Is "Green" Fracking Possible?

Washington, D.C. is not the only location plagued by "gridlock." The burgeoning supply of cheaper natural gas in America has brought about conflict between committed environmentalists and private industry drillers struggling to appreciate the others' position.

Complicating the global warming controversy is the skyrocketing greenhouse gas emission from China, which passed the U.S. in that dubious position in 2006. U.S. emissions by most objective analyses are now at their lowest level for 20 years. Less and less energy is being produced by coal, further reducint pollution, and wind and solar usage continue their slow climb.

Government has a legitimate role in ensuring that technologically safe "fracking" is encouraged and irresponsible "wildcatters" are monitored. Other alternative sources of even greener energy are years away from being large-scale suppliers, so it is in everyone's best interest to continue conservation methods while both sides come together to craft a solution to America's long term energy needs and conservation requirements.

Energy Independence Is Within Our Grasp

You would never know it by looking at the price of gasoline, but America stands on the cusp of declaring economic independence from the whims of oil-producing autocracies in the Mideast and elsewhere.

Experts note that domestically produced oil and natural gas are 15% and 75% cheaper than foreign imports. America has begun to export natural gas in quantities that should make a serious dent in our balance of payments deficit, and boost tax revenues as well. Gasoline continues to be expensive because of supply and demand forces, but also for environmental reasons, and incentives to make it "greener," not a bad thing.

Less likely to be noticed is the fact that with the U.S.'s announced pivot of military resources to the Asian theatre, the Mideast looks to be less significant to our economic needs than ever before. The long - term prospect is that the Navy and Air Force will become even more important, reducing the risk of ground conflict casualties going forward.

Green Homebuilding on the Rise

With new-home starts on the rise after a 5 year slump, green homebuilding is getting more attention. Builders and consumers alike are embracing new energy-efficient materials and methods of construction and factoring "life-cycle" assessments into the equation.

Green construction has often been victimized by its "high-cost" image, but health and environmental benefits are overcoming this concern. Builders are touting lower annual utility bills, lower accumulations of toxins, dust, and mold, and the benefits of sustainable building products.

Costs have begun to fall, and local building codes have also encouraged the trend to Green homebuilding. The trend in this field is definitely on the upswing.

Green Energy an Election Issue

Green Energy issues have risen in the American presidential race, unfortunately in a negative fashion. While Democrats have attached less that $3 billion in oil company tax breaks, republicans have homed in on the $90 billion in green energy tax breaks, with special attention to the "misses" such as Solyndra and not the "hits."

The fact is that Investment Tax Credits for residential and commercial solar installations, expiring in 2016, has been an engine for job growth. This uncapped credit, coupled with a plunge in solar panel costs, have made solar energy a winner, while wind power, buffeted by natural gas competition, has faltered.

Thus, while grants and guaranteed loans have had limited success, there is no question of the positive impact of the solar tax credits.

How ironic that in a year where energy issues have been a hot topic of political discussion by the chattering classes, American business has seized the initiative in achieving energy independence for the U.S.

U.S. energy companies have led the way in the discovery of vast U.S. fields of shale gas and oil, which most observers consider an economic game-change. However, many of these same experts caution there are obstacles in the way of full energy independence.

First, the U.S. does not currently have an infrastructure in place to handle the glut of new energy supplies. Secondly, there is squabbling at the state and federal level over how to regulate the new energy bonanza. Finally, there is a need to reach a consensus over emission and renewable energy goals. I, for one, have confidence that these challenges will be met.

China's Coming Environmental Crisis

You might ask what the political drama surrounding the selection of the Chinese leader has to do with a future environmental crisis in that country. The answer lies in the character of the two political systems and government's role in the economy, as well as demographic differences.

China is a very large country, with an even larger population compared to the U.S., and certainly India, its Asian rival. However, its fresh water supply is being taxed to the limit and grows more polluted by the day. Even China's tightly controlled media has taken notice of illegal industrial discharges, and "cancer villages" stricken by the aftermath of polluted air and drinking water.

One of the biggest enablers of China's pollution is its municipal and provincial governments, who are under pressure to spur economic growth without regard for future environmental consequences. Even ambitious, well-intentioned projects  such as the Three Gorges dam, have had adverse effects on fish, wildlife, and drinking water.

China's central government, engrossed in the once-every-ten-years selection of leaders, is in no position to exert a firm hand to manage and monitor these local governmental projects. One can only hope that this posture changes quickly, for the sake of both China, and the rest of the planet.

As observed by the English environmentalist Roger Scruton, "America has this wonderful ability to recover from its own mistakes,which is why it's so hugely superior to China...there is no reverse gear in China, there is no corrective procedure... It will always come up against a wall."

Rising Ocean Acidity an Environmental Concern

Many scientists are expressing concern over the increasing acidity of the world's oceans, threatening small shellfish that farm the base of the ocean's food chain. According to these scientists, the seas have absorbed 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide that has accumulated in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels.

The ability of the oceans to absorb this carbon dioxide has buffered the earth from some of the effects of climate change. Because colder water can absorb higher levels of CO2, higher levels of acidity are being measured in northern oceans. Unfortunately, this situation leads to the bottom rung of the food chain, such as small marine snails that salmon and other fish feed on.

Although levels have not yet reached crisis levels, scientists are keeping a watchful eye on materials such as the calcium carbonate found in snails and corals, where high acidity has been shown to dissolve existing organisms.

U.S. Solar Installations Soar, While Domestic Production Lags

Most of the publicity regarding solar power in the U.S. in recent months has been negative, revolving on the demise of companies like Solyndra LLC and other domestic manufacturers who have not fared well. Of the five solar manufacturers that received 2009 stimulus funds, two have filed for bankruptcy.

Increasingly, foreign manufacturers, including China but also Western Europe have dropped their prices, helping to power a boom in domestic installations. ColarCity Corp., who finances and installs rooftop solar systems, states that "Most of the jobs are in delivery and they're long-term, permanent jobs".

In 2012, the U.S. is on pace to install 2,500 megawatts of solar power, the equivalent of two nuclear power plants, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Additionally, the cost per watt of solar power is increasingly competitive with that of fossil fuels, which can only help cut greenhouse gas emissions and help fight climate change.

Odd Environmental Bedfellows on Need to Limit Natural Gas Exports

Both the American Chemistry Council, a trade group of chemical makers, and the Sierra Club, a major environmental group, agree that American natural gas should remain in the United States.

The American Chemistry Assoc. feels that a long-term supply of natural gas would drive the American economy to new heights and become a major job-producing engine. The Sierra Club, on the other hand, wants to limit exports to drive down the amount  of "fracking" that has to go on to produce this abundant supply of natural gas, reducing environmental damage.

In any event,  the Department of Energy will be weighing  the competing interests as it prepares to make its decisions on whether to grant export licenses for natural gas. Advocates of more exports say that even more jobs could be created, and that it would help keep American production humming. It would also raise the price of domestic natural gas, which has dropped approximately 70% in recent years.

On the other hand, gas in Asia sells for as much as eight times what it does in the U.S. It appears, however, that the lack of export facilities would limit the volume of gas in any event, until new facilities can be built. Cheniere Energy, Inc., a Louisiana gas exporter, says that there are 32 states that currently produce  natural gas, and argues that export licenses should be granted to speed economic development.

British Conservative Makes Interesting Pro-Environmental Argument

Roger Scruton, author of "How To Think Seriously About The Planet", argues in his book that the pursuit of environmentalism has little to do with the environmental movement. He points out that many people who have labeled themselves climatologists "are not in the first rank of scientific minds...they are particularly good at mathematical modeling...computer science...physics,...(or) chemistry."

Scruton thinks that many of the figures in the environmental movement feel that the "world is misgoverned...There's the rejection of your own country, of your own government." He feels that this attitude is what has transferred itself into the resentment displayed by many in the environmental movements.

Scruton, among others, feels that it is important to invest citizens with the knowledge of environmental matters so that individuals and businesses can use their own initiative to address and solve environmental problems, and not rely on governments of non-elected bodies such as the U.N. to solve them. People should not only concentrate on the accumulation of excess waste in manufacturing and energy consumption, but demand more accountability by all aspects of society to stop fouling the air and the water. Perhaps the worldwide economic downturn will contribute to an attitude that "less is more" and began to take some of the sheen off the attitude that consumer demand for the newest gadget will somehow drive us to a higher standard of living.

The same methods of community involvement and activism which was so successful in making serious advances possible for women, Blacks, and other racial and lifestyle minorities should be brought to bear on what possibly might be a long-term battle of grave importance, preserving what is left of the environment and earth's ecosystem.

Change In How We Figure GDP Might Change Environmental Debate

As pointed out by the Harvard Business Review in its January-February issue, "Since World War II, gross national product and its replacement, gross domestic product, have been the chief measures of national success." That measuring stick of economic progress is under fire from many environmental and nonprofit groups who feel that it is a flawed method by which to measure actual, productive economic activity.

Harvard Psychology Professor Daniel Gilbert, among others, has championed the fact that happiness should also be included in any analysis of a nation's wealth, even that concept can be attacked as more subjective than the amount of unpaid household rent that is currently included in GDP or GNP. These same commentators are also calling for inclusion of data measuring economic and environmental sustainability, as well as educational achievement and life expectancy.

Too often, it has been written, GDP can not distinguish between economic activities that actually increases a nation's wealth and one that pollutes or uses unrenewable resources for temporary economic advantage. This so-called "Green GDP", championed by Joseph Stiglitz, suggests that sustainability estimates are no more speculative than some of the estimates now included in current GDP, arguing that, "Taking into account resource depletion and some aspects of sustainability is fairly easy."

The U.N. , in measuring its top countries for human development, includes three basic aspects of quality of life: health and longevity, knowledge, and income. In that index, Norway, Australia, and the Netherlands all finish above the U.S. It is all something to think carefully about as we plot the nation's future economic and social programs going forward.

"Full World" Economics Demands a Global Approach

An article by environmental scientist Herman E. Daly, "Economics in a Full World," published in Scientific American magazine in 2005, was one of the first to mote that, "The economic status quo cannot be maintained long into the future. If radical changes are not made, we face loss of well-being and possible ecological catastrophe."

The tripling of the human population in the past seventy years, as well as the rapid expansion of resource extraction and manufacturing to all points of the globe, has put the earth's ecosystem at risk. Daly, trained initially as an economist, maintains that resource usage must be limited to rates that can be absorbed into the ecosystem safely, that such resource exploitation must be sustainable, and the usage of nonrenewable must be limited as much as  possible to rates that do "not exceed the rate of development of renewable alternatives."

Daly believes that adjustments must be made to economic policy, with special attention to product lifetimes. He suggests that perhaps one step in this direction would be for consumption to be carried out by service contracts for leased commodities, wherein the "vendor, owns, maintains, reclaims, and recycles the product at the end of its useful life."

Clearly this is a concept that should be made part of our political and social dialogue as soon as possible, preferably not in the white-hot partisan environment of partisan politics.

Recycling Becomes Big Business, Aiding Environment

States and local governments are finally getting serious about the issue of recycling and more companies inthe United States are accepting the sustainability challenge to not only reduce waste but aid their bottom line. This development of what is termed "extended producer brought about by cash-strapped municipalities and states looking to reduce the cost of throwing away mountains of garbage at great expense.

It has long been known that almost 95 percent of aluminum is recycled, but what is new is that plastic bottles and other materials are now also being widely recycled. Coca-Cola now has its own subsidiary, Coca-Cola Recycling L.L.C., which is attempting to reach a stated goal of recycling 100 per cent of its cans and bottles in North America by 2015, and fifty per cent in the rest of the world.

Starbucks, long known for its sustainability efforts, knows that recycling lowers operating costs, saves money, and builds brand reputation at no cost to the marketing budget. Whole Foods has encouraged customers to return margarine tubs and yogurt containers to the store for collection, collecting 11 million containers in 2011.

The next development is for states and municipalities to mandate what is termed extended producer responsibility, requiring companies who manufacture containers to require its suppliers to set up container-collection systems for consumers of their products. It remains to be seen if and when such a system might be implemented.

Private Sector Crafts Solution to Fracking Wastewater

An entire new industry has grown up in response to the need to find an environmentally safe way to dispose of hydraulic fracturing waste water. Although the technology has been in existence sine at least 2002, the explosion in fracking operations around the country has propelled the industry into new prominence.

According to industry sources, it takes approximately 120,000 barrels of water to frac a well. The main expense is not the cost of the water, but the expense in transporting to the drill site, and transporting the contaminated water back to another site for treatment.

The newest method to reduce this expense calls for the reengineering of the units so that they can be fit on truck-transported lowboy trailers directly to the job site, in convoys of three trailers. the typical unit produces about 2,000 barrels a day of distilled water.

These systems have been approved for a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit under the federal Clean Water Act. In Arkansas, the plan will be for the water to be reused to irrigate crops, retaining the water in the hydrological cycle.

EPA Fracking Stance Under Election Year Attack

Perhaps sensing the political vulnerability of the Obama administration, fracking industry executives such as Exxon Mobil Chief Exec Rex Tillerson are striking out at what he terms an overly "complicated" and "duplicative" regulatory process that threatens to derail the new boom in oil and natural gas exploration and production.

Tillerson, in a recent address to CERA, an industry conference annually for energy industry execs, lashed out at a regulatory environment wherein many state regulators are hesitant to update drilling rules for fear they will be overruled by new federal laws or regulations, causing industry uncertainty.

Fracking activity is one of the few bright spots in the American economy, adding tens of thousands of new jobs annually and creating boom town conditions in the northern Great Plains states as well as Texas and parts of the Midwest. After initially coming out on the side of critics of the process, the Obama administration has been largely silent as the November election approaches.

Exxon is the largest natural gas producer in the world, and the world's largest publicly-traded oil company, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Drop in Cost of Solar Energy Continues

A continued trend toward cheaper solar power has finally put it within striking distance of being competitive with fossil fuels. If recent trends continue, the price of solar power will continue to fall, while the price of more conventional fuels increases.

Of course, one of the big deterrents of installing a solar system is the upfront cost. One has to be in a position to absorb that cost while waiting for the long term payback of reduced costs from no longer paying the local power company for electricity.

If you lack the money to pay for an installation, there are companies that extend financing, as well as others that will lease a system to you in return for an agreement to purchase electricity from the company at a rate that is the same or lower than you are currently paying.

Additionally, the U.S. Dept. of Energy website lists federal and state rebates for solar installations, which include tax credits and accelerated depreciation.

Needless to say, by installing a solar energy system for your home or business, you are also making a significant contribution to the environment and helping slow the trend of climate change.

New Energy Sources, Continued

China, by contrast, widely expected to be a geopolitical rival to the U.S. because of its strong economy and expanding military, can only look with envy upon the new American domestic energy sources. China's quest for more oil and gas has put it into direct competition with its neighbors and gives the U.S. an opportunity to score diplomatic points with no risk to our own energy supplies.

In a decade dominated by serious economic issues, including excessive federal debt, foreign military involvement, high unemployment, and sluggish growth, it is nice to have some good news for a change. Unsurprisingly, private industry and investment has led the way, despite the initial opposition from the federal government, and showing why our economic system, although not without problems, is remarkably resilient.

New American energy sources marks an unexpected paradigm shift

Not even the most optimistic commentator knowledgeable with the American energy industry could have predicted the global impact of the newly-discovered technology that permits the economical tapping of the country's new energy supplies. The development is so significant that it has dwarfed arguments between liberals and conservatives as to the proper role of "green energy".

To politicians on both ends of the spectrum, the new technology coupled with rising energy prices is a true "win-win" situation. Natural gas is a cleaner, more environmentally friendly method of providing power for all sorts of uses, from heating homes and businesses, to fueling manufacturing, and running new generation mass transit and even automobiles. previous concerns about contamination of drinking water by "fracking" and the threat of onerous new Environmental Protection Agency Regulations (EPA) have quieted.

America now has the unexpected luxury of having not only sufficient energy for domestic usage, but also enough to export, resulting in consequences for OPEC and countries who have used the west's energy dependence for political purposes. One can also speculate on the consequences of the U.S. not having to project American military might to protect valuable energy sources in unfriendly countries.

Even More Hawken...

Hawken suggests various avenues to reverse this trend, suggesting that governments and business can work in partnership to establish a "pathway" to eliminate the poisons, that "energizes business, stimulates innovation, preserves employment, and restores the environment." he strongly advocates removing the incentives that currently exist which encourage the manufacture of additional wastes, asking the market to recognize the real costs of these products.

He is strongly in favor of a gradual shift from the use of carbon fuels to one based upon the sun, wind, and waves, as well as a system of accountability that supports and strengthens restorative behavior. Life, he says, may not be as convenient, but in the long run, with sustainability as its hallmark, much healthier for both humans and the earth.

Finally, he challenges business and its leaders to come up with their own plans to not only reach full sustainability, but also help pay to restore what has been lost. Clearly, this book is a thought-provoking blue- print for profound changes in the business community which bear serious consideration and action.

More on Hawken...

Hawken highlights the incredible amount of energy the worldwide economy uses in a day, which required 13,000 years for the planet to create. He introduces the concept of  net primary production (NPP), which he defines as the sum of all photosynthetic production minus the energy required to maintain and support those organisms. Humans, he estimates, use more than 40% of the total NPP on land. He also says that it is unclear whether, as human population increases, the planet's ecosystems will be able to survive the rapid depletion of its natural resources.

He also addresses the fact that humans are a wasteful species, consuming 36 pounds each of resources a week which requires an additional 2,000 pounds of waste to produce. In the U.S. alone, there are an estimated 90,000 hazardous waste sites, producing unknown impact on human, plant, and animal health that cannot be measured but is clearly not positive.

Reflections upon Paul Hawken's "Ecology of Commerce".

It is hard to overestimate the impact that the 1993 publication of this book had on public perceptions of the relationship between ecology and business. Author Paul Hawken has published dozens of articles and three other books advocating the position that business has an important role to play in leading the way to a sustainable society.

According to Hawken, "business is the problem and it must be part of the solution." Even though he maintains that commerce often has resulted in serious environmental damage, the ideas and much of the technology required to reshape business and the world are already available, if the business community could only find the will to utilize it.