Before addressing last week’s mournful dirge from Ms. Katz associating fracking with the work of Satan, some background information absorbed over my nearly two decades in the oil and gas industry, primarily in the Persian Gulf.
The technique of breaking shale to release hydrocarbons, water etc. was initiated in 1947 and revolutionized in 1998 with technological breakthroughs in horizontal drilling.
Shale Basins are concentrated in Colorado and Wyoming; in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Kansas; and in Appalachia covering Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York State.
This latter basin is labeled the Marcellus Shale where the water table aquifers flow at an average depth of between 100 to 600 feet below ground level while the shale formations are at a depth of 7000 feet-plus below the surface, a geological fact to which Ms. Katz appears oblivious.
At current rates of development, the United States is now self sufficient in natural gas, the world’s cleanest and most efficient source of energy. Also, we’ll become a net exporter of methane within two years. As for oil, we’ll surpass Saudi Arabia’s reserves within seven years, plus become a net exporter.
Expect the world price of both commodities to fall as increased supply comes onto the market. The positive impact on the domestic price of gasoline and heating oil, as well as on our balance of trade, will be dramatic.
Two additional critical factors include employment booms created in these states, as well as the wealth created through rising land values in relatively undeveloped rural areas. Derivative of both factors, these state budgets are in the black, giving them the financial leverage to lower taxes, further promoting economic growth.
Come to think of it, did Ms. Katz mention any of this?
But not in New York, of course; governed by the multi-faced, genetically pompous and utterly sanctimonious Cuomo, always mindful of the wrath of ax-grinders like Ms. Katz.
Note the frothy hysteria quoted below and her use of words meant to inflame rather than inform:
“It very easy to see the rape of America…..But there is nothing normal here……now the waters are murky. The deer are in the distance but with a different color from what is natural…….Neighbors are divided and many paid off to be silent with gag orders from Cabot Gas. Their lives and property have been ruined, their health jeopardized and drinking water and air contaminated.”
Are any of these vicious libels and ignorant slanders supported by a solitary iota of fact? Now don’t be silly.
Since Engels and Marx, when confronted by science, the rabid and unhinged left has always resorted to gossip, hearsay, innuendo and rumor; as the source of their truth.
With no arguments grounded in science, these shameless harridans are left with a litany of canards and falsehoods they trot out like clockwork to discredit and defame, namely: fracking causes earthquakes, fracking contaminates groundwater and the chemicals used in fracking poison the air; each one being absolutely and utterly false, of course.
Wile the Herald Courier should never censor; let me suggest that fact checking from time to time, would do a service to your readership.
Tom Coffey,
Herricks
