All that Clean (Un)Natural Gas

[BobbyG]

Sorry about the Palin distraction, an attempt at a little humor that
went way off-targe...

Here's a message that appeared on a peak oil-obsessed list that I lurk
on.

You know all those adverts on the tellie that promise you that "we"
have 100 more years of natural gas to burn, and that gas is this great
transition fuel to the renewable energy future, and all that?

It's kind of like the "Clean Coal" commercials if you read this lady's
posting about the proposed horizontal drilling in the Marcellus shale.

It turns out all that new natural gas relies upon destroying the
bedrock underneath the feet of those unfortunates who live where the
gas deposits lie. The effects upon the groundwater are going to be of
truly Biblical magnitude--as in the Revelations portion of the Bible.

Here goes, read all about that clean natural gas. Yes, yoiu can push
back the peak of fossil fuel production a few years, if you're willing
to lay waste to enough of what remains of the environment.

Oh, and the bad news? Horizontal fractured wells typically have an
ultra-quick peak and frequently deplete almost completely in 24-36
months' time.
-- bobby g.
-------------------
Un-natural gas and peak oil

Hi All,

In New York State we are facing the threat of shale gas development
with
horizontal drilling and high volume hydraulic fracturing. You may have
noticed that T. Boone and others are promoting natural gas as a clean
transition fuel. Now that they are threatening to drill all over the
Southern Tier of NYS into the Marcellus Shale, I have been learning
about
the horrors of natural gas drilling in shale formations.

They use millions
of gallons of clean water with proprietary mixtures of toxic chemicals
added
to it to fracture the shale thousands of feet below the ground. They
bring
back up gas and the toxic waste water and normally occurring toxins
and
radioactivity. This type of drilling has already been occurring out
west in
Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and other places. Now it has
begun in
West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Here in NYS we are fighting it
and it
hasn't yet started.

What is the significance here? Well, besides this being an example of
the
feeding frenzy for the remaining fossil fuels and an example of
another
potential government boondoggle like corn ethanol, it has the
potential to
contaminate the aquifers and waterways that would supply our water for
growing food and for drinking. Personally I think it is a lot more
important
to have water to drink and grow food than to have the natural gas
whether
for electricity, cars or heating.

So when I have been trying to get my homestead together, I keep
getting
sidetracked by having to fight for my family's right to clean water,
air and
soil.

I would love to spend more time on masonry heaters, rocket stoves,
pot-in-pot refrigeration, hay box cooking, our lovely flock of
chickens, the
garden, getting a garden going at the local elementary school, storing
food
properly in the root cellar, pruning the fruit trees properly, raising
Angora rabbits for fiber along with my chickens, weaving, tuning up
the
bicycles, growing herbal medicines and medicinal mushrooms and sharing
all
these things with others.

Instead, I find my time being sucked up by
fighting the big corporations and a handful of greedy landowners who
just
want to extract and exploit and despoil.

Unfortunately, while my time is taken up with this fight, I also
remain a
hypocrite dependent in this house on natural gas for heat and not
having the
time or money to make the transition to a renewable source of fuel. I
need
help getting off and dream of having a masonry heater building
workshop here
with help from a real mason. Maybe I will buy the fire brick tomorrow.

The best part about being part of a statewide fight to protect our
resources
and future is that I am networking with vast numbers of people here in
NY.
Hopefully our work together will evolve into positive solutions as
well as
preventing disaster.

-Colleen B.
Oneonta, NY
Member of Environmental Work Group of Central NY
Sustainable Otsego
NOFA NY policy committee on natural gas
Chenango Delaware Otsego Gas
Action Otsego