Potential of US natural gas reserves, explored on NPR this week

NPR correspondent Tom Gjelton is taking an in depth look at natural gas this week. His first fascinating piece this morning explored the potential of large new underground sources of natural gas in deep shale rock.

Until recently major oil and gas companies did not believe gas reserves were big enough to be worth exploring. But that is changing "due to new successes in getting gas out of shale rock, " says Gjelton. Some experts say natural gas reserves in the United States are actually 35 percent higher than believed just two years ago, and could be even higher.
One area known as the Marcellus basin, stretching from New York to West Virginia, is believed to hold as much as 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the equivalent of about 80 billion barrels of oil. (There are also large shale gas basins in Texas, Wyoming, Arkansas and Michigan.)

While natural gas is not a clean fuel, it's carbon emissions are half that of coal, meaning that it could provide a useful low carbon energy source in the transition away from fossil fuels.

Check out this interactive map of US natural gas resources.

- David Adams, Times staff writer

Gulf of Mexico oil spill tops 58,000 gallons as debate continues on expanding offshore drilling

An underwater pipeline leaked more than 58,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, the New Orleans Times-Picayune is reporting. The spill, which occurred about 30 miles off the Louisiana coast, has now spread to cover 80 square miles -- up from just 28 square miles on Monday. The cause is still under investigation.

The spill "was among the largest in recent years in U.S. waters," Reuters reports.

The spill from Shell Oil's pipeline may not reach land, but its effects are rippling through Florida. Opponents of expanding drilling in the gulf spread the story as yet another reason to keep the eastern gulf clear of offshore rigs (and the pipelines that would bring the oil onshore).

Legislation was introduced this week by Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Mary Landrieu, D-La., that would bring oil drilling to within 45 miles of the coast. Gov. Charlie Crist, who flip-flopped on offshore drilling during last year's presidential race, dodged questions Tuesday about whether he would support this latest bill.

"I've always said it needs to be far enough, clean enough and safe enough to protect Florida's beautiful beaches,'' Crist said. "I also am cognizant of the fact that it sure would be nice to be energy independent. That's a growing concern of an awful lot of people including myself." 

However, state legislators told the Bradenton Herald that they don't think offshore drilling will solve that problem. "“I don’t believe that we’ll ever drill our way to renewable energy,” state Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said. “Anything that we do in the Gulf of Mexico only delays the inevitable.”

In fact, a study released last week by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that Americans used less energy last year, and more of what they used came from renewable sources. "The nation used less coal and petroleum during the same time frame," the report found, "and only slightly increased its natural gas consumption."

--Craig Pittman

Palin blasts Obama over cap-and-trade plan, touts drill-baby-drill instead

The soon-to-be ex-governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, penned an op-ed piece in today's Washington Post blasting President Obama over his support for a bill to use cap-and-trade to limit greenhouse gases.

"I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy," Palin wrote. "It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage."

Instead of approving the Waxman-Markey bill, Palin suggested focusing on -- say it together, people! -- "drill, baby, drill!":

"In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats."

Palin's critics have already begun counter-attacks on her op-ed piece -- but one of the more interesting takes is in the Wall Street Journal, which notes that "the biggest beneficiary of the energy and climate bill currently in the Senate will probably be natural gas, which is currently as cheap as coal and twice as clean...Seen that way, Gov. Palin could probably find plenty of reasons to support the administration’s energy plan."

[AP photo: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin]

--Craig Pittman

Republicans draft alternative energy bill favoring nuclear and increased oil and gas drilling

House Republicans are drafting their own energy legislation which is in sharp contrast to the Democrat's bill (Waxman-Markey) which is already being discussed in committee.
The Republican alternative relies on nuclear power, setting a goal of building 100 reactors over the next 20 years. Though it does include renewables like wind, solar and biomass, it would also provide incentives for increased oil and gas production, including oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
Unlike the Democrats proposal, it does not include a cap and trade mechanism to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases.

- David Adams, Times staff writer

Natural gas pipeline company fined $200,000+ for damaging Tampa Bay seagrass

State environmental regulators announced Friday they are fining a natural gas company more than $200,000 for killing seagrass beds in Tampa Bay.

A chemical spill by Gulfstream Natural Gas last summer damaged seagrass beds about 1,500 feet due east of the Progress Energy power plant on Weedon Island, according to an investigation by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Then, while Gulfstream was trying to clean up the spill, barges being used in the cleanup ran aground, further damaging seagrass in the same area, the DEP found.

The incident occurred while Gulfstream was building a 17-mile branch from its primary pipeline across the Gulf of Mexico to the Progress Energy plant, which was switching from burning oil to natural gas, which produces less air pollution.

To avoid damaging environmentally sensitive areas in the bay, Gulfstream used a technique called horizontal direct drilling, cutting its hole for the pipeline a minimum of three feet down from the bay’s bottom. To lubricate the drill, the company used a chemical called bentonite, which last June broke out of the hold and smothered seagrass beds.

Seagrass covers about 28,300 acres of Tampa Bay, providing habitat and food for fish, manatees and other creatures of the state’s largest estuary. From 1950 to 1984, more than 40 percent of the bay’s seagrasses were wiped out by sewage dumping and coastal development.

[St. Petersburg Times photo of Gulfstream dredging by Martha Rial]

--Craig Pittman

Natural gas is dropping now, but Putin says era of cheap gas over

Sure the price of natural gas is tumbling now, just like oil. But other factors are soon going to drive the price of natural gas back up, according to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Putin told ministers from the world's major gas-exporting countries Monday hat the era of cheap gas is about over, the BBC reported today.

Putin said the cost of extracting gas was rising sharply, therefore "the era of cheap energy resources, of cheap gas, is of course coming to an end." Notes the Beeb: "As the head of the government of the world's biggest gas exporter, Mr Putin's word carries weight both with producers and consumers."

The group Putin addressed, about a dozen gas producers known as the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, plan to sign a joint charter, the Telegraph reports -- the first step toward becoming better organized.

"Major consumers fear the body will set output quotas, like the oil cartel OPEC,   but Russian officials have denied such plans," the Telegraph reports.

[AP photo of Putin speaking to Gas Exporting Countries Forum]

--Craig Pittman

New energy study on Florida renewables from Navigant Consulting

Last year, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist signed an executive order calling for the state's utilities to produce 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The state Legislature punted the issue to the Public Service Commission earlier this year, asking the commission to set targets that will then come back to the Legislature for approval in 2009.

Now comes a detailed report commissioned by the PSC to examine exactly what are the state's renewable resources, and how much it will cost to tap them. (Read Asjylyn Loder's story in the Times today.)

The state could realistically expect utilities to generate 6 percent to 27 percent of retail electric sales from renewable energy by 2020, according to the 268-page report from Navigant Consulting.

The PSC takes up the issue again Wednesday.

(Read the report here.)

*

Natural gas pipeline coming through soon

The Florida Gas Transmission Company, which operates Florida’s largest natural gas pipeline network, filed an application at the end of October with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to expand its pipeline network.

The $2.4-billion, 483.2-mile project, announced earlier this year, will largely expand compression capacity and add wider pipelines along existing pipeline routes from the Panhandle through south Florida, passing through Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough and Pasco Counties. A little more than 117 miles will be built along new routes, including a 16-mile pipeline in north Manatee County.

Construction is slated to begin in 2010, and the project is slated for completion in 2011. Affected landowners will be information receiving packets in the mail in the next several weeks. Several public hearings have already been held on the project, and more meetings will be held next year, said FGT spokesman John Barnett.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Gas pipeline drilling damages Tampa Bay seagrass

A company drilling a natural gas pipeline route under Tampa Bay this summer spilled a chemical that has killed about two acres of seagrass, according to state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Pam Vazquez.

The spill by Gulfstream Pipeline killed seagrass beds about 1,500 feet due east of the Progress Energy power plant on Weedon Island, she said. Investigators have snorkeled through that area of the bay several times, including last week, trying to chart the extent of the die-off and figure out how to make up for it.

The company finished earlier this month removing the chemical that leaked, said Gulfstream spokesman Christopher Stockton. The company’s experts say the seagrass die-off may not be as extensive as the DEP fears.

Six years ago, Gulfstream built a $1.6-billion pipeline that stretched for more than 400 miles under the Gulf of Mexico to carry natural gas from Mississippi and Alabama to Port Manatee, just south of the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Then Progress Energy announced plans to modify its Weedon Island plant to double its generating capacity and switch it from burning fuel oil to cleaner-burning natural gas (see photo). In January Gulfstream began digging a 17-mile branch from the Manatee County end of its pipeline to connect to the refurbished plant. Work on the new 20-inch diameter pipeline wrapped up this week, Stockton said.

For a map of the pipeline route click here: Download GulfstreamMap.pdf

[St. Petersburg Times photo]

--Craig Pittman

McCain, Obama on energy: new Manhattan Project?

In last night's debate, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama both asserted that clean energy is the key not only to combating climate change, but also to getting the stumbling economy on its feet and moving again.

McCain said that energy independence, specifically “drilling offshore and nuclear power,” would power up the flagging economy: "We can work on nuclear power plants. Build a whole bunch of them, create millions of new jobs. We have to have all of the above, alternative fuels, wind, tide, solar, natural gas, clean coal technology."

When moderator Tom Brokaw asked the candidates to rate their priorities, Obama listed energy first: "Energy we have to deal with today, because you’re paying $3.80 here in Nashville for gasoline. . . And it’s a strain on your family budget, but it’s also bad for our national security, because countries like Russia and Venezuela and, you know, in some cases, countries like Iran, are benefiting from higher oil prices."

However, Obama added, "we can't simply drill our way out of the problem. And we're not going to be able to deal with the climate crisis if our only solution is to use more fossil fuels that create global warming. We're going to have to come up with alternatives, and that means that the United States government is working with the private sector to fund the kind of innovation that we can then export to countries like China that also need energy and are setting up one coal power plant a week."

McCain emphasized his opposition to the 2005 Bush energy bill that was loaded with tax breaks for oil companies -- a bill which, he said, was supported by "that one," a reference to his opponent which is already stirring some controversy.

Brokaw asked McCain if the government should "fund a Manhattan-like project" to produce alternative energy, "or should we fund 100,000 garages across America, the kind of industry and innovation that developed Silicon Valley?" McCain said he liked the idea of "pure research and development" by government scientists, an answer which the folks at Earth2Tech say "didn’t display much knowledge as to how technology innovation works in Silicon Valley."

For a full comparison of the candidates' energy proposals, check out our colleagues at Politifact. If you'd like a debate transcript, CNN has it here.

[Manhattan Project photo from Department of Energy]

--Craig Pittman