Comments on the potential of U.S. natural gas from new Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, in a video posted to his Facebook page:

“The way I look at it is that this natural gas boom is a boon. First of all, we all know that it is partially responsible for the decrease in CO2 emissions that we have experienced over the last years in the absence of, at least, over-arching legislation. Secondly, what I would argue is that the way to look at it – and, you know, as gas as kind of a bridge to a very low carbon future – is that it affords us a little bit more time to develop the technologies, to lower the costs of the alternative technologies, to get the market penetration of these new technologies.”

In other words, Moniz is saying that developing our natural gas reserves is key to our ener... more »

Today on National Maritime Day, let’s salute the merchant marines who operate the tankers that deliver the oil that makes our modern lives possible.

Think about it:  From the gasoline in our cars and trucks to the asphalt in our roads, from bicycle helmets to medical equipment, 60 percent of energy used daily by Americans is delivered by tanker.

The men and women of the maritime industry and the vessels they operate – around the clock and across the world - safely deliver the energy we need. Smaller tankers transport gasoline and other specialized petroleum products throughout the United States, while tankers  as long as the Empire State Building is tall transport crude around the globe.

Over the past decade, more than 99.9997 percent of oil delivered by tankers to the U.S. reached... more »

An early look at the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed new rule governing hydraulic fracturing on federal and Indian lands shows the challenge of trying to create a new rule that doesn’t just add regulation on top of effective state rules already in place.

Certainly, BLM’s aim with this rule, compared to a previous version, was to take hydraulic fracturing regulation in a better direction – acknowledging the role of the states and measures including FracFocus.org, the online fracking fluid registry. And it appears BLM has done that to some degree. Yet, the executive summary in BLM’s rule announcement and request for public comment suggests BLM itself is concerned about duplication, additional layers and potential additional delays to oil and natural gas development (emphasis a... more »

There’s no evidence of groundwater contamination from shale natural gas production in Arkansas’ Fayetteville play. So says a new study by a team of Duke University-U.S. Geological Survey scientists. Their key conclusions:

"Our results show no discernible impairment of groundwater quality in areas associated with natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing. … Only a fraction of the groundwater samples we collected contained dissolved methane, mostly in low concentrations, and the isotopic fingerprint of the carbon in the methane in our samples was different from the carbon in deep shale gas in all but two cases.” – Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment

"These findings demonstrate that shale gas development, at... more »

In an interview with Fuel Fix, Charlie Williams, director of the Center for Offshore Safety, fields a question about the perceptions surrounding the safety of drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico:

“I think the biggest misconception is that not much has been done, when there has been a tremendous amount of effort by the industry and by regulators in moving this forward. … There has been more collaboration, cooperation and improvement in working together to make things better than I think we have ever done before.”

Steadily improving offshore safety in oil and natural gas development was the main reason for the center’s creation and Williams’ selection as director last year. The center gathers industry practices that foster safe and responsible operations, shares the inform... more »