fracking and water

natural gas well entrance

Just released federal government draft rules for fracking fail to protect people from harm. Instead the rules protect the oil and gas industry from having to follow strong public health and environmental standards.[read more]

fracking and water

David Biello over at Scientific American had a story in 2011 that looked at research establishing a link between methane contamination in well water and nearby hydraulic fracturing of shale rock.[read more]

groundwater/shutterstock

Mora County, New Mexico is the first county in the country to ban drilling and fracking. They did it to protect their groundwater. The ordinance also established a local Bill of Rights that confirms the county's right to clean air and water.[read more]

EU shale development

As a result of the unconventional oil and gas revolution, American states have been updating their regulatory frameworks to include new measures to protect groundwater and reduce air emissions.[read more]

arabian desert/shutterstock

As if the economics of shale gas development weren't challenging enough in such an environment, the key ingredient that has fueled the US shale revolution, water, is in short supply in Saudi Arabia.[read more]

Rena Schild / Shutterstock.com

Like any method of recovering fossil fuels, hydraulic fracturing does do damage to the environment. But, even accounting for methane leakage during extraction, the total carbon cost of natural gas is less than that of coal or oil.[read more]

California farmland/shutterstock

Last week a federal court ruled that fracking proposals there need to look at the air and water impacts of fracking more thoroughly. This is just the latest powerful reminder of why "NEPA" is so important.[read more]

natural gas drilling

In reporting on the shale gas boom, I’ve been guilty of writing about the “millions of gallons per well” or the “billions of gallons of water consumed annually,” and leaving it at that. So in this edition of Friday Energy Facts, we’ll try to tackle this question: how much water does fracking for shale gas really consume?[read more]

Natural Gas end-use

So, what do New York’s old and leaky pipes have to do with the claimed emissions reductions due to shale gas? Precisely zero. Here’s why.[read more]

global water supply

Sharing water across international boundaries is a complex international challenge that requires coordinated water policy formulation and responsible governance.[read more]

energy innovation

The oil and natural gas industry continue to be dynamic innovators -- working to be more effective, more efficient and cleaner as they find and deliver the energy we need.[read more]

When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the latest follow-up tests of water surrounding natural-gas-drilling sites near Pavillion, Wyo., October 10, they appeared to confirm how water can be contaminated by hydraulic fracturing. The operator of the gas field in question, Encana Corp., last week re-asserted it is not...[read more]

Photo by likeablerodent via Flickr

When we wrote last week about technologies to mitigate water demands during hydraulic fracturing, we knew we’d find more examples of energy innovation for the simple fact that there’s a lot of innovating going on. Here’s a little bit about two other advances in the area of fracking waste water, as well as another company’s initiative to...[read more]

Photo by openprivacy via Flickr

One of the factors involved in pulling energy from shale through hydraulic fracturing is how much water is needed – typically 2 to 4 million gallons per well. Though that’s not as much water as it sounds (electrical generation for the Susquehanna River Basin requires nearly 150 million gallons per day), it’s a public concern. More on...[read more]