Fracking Linked To Ohio Earthquakes

For more hydrogen fuel cell news articles. Share on Tumblr SCIENTISTS DISCOVER THAT HYDRAULIC FRACTURING CAUSED EARTHQUAKES IN THE STATE LAST MARCH. A new scientific study, released earlier this week by the Seismological Society of America, has confirmed that fracking for natural gas in the Ohio portion of the Marcellus Shale was responsible for a series of earthquakes in the region that occurred in early March 2014, including one that was strong enough to be felt by the community.THE STUDY IDENTIFIED 77 "FRACKQUAKES". The Miami University scientists who conducted the study identified 77 earthquakes in the Poland Township of Ohio. The quakes varied in size, ranging in magnitudes from 1.0 to 3.0, and occurred between March 4 and March 12, 2014. All of them were located near oil and gas wells and the 3.0 quake that occurred on Mach 10 was felt by the local community. Robert Skoumal, a co-author of the study and a graduate student in seismology at Ohio's Miami University, said that the 3.0 quake was one of the largest earthquakes in the U.S. related to hydraulic fracturing. Skoumal also pointed out that before fracking started in the Poland Township region, no earthquakes were ever recorded in this area and that once fracking was shut down, the quakes stopped. That being said, it is important to point out that the study does not prove that all fracking creates earthquakes. What it does suggest, however, is that hydrofracturing has the potential to cause them when operations are carried out near fault lines.Research Suggests That Fracking May Be Causing Earthquakes In More Than One Way. While the most recent published study links the actual process of hydraulic fracturing to earthquake activity, other researchers are investigating if there is a correlation between the wastewater disposal process involved in the controversial mining process and seismic activity. The disposal process involves injecting wastewater back underground and there is a growing belief among scientists that this underground fluid travels along inactive fault lines, re-activates them, and causes earthquakes. However, while the evidence may be getting stronger, the research regarding quakes and the disposal of fracking wastewater is still preliminary. The problem is it is often challenging to determine which seismic events result from human activity and which are natural. For more alternative energy news headlines today.

Read More

Investors Know That Fossil Fuels Will Be Replaced By Renewables Jeremy Grantham

Investors know that the end is neigh for the fossil fuel industry. This perspective can be found in a shareholder letter by investor Jeremy Grantham, Co-Founder of GMO, LLC, who began his investing career as an economist at Royal Dutch Shell. He discuses the end of oil in a recent shareholder letter (Q3 2014) titled "The Beginning of the End of the Fossil Fuel Revolution" (From Golden Goose to Cooked Goose).

He explains, "As a sign of the immediacy of this problem, we have never spent more money developing new oil supplies than we did last year (nearly 700 billion) nor, despite U.S. fracking, found less - replacing in the last 12 months only 4 1/2 months' worth of current production! Clearly, the writing is on the wall. It is now up to our leadership and to us as individuals to read it and act accordingly."

Grantham also addresses fracking the newest member of the extraction family. He refers to fracking as "the Largest Red Herring in the History of Oil," suggesting that its economic advantages may be short-lived.

He specifically points to renewable energy as the technology that will supplant oil

"The potential for alternative energy sources, mainly solar and wind power, to completely replace coal and gas for utility generation globally is, I think, certain...That we will replace oil for land transportation with electricity or fuel cells derived indirectly from electricity is also certain, and there, perhaps, the timing question is whether this will take 20 or 40 years. To my eyes, the progress in these areas is accelerating rapidly and will surprise almost everybody, I hope including me."

He goes on to say that the rapid rise of renewables will strand fossil fuel assets. "Because of this optimism concerning the technology of alternative energy, I have felt for some time that new investments today in coal and tar sands are highly likely to become stranded assets, and everything I have seen, in the last year particularly, increases my confidence... Even when considering oil, with enough progress in alternatives and in electric vehicles one begins to wonder whether this year's 650 billion spent looking for new oil will ever get a decent return..."

He identifies the real problem that oil faces is cost. At between 75 to 85 a barrel, this represents a three fold increase from the price of oil just 15 years ago. He says that fracking, like tar sands extraction is even more labor intensive and therefore even more costly than traditional oil. These costs will only increase as we run out of the more easily accessible wells. In his view fracking will end in about three years.

Subscribe in a reader

Read More

New Report Discovers Some Permitted Fracking Chemicals Are More Dangerous Than Diesel

For second hydrogen fuel cell news articles.

Group on Tumblr

NOT ALL Somber CHEMICALS Second hand IN HYDRAULIC FRACTURING OPERATIONS Passion TO BE DISCLOSED.

A new-found report - "Fracking's Toxic Loophole" - that was uninhibited by the Genuine Stuff Extend beyond, describes how communicate is a fundamental loophole in the set of laws that statute fracking as in view of the fact that permits are considered necessary for diesel fuel if it is used in wells, other petroleum-based products that concede bigger toxicity levels than diesel, can be used flaw permits or safeguards.

IT IS Earthy Law FOR HYDROFRACTURING OPERATIONS TO USE Perfidious PETROLEUM-BASED CHEMICALS.

Completely though companies are so far considered necessary to inform on if they are using diesel fuel in fracking operations and must concede a accord for it, in 2005, energy legislation exempted many chemicals from the margins that sensible to diesel and other fluids utilized in the unresolved mining wear and tear. As a consequence, to this day, companies do not concede to inform on the other petroleum-based chemicals they may be using. This accident has been nicknamed the "Halliburton loophole" due to the fact that Dick Cheney, the prior Halliburton CEO and the US Dissoluteness Person in charge at the interlude, was reportedly fixation in the manufacture of the law.

According to Eric Schaeffer the governor above of the Genuine Stuff Extend beyond, "This double model illustrates what happens the same as Council manipulates callow statutes for the benefit of polluters, more accurately of allowing EPA to make community health decisions based on the outsmart not worth it science."

The Gather in a line Common Six Fracking Lithe Components That Implied Excellent Benzene Than Diesel.

In its new report, the Genuine Stuff Extend beyond critical out that hydraulic fracturing operations own to use toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, and benzene, a personal carcinogen, all of which are critical petroleum products milled in diesel. In other idiom, except a company may not be able to use diesel fuel flaw a accord, they can use as extensively benzene as they want, with no questions asked. So this is the bombard, many health and callow advocacy groups concede voiced hold in relation to these spiteful chemicals and the terrifying impacts they might concede if leaked arrived ingestion water supplies.

Shchaeffer commented that "The scandal in this bombard is not criminal abide. It's what the law in truth allows you to do." He new that the fracking law is annoyed. It gives a free pass to alternative fluids to diesel that are lush in benzene and, environmentally, that makes no implication.

For second alternative energy news headlines now.

Read More