Energy Today - June 14, 2011
Rayola Dougher
Posted June 14, 2011
The Tennessean: U.S. Energy Policy Fails on Domestic Drilling: Has any politician of any persuasion ever advocated against energy independence? Yet our president, despite his rhetoric, has repeatedly acted to curtail the source of 97 percent of U.S. transportation fuels. Among President Obama's first executive orders was the closure of experiments on our largest domestic oil deposits. The Green River shale formation at the Colorado, Utah and Wyoming corner contains an estimated 1 trillion barrels of oil, but it now lies abandoned, unexplored and unproductive. After pouring billions into government coffers in lease bonuses and billions more in laboratory and field tests, the American oil industry is deliberately prohibited from definitive feasibility tests to validate in situ extraction techniques in this unique area. The bait-and-switch tactics on offshore leases in the Atlantic and Pacific pulled by the president, first opening but then withdrawing new coastal options, negate all the expensive and time-consuming preparation to explore areas that the U.S. Geologic Survey estimates contain 48 billion barrels of oil. Democrat and Chronicle: Move Forward with N.Y. Shale Gas Wells: The economic impact of shale gas for the nation and New York is also immense. New York has possibly 20 percent of the Marcellus reserves and potentially even more significant quantities of the Utica. Contrary to popular myths, the development of the shale gas does not only benefit the few. Each Marcellus well's equivalent production of 4 billion cubic feet could yield approximately $1 million in local New York property taxes (varies by local tax rate) plus $2 million in landowner royalties not to mention the jobs, sales and income taxes. Some communities in the Southern Tier of New York could potentially eliminate local property taxes for many years with the drilling of a few hundred wells! The technologies are already well-developed to drill, complete and produce the shale gas resource safely.
Additional Resources:
Manhattan Institute: The Economic Opportunities of Shale Development
CNS News: Canadian Pipeline is Critical to U.S. Energy Security, Oil Industry Says
Energy In Depth: You Say You Want a [Shale] Revolution ... Don't You Know it's Gonna Be All Right