Fracking

The governor of the socialist republic of California, Jerry Brown seems to be a convert of the benefits of fracking:

The USC authors cite “the possibility that greater-than-expected in-state energy production not only could support a return to stronger economic growth within the state, but actually accelerate the state’s economic turnaround, perhaps profoundly so.”

Unsurprisingly, the usual suspects have harrumphed loudly about the perils of fracking. “If and when the oil companies figure out how to exploit that shale oil, California could be transformed almost overnight,” Kassie Siegel, a lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity, told the New York Times in February. “Fracking poisons the air we breathe and the water we drink. It is one of the most, if not the most, important environmental issue in California.”

But to his credit, Governor Brown — affectionately known here as Moonbeam for his liberal, hippie tendencies — has taken some small steps in the right direction. “The fossil fuel deposits in California are incredible, the potential is extraordinary,” Brownstated last month, also noting that “between now and development lies a lot of questions that need to be answered, and I feel confident that the people are in place in my administration to handle the issues as they come up.” Brown also reaffirmed his commitment, such as it is, to the state’s oil economy, declaring that “our permits are dramatically up … California is the fourth-largest oil producing state and we want to continue that.” It may be some time before fracking becomes a reality, but Brown is plainly both feeling the pressure and sensing the promise.

So for all the talk of a new, high-tech, white-collar economy bringing California back from the brink, it may turn out that one of the oldest and dirtiest industries around will save the future of the Golden State.

The green taliban would have us all believe that fracking is incredibly dangerous and a huge risk…but is it?

David Shearer appeared on Larry Williams’ show last night to clarify…uhm….er…his…ahhh…position on…um lowering power…um…power prices.

There you go, all cleared up…got it.  Read more »

Replacement of coal gas with increased usage of natural gas kills less kids.

A working paper (PDF; abstract) from economists Resul Cesur, Erdal Tekin, and Aydogan Ulker explores the effects of increased natural gas use on infant mortality:

In this paper, we use the variation across space and time in the expansion of natural gas infrastructure in Turkish provinces using data between 2001 and 2011. Our results indicate that the rate of increase in the use of natural gas has resulted in a significant reduction in the rate of infant mortality in Turkey. In particular, a one-percentage point increase in the rate of subscriptions to natural gas services would cause the infant mortality rate to decline by 4 percent, which could result in 348 infant lives saved in 2011 alone. These results are robust to a large number of specifications.  Read more »

Britain has embraced fracking…and the results are stunning.

Meanwhile the Green taliban prevent and oppose all forms of progress here in New Zealand.

The huge shale gas deposit around Blackpool is 50pc larger than previously thought, according to reports.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) is currently carrying out a review of the UK’s shale gas reserves, which will be published in the new year.

The Times newspaper reported on Friday night that the BGS will conclude that the the 1,000 square kilometres covered by the Bowland Basin to the east of Blackpool contains 300 trillion cubic feet of gas. This is roughly 17 times more than the known reserves in the North Sea.

In 2011, exploration company Cuadrilla estimated there was 200 trillion cubic feet of gas in the area.

The news comes just two days after George Osborne said shale gas could make a “substantial contribution” to UK gas supplies from the 2020s. The Chancellor also revealed in his Autumn Statement that the development will be overseen by a dedicated Office for Unconventional Gas and Oil. He is looking at tax breaks to encourage its development.

The US is into fracking boots and all, and political opposition is waning. We need to be telling the Green Taliban to frack off and get cracking with the fracking here:

Political obstacles to oil and gas production are starting to fall away at the state and local levels as voters, elected officials and courts jump on the energy boom bandwagon.

Voters are rewarding local politicians who support production. Ballot measures are distributing potential tax windfalls broadly. And most state legislatures are focused on managing the economic and environmental consequences of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, so the drilling boom can speed up rather than slow down.

The trend is crucial to the nation’s energy future because oil and gas production is regulated and taxed almost entirely by state and local governments. The federal government’s role is largely advisory, except on federal lands and on pipelines.

“Fracking is happening and it’s not going to stop, so we have to take the high road of good regulation and taxes so communities are better off, not worse off, after it’s done,” says Ted Boettner, executive director of the liberal West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

Most states were caught off guard when fracking turned Pennsylvania into a major natural gas producer in 2009. Fracking could produce oil or gas in as many as 36 states. Result: The USA will become the world’s No. 1 producer of natural gas in 2015 and oil in 2017, overtaking Russia and Saudi Arabia, respectively, predicts the International Energy Agency.

Sensible stuff from Fraser Nelson:

In the end, the biggest mistake you can make in politics is to judge a programme by its intentions, not its results. For more than a decade, environmental policy has been cursed with cross-party consensus because no one wanted to be seen to oppose so noble a cause. This left us a situation where aristocrats are offered subsidies for follies, and the Government was unmoved by what could be the best environmental news for a generation. Shale has helped America’s carbon emissions fall by 430 million tons in five years, more than any other country’s. This is progress that would, if we had a rational debate, be celebrated.

ᔥ The Telegraph

The Greens would probably have kittens, or go off to play role playing games or dance the morris rather than let us have our electricity prices halved.

In the last five years a new energy source, shale gas, has halved American electricity prices:

A healthier world means a rising population. This, in turn, leads to neo-Malthusians worrying about how the planet won’t have enough resources for all of us – but history proves them wrong. The great British economist, William Stanley Jevons, warned in 1865 that the economy was on the brink of collapse because the coal would run out. Oil was used instead, and everything changed. In the last five years a new energy source, shale gas, has halved American electricity prices. The thousands of British wind turbines may be rendered redundant by shale deposits discovered in Lancashire, which could yet turn Blackpool into the Dallas of England.

And might the consumption of all this newly mined fossil fuel doom us anyway, via global warming? The truth is that the world’s fossil-fuel consumption is falling, mainly due to more efficient cars and factories. Nor is warming synonymous with doom. Scour the raw data of the Government’s climate change “risk assessment” (as I did) and you find that a warmer Britain will mean, on average, 11,000 fewer deaths each year by 2050 because fewer pensioners will die from the cold. But do not expect to find this point made in any official report. The Environment Department is there not to give impartial advice, but to scare us.

The purpose of government is to solve problems, which is why it is prone to exaggerating them. It is easy to conjure up a crisis if you extrapolate a trend far enough into the future. It’s always pointless: as the Yiddish proverb has it, man plans and God laughs. History is dictated by the unpredicted, and a government’s best hope is to give people the security and freedom to improve the country in the way a bureaucracy never could. The great irony of politics is that those nominally running the country are often the last to work out what direction it has taken.

This was, in a roundabout way, the point the Queen made when she addressed the United Nations two years ago. She had witnessed incredible change, she said, and much of it for the better. But weekly audiences with a dozen prime ministers seem to have left her with a clear idea about who makes things better. “Many of these sweeping advances have come about not because of governments, committee resolutions, or central directives – although all these have played a part,” she said. The improvements came simply “because millions of people around the world have wanted them”.

I think it is fair to assume that Morris Dancing looks a lot better if you are taking some slightly illegal substances to alter reality, and the Greens are know to have a good supply of them.

ᔥ the tipline

I just bet that these are Gareth Hughes favourite bikkies. 

ᔥ The Telegraph

Could this Democrat have actually done good or is she just thick?

Becky Carney, a Democratic member of the North Carolina general assembly, had been a vocal critic of plans to allow hydraulic fracking, a pollution-heavy method of extracting natural gas from the ground.

Yet by pressing the green “aye” button at her desk rather than the red “no”, she cast the deciding vote in favour of a Republican bid to override a veto on the practice by Bev Perdue, the Democratic governor.

“Oh my gosh,” Ms Carney reportedly said on the assembly floor, after seeing her name flash up in the Republican column on a chamber TV screen after the 11.30pm poll. “It won’t let me change my vote.” The 67-year-old Democrat, who has represented a Mecklenburg County constituency for 10 years, asked Thom Tillis, the Republican House Speaker, to allow her to change her vote, but he declined.

Members are permitted to change their votes only if the overall result is not altered, Mr Tillis happily pointed out. Republicans then used a procedural move to ensure the vote could not be reconsidered.

Ms Carney’s “yes” vote meant the result was 72-47 in favour of the Republican override – precisely the number they required. Without Ms Carney’s vote, the governor’s veto would have been sustained.