Americas carbon-dioxide emissions are actually falling. In fact, they have not been this low since 1992. And while no single factor can account for the entire shift, much of the credit goes to something environmentalists often detest: hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Among power sources, the worst source of CO2 emissions by far is coal. Natural gas generates half the CO2 per kilowatt-hour, and in the past few years natural gas has displaced coal to a remarkable degree. This year gas-fired electricity generation equaled coal-fired generation for the first time. According to the Energy Information Administration, that trend will continue as shale gas production rises from 5 trillion cubic feet in 2010 to more than 13 trillion cubic feet in 2035. Fracking made this possibleby opening up the Marcellus shale deposit in Pennsylvania and many others. Twelve years ago, shale gas made up 2 percent of the U.S. supply. It now makes up 37 percent.

All of that was achieved without government directionand in the face of considerable environmental resistance.

Americas carbon-dioxide emissions are actually falling. In fact, they have not been this low since 1992

This is great news! Somebody go tell the left that it worked. We got our global warming under control. Their efforts paid off and we have seen no warming in the past 10 years. We can stop pushing for carbon taxes and such and die in peace. The planet will survive after all.

Another contributing factor to the dropping of the earth’s CO2 content is the fact that Moslems are killing each other and Christians and Jews in ever greater numbers than before, thus reducing carbon footprints.

Other places with major killings include the Congo, So. Africa (the top murder country per capital in the world other than Pakistan);Red China (lots of people being killed that you never hear of); No. Korea;Venezuela (another rising crime capital of the world); Colombia; Mexico; El Salvador; Guatemala.

Chicago; Philadelphia; Wash. D.C., Baltimore, Detriot, Houston, LA, etc. Here Obama’s sons are doing the carbon footprint reduction program. Just read the police crime reports in the paper every day and you will see what I mean.

This is a semi-sarcastic/satiric post but there is a lot of truth behind it. That is the tragedy for America, and for the world.

To cash in on the carbon sequestration "market" is perhaps the principal reason the owners of the oil companies have been using their tax-exempt "charities" to make fat donations to the NGOs behind this "global warming" scam. Moreover, because big companies can more easily afford the processing plants for producing and delivering mass quantities of CO2 and the overhead with which to track and speculate in credits, it would put them at a financial advantage over independent drillers.

Why certain people and organizations think it is a problem is a mystery to me.

Using government to subsidize a product and/or eliminate competition by regulation has been a way to profit for a very long time. Hence, the major stockholders of the companies who stand to profit from this racket have been making fat donations to green groups for over fifty years. The NGOs and foundations launder the money and support the "scientific" justification they seek.

It wouldn’t be worth the effort vs the personal health hazard. The hydrocarbon content of the air in the Bayou Corne area is making residents ill. A salt dome containing 1.5 million barrels of liquid butane will be liberated to the open air fairly soon. Asphyxiation or explosion is the anticipated consequence.

Among power sources, the worst source of CO2 emissions by far is coal. Natural gas generates half the CO2 per kilowatt-hour,

Statement based on a eia/epa government published table. The source for the statistics are not provided. It is hard for me to understand how the oxidation of coal based carbon is different than oxidation of natural gas carbon. But then biochemistry was something I didn't study.

Interesting that you are willing to rely on NBC citing something called the “Food & Environment Reporting Network”.

I don’t know about the latter but I’m very well acquainted with the horses—t coming out of NBC.

Maybe you are an expert at this, which I am not. But I have lived most of my life in the Bakken area and I’ve seen reports of disastrous claim after claim which even Obama’s own EPA cannot manage to substantiate...and believe me, they are trying.

The Bakken zone is a couple miles below the acquifers tapped for water wells. Does that mean there isn’t sometimes surface damage or spills caused by careless workers? Hardly.

Bayou Corne is a collapsed Salt Dome Storage Facility and has ZERO to do with hydraulic fracturing in a production well. The storage facility was created by leaching out the salt and there is NO WAY anyone would consider fracturing a hole designed to KEEP the oil/gas in. Fracturing is done to let the oil/gas/water out.

There are fracking operations going on all over the area surrounding Bayou Corne. Apparently they didn't get the message that fracking isn't a good idea. Too late. Seismic activity initiated by the fracking and methane pressure from under the salt domes is breaking them apart. Fresh water incursion is dissolving the domes. It's just a matter of time.

Check this link for current videos of the situation and pictures prior to the sink hole opening.

> It is hard for me to understand how the oxidation of coal based carbon is different than oxidation of natural gas carbon

1) Natural gas is 25% hydrogen by weight (Coal is around 3 percent hydrogen). Much of the energy released by burning NG is from the oxidation of hydrogen.

2) Modern natural gas electric plants use the highly efficient “Combined cycle” design, which converts about 60% of the chemical energy in the NG into electricity. Coal plants do not use combined cycle, and typically get about 40% conversion.

Add those factors together, and it’s not hard to see that per mole of carbon, methane can yield about twice as many watt/hours as coal.

Just imagine, you could rig a small dome over the methane leak, power a small generator and hook it to a line sync inverter and get paid for free electricity. One ladys fear is another mans treasure.

Exactamento. Gas and electricity generated on-site back out utility power and gas, and you can actually go negative-balance and get paid retail for the gas and electricity you produce. This does happen in some locations, such as southern Ohio, where people sometimes have old, capped-off wellheads in their basements or yards that have just enough residual natural-gas pressure on the casing that they'll flow to a stove or furnace.

Item, if you must sequester CO2 in volume, the best place to do it is in a partially- or mostly-depleted conventional oil reservoir or a high-carbon shale (like the Eagleford in central and south Texas or the Bakken in Montana and North Dakota) that is known to produce liquid hydrocarbons. The CO2 mobilizes kerogen and bitumen in the shale or sand reservoirs enough that it can be migrated, captured and produced.

CO2 flooding is a secondary-production technique practiced for generations now in older oil fields like those being rejuvenated by massive-frac technology in the old Paleozoic trends of the Ohio Valley.

There are fracking operations going on all over the area surrounding Bayou Corne. Apparently they didn’t get the message that fracking isn’t a good idea. Too late. Seismic activity initiated by the fracking and methane pressure from under the salt domes is breaking them apart.

= = = = = =

BS Hydraulic Fracturing is not related in any way. There is not any substantial claim of such.

very interesting! Thanks. Somehow there seems to be an amazing deposit of hydrogen in the earths crust. I wonder if there is some sort of nuclear reaction in the hot core of the planet that produces hydrogen somehow.

It is leaking out everywhere, and if the planet is elventy billion year old, it would have leaked out long ago. Don't you just wish to get a glimpse into an organic chemistry book from the 24th century...

30
posted on 12/12/2012 3:18:34 PM PST
by American in Israel
(A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)

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