Chris Ventura sat down with Inside Shale to discuss CEA’s recent report, The Benefits of Ohio’s Natural Gas Production to Energy Consumers and Job Creators, and the more than $40 billion in cost savings Ohio’s energy consumers have witnessed as a result of increased oil and natural gas production.
Listen here – Inside Shale
Last week saw some big headlines. A man named Rich stole a plane from an airport in Washington, Kim yelled at Kourtney in the season premiere of the Kardashian’s reality show, a 14-year-old announced he was running for Governor in Vermont, and a teen accused the famed Mayo Clinic of kidnapping. While these stories made headlines for their sensational tales, we picked a few out from the energy category that you may have missed under these attention-grabbers.
Despite high production levels in the Lone Star State, drivers are facing the highest prices at the pump since 2014, and this situation is expected to continue through the end of the year. According to a recent survey of Texas gas stations released by the American Automobile Association, the statewide average for unleaded gas reached $2.62 per gallon in the second week of August, and there is an expectation of higher prices if demand continues throughout the month. Many analysts believe that driving patterns should slow down in September, thereby providing an opportunity for lower prices.
In the not so distant past, West Virginia construction companies were forced to take jobs out-of-state to make ends meet. Ranking in at #51, behind Washington D.C., West Virginia struggled to bring jobs to their state due to lack of funding and development. Now, thanks to increased natural gas development, new pipeline projects, and West Virginia’s $2.8 billion “Roads to Prosperity” campaign, the state has seen a 14.4% increase in construction employment – bringing workers back to the state and leading the country for construction industry job growth.
Residents of the Pine Tree State are just a few months away from having to worry about heating oil again, and although they may get some relief this winter, they may be better off with propane gas heating. According to the Maine Energy Office, the state average of $2.72 per gallon has been steady over the last few months, and it is as low as $2.39 in the central region. Propane gas prices are currently lower, and analysts believe that they may come down even more ahead of winter thanks to steady shale gas production across the United States.
More than 1,500 commercial and residential customers of Duke Energy have taken advantage of a special rebate program for solar panel installations, which started just a couple of months ago. The incentives are based on the purchase and installations costs, and they could be as high as $6,000 in some cases. Duke Energy executives have been working with state officials as part of a plan to turn North Carolina into a solar energy leader. Average households can save about $100 per month after the solar panels are installed; this savings is enhanced by selling unused electricity to Duke Energy for credit.
Tech giant Google is working on an artificial intelligence project that will manage smartphone battery life to maximize energy efficiency, and a Russian company unveiled an iPhone modification that will provide a full charge with just a few minutes of sunlight, but the reality of solar-powered mobile devices is not ready for the market. The Russian “iPhone X Tesla” is priced at more than $4,000, and the Google project requires considerable processing power; however, smartphone users are increasingly buying portable battery packs equipped with solar energy cells. The FLOUREON battery pack, for example, has a 10,000 mAh capacity that will recharge an Android smartphone a couple of times, although the process could take a few hours. This charger costs less than $25 and is rugged for outdoor use; it even features a backpack clip for recharging while hiking.
State Sen Audrey Gibson and CEA’s Kevin Doyle discussed the importance of lower energy costs to Florida’s families.
More energy resources would lower consumer costs and increase employment opportunities — including careers that utilize natural gas and shipping technologies at JaxPort and jobs in the renewable energy sector (with the right job training and allocated resources).
Read more – The Florida Times-Union
Lower energy prices are finally coming to areas along the Atlantic seaboard which have been facing delivery constraints of natural gas due to a lack of pipeline infrastructure.
Natural gas drilling activity in the US northeast is ramping up ahead of the full start-up of Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project later this month, which will allow inexpensive Appalachian gas to reach new markets on the Atlantic seaboard.
Read more – Argus
With so many changes happening to the environment every day, it has become increasingly important to conserve, as well as preserve, our oceans and the delicate balance of life contained within them. Many of the natural underwater habitats that fish and other marine life rely on to survive are dying or are being destroyed by invasive species. That is why it is so important to make sure there is a way to allow this sea life to thrive, which is why the Rigs to Reefs program is vital to the environmental enhancements being done off our coasts. This program allows the transformation of off-shore rigs from stark metal landscapes into beautiful reef structures.
A single, standard, eight-legged rig can provide acres worth of space for new marine colonies to grow, and rather than having these structures hauled out and removed once the platform has ceased production, the Rigs to Reefs program works to ensure these structures remain in place as viable artificial reef environments. Once the equipment is removed and the rig is fully decommissioned, companies can then sink these platforms, and allow marine life to have a safe place to grow. Not only does this save time and money, it is particularly useful for areas where there has been an oil spill, invasive species, or bleaching since reefs have a hard time recovering from these types of events in many cases.
Currently, there are more than 490 offshore platforms that have been “reefed” according to AICHE.ORG, attracting new ocean life and allowing it to flourish and make the rig its home. These sunken sanctuaries allow fish and coral to latch onto the structure to lay eggs in a protected and thriving area and can help revitalize species that are becoming obsolete simply by giving them a place to reproduce and grow freely. It’s not only a win for the local environment, it’s a win for the companies and local economies as well. These oil riggers can save up to $500 million per rig by decommissioning them and sinking them rather than hauling them back to shore and dismantling them. As new marine life inhabits these artificial reefs, bringing in more fish and other sea life, sports fishermen are more likely to move to or visit the area, positively affecting the economy and creating a positive increase to the state’s tourism numbers.
In places where these reefs are already located, the fishing industry has not only seen an increase, and in some instances – a resurgence, in the amount of fish being caught but in the numbers of previously rare fish that come out of the areas where these sunken giants sit. Commercial fishing has also seen increased success, especially where large populations of marine life have been over-fished, bringing in more money to the economies of these local coastal towns. States have even created legislation designating money to help keep the Rigs to Reefs program active in their communities. And while only 10 percent of rigs are being reefed, the pace seems to be picking up for companies who are looking to save money and be more environmentally and socially minded.
So as the energy industry and environmentalists look to save money and our oceans, the Rigs to Reefs program is proving to be beneficial not only to these groups but coastal towns and their communities alike.
As countries across the world continue at attempts to diversify their fuel mix, many potential energy sources are being explored. One of the more innovative ideas currently being researched is tidal energy, a form of alternative energy derived from the natural tides of the world’s oceans. Here’s what you should know about tidal energy and its benefits.
How Does Tidal Energy Work?
Tidal energy is similar to traditional hydroelectric power in that it harnesses the kinetic energy of moving water. While hydroelectric dams use running rivers as their power source, tidal energy is generated as ocean water moves in and out with the tide. The density of water makes tidal energy fairly efficient in terms of generating power.
There are a few different ways for tidal energy to be harnessed to turn turbines, which then generate actual electricity. The most effective method that has been developed thus far is to place turbines in tidal streams, which are areas of relatively fast-moving water produced when tides are coming in or going out. Other methods, including harnessing energy from water flowing in and out of tidal lagoons, have been explored, but are generally considered inferior to tidal stream power generation. A new conceptual method, known as dynamic tidal power, is currently being explored. Dynamic tidal power utilizes dams stretching into the ocean to harness the kinetic energy of tides across a wide area, rather than in concentrated streams. However, the dams proposed for dynamic tidal power to be effective would be so large and costly that it may never be a fully-realized possibility.
Pros and Cons of Tidal Energy
The most obvious advantage of tidal energy is its unparalleled reliability. Several forms of alternative energy, especially wind and solar power, are heavily reliant on dynamic conditions. While sunlight and wind may produce varying amounts of power on any given day, the tide is extremely predictable. Once a tidal energy station has been built, the amount of power it generates in a day will be constant. Because of its status as a completely renewable energy source, tidal energy also has minimal environmental impact outside of the station’s construction and footprint.
At the same time, tidal energy isn’t without its drawbacks. The biggest challenge power company’s face from using tidal energy is the fact that there’s no way to turn it off or adjust the amount of power being produced based on consumption. Though this may present challenges for managing electrical grids, even this drawback has a silver lining. Thanks to the fact that the amount of power a tidal energy source yields is constant, backup plants for extra capacity are less necessary. Also on the list of cons is the fact that the infrastructure for tidal energy plants is fairly expensive to construct, a fact which is still an obstacle to widespread adoption.
Are Tidal Energy Projects Currently Underway?
Although it’s still a new technology, several completed, real-world projects have provided proof of concept for this innovative method of power generation. The first plant to actually use tidal power was built in 2007 in Northern Ireland. In the subsequent years, plants capable of producing electricity from tidal energy on a commercially viable scale opened in France and South Korea. At this point, the number of tidal energy plants worldwide has demonstrated that the concept itself is both sound and commercially reasonable.
How Can Consumers Benefit from Tidal Energy?
Consumers stand to benefit from tidal power in two main ways. The first is the fact that tidal power plants could have lower environmental impacts and help reduce emissions that occur when power is produced. Second, once a tidal power plant is constructed, its actual operating costs are fairly low, meaning that consumers could see a slight decrease in the price they pay for electricity.
And with more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface covered by our oceans and roughly 372,000 miles of shoreline across the globe, tidal energy could be a viable source of energy for coastal communities once costs are reduced and a more feasible way to draw power is created. Until then, we will continue to monitor energy types being developed across the globe.
Do you know of interesting things being created to harness energy? Send us examples at info@consumerenergyalliance.org as we explore new and innovative energy types in our Energy Explorer series.
CEA’s recent report on the $40.2 billion in savings Ohio families and businesses have seen as a result of decreases in natural gas prices was discussed by Marcellus Drilling News.
If you add those two numbers together, the amount of money saved on energy (and therefore spent on other things), and the amount of money invested, it totals more than $100 billion of economic impact from shale in Ohio–in ten short years. Put another way, one-tenth of trillion dollars has been spent in Ohio because of shale.
Read more – Marcellus Drilling News
If you log into Facebook you’ll see stories and shared articles claiming that the oil and gas industry is harming the environment. The industry is painted in a negative light with words like “money hungry”, “hazardous chemicals”, “oil spills”, “pollution” and most often heard – “BIG OIL.” What most people don’t see is the inaccuracies or the lack of balance that covers those pages. Especially when it comes to New Mexico.
Believe it or not, it’s possible to have a successful oil and gas industry while also promoting environmental sustainability. For starters, many of these projects have been in review for months, if not years, before they begin. These reviews not only look at costs, construction and permitting, but also the social due diligence needed before a project can start.
That social license to operate helps the oil and gas industry daily as it works to ensure affordable reliable energy for everyone in the state, while also maintaining a clean and healthy environment. Plus, by supporting the state’s booming oil and gas production comes funding, much of which goes towards creating better technology to keep costs low and to increase how companies protect the environment.
Outside of new technology, many oil and gas companies use portions of their revenue to give back to the environment and assist in researching new forms of energy. These same large scale companies do their best to avoid and mitigate their environmental impact throughout their operations by creating in-depth plans, reusing materials, and setting targets for improvement by measuring greenhouse gas emissions and their use of water.
Moreover, many of the operators that exist in New Mexico are small businesses, not the giant corporations that activists groups claim. Additionally, the state of New Mexico has always been a leader in advanced technologies and new ways of doing things. Because of this, leaders in the state have teamed up with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in a formal Memorandum of Understanding to look at how water used in the oil and gas process can be reused, recycled or renewed.
Continued false perceptions about New Mexican oil and gas creates a false stigma that the industry is bad and pro-environment groups are good. However, the situation isn’t that black and white and these perceptions harm both families and business by driving up the cost of energy.
Since 1990, the oil and natural gas industry have invested more than $300 billion to improve facilities, products, and operations from an environmental standpoint, and the results are shown. The reality is that oil and gas companies reinvest a large majority of the money they make and are overwhelmingly generous when it comes to giving back to their communities and the environment. Because of the work policymakers have done in New Mexico and across the nation, the United States leads the world in increased standards and is one of the top countries for emissions reductions. With new technological innovations under increasingly stringent regulatory standards, these companies have helped produce more energy and a cleaner planet.
According to the EPA, total emissions have declined 73 percent since 1970, and the 2017 BP Statistical Review of World Energy reported that U.S. total emissions decreased more than any other country and in total is roughly the total emissions over the same time for the entire European Union.
Supporting oil and gas production in New Mexico means more money for our communities. That’s because as new technology shapes the energy industry, costs go down and companies can do more with less, like creating new research streams, giving back to communities and working on environmental enhancements and restorations. These are things like upgrading and enhancing our water reservoirs as well as updating banks and preserving and conserving areas of the Rio Grande. Much of this money comes funding, including from oil and gas development.
This same revenue also has the prospect of creating new jobs and increasing the size of our economy, but that’s another story…
As previously noted, a lack of pipeline capacity has been causing bottlenecks in American energy production which could have helped alleviate rising gas a jet fuel prices.
Plains All American Pipeline LP said two West Texas crude pipeline projects would begin partial operations slightly ahead of their original schedules as bottlenecks in the region depress prices to the weakest level in four years.
Read more – Reuters
CEA’s Tim Page talks about the importance reliable supplies of natural gas are to North Carolina, and the irony of protesters benefiting daily from the products they are protesting.
Small but vocal groups of protesters continue to line shorelines, block natural gas projects and march on pipeline routes, unaware of the irony. They used gasoline-fueled cars to drive to protests, held handwritten signs made with petroleum-based products and took pictures with smartphones manufactured with oil and natural gas.
Read more – The Fayetteville Observer
