysical explorations, in the mountain west and northern plains, as a driller and surveyor and more. Weathered a few months in winter in and around the Williston Basin, and I thought that was crazy busy boom time. This is like 19th Century Klondike in Carharts and F250's.
I was dropping off a old truck that I had given to the family and hopped my first bus in 35 years for the ride home (9hrs). Rolling through that night with the rigs, stations, and worker camps made the eeriest of light shows acorss the bus windows.
It is energy madness.
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"Speak out, though your voice may shake"
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| Post Number: 6
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Panhandler
Group: Members
Posts: 270
Joined: Aug. 2011
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Posted on: Dec. 08 2012, 3:13 pm |
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I live in the midst of the Marcellus boom in the northern panhandle of WV, 50 miles west of Pittsburgh. About 4 years ago I was paying $14 per MCF of gas. In my last bill was a another rate reduction down to $7.91 per MCF. That rate combined with the mild weather so far has given my pellet stove a break. It is 55 degrees today, about average for this week. There is a well in Ohio 20 miles from me producing 26.5 million cubic feet per day, along with 2,900 barrels of liquids. Royalties of $7,000 per day for the property owner. No wild west action going on in my neck of the woods. So far, so good.
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