If we just keep digging, we’ll get out of this mess!
In March 2017 Trump signed Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth, an executive order to “avoid regulatory burdens that unnecessarily encumber energy production, constrain economic growth, and prevent job creation.” This order was a farce and a failure. Federal agencies were forced to remove environmental protections. Climate, public health, and the natural environment died one regulation at a time.
Targeting Colorado
In 2019, Colorado enacted a state Climate Law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent. Last week, the Bureau of Land Management approved massive fossil fuel extractions across 1.7 million acres of federal land in southwestern Colorado.
“It makes no climate, ecological, or economic sense to drill in the North Fork Valley,” Natasha Léger, executive director of Citizens for a Healthy Community, said. “This is exactly the type of federal action that is responsible for accelerating climate and environmental degradation, which cannot be allowed to stand if we have any hope of protecting present and future generations, rare and irreplaceable ecosystems like the North Fork, and meeting Colorado’s goals for a clean and renewable energy future.”
The Western Environmental Law Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, WildEarth Guardians, and more than 42,000 public comments were ignored. “Ultimately, the Trump administration is testing Colorado’s commitment to its new climate law,” Rebecca Fischer, climate and energy program attorney for WildEarth Guardians, said.
Targeting California
A similar federal attack is taking place in California, with hundreds of fracking permits filed for review. Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, criticized the administration for issuing new fracking permits while the state was on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. “With the entire state shut down what purpose could approving fracking permits have other than to do a solid for the oil industry when no one is watching?” Court asked.
The truth about fracking
Black organic shales are the source rock for many oil deposits. Some reservoirs hold oil in liquid form, while others have oil molecules trapped within the pores of shale rocks. To extract the oil, a mix of chemicals and water at high pressure is used to fracture shale rocks.
Liquid oil pools are hard to find but liquid oil is easy to extract. Oil trapped in shale rocks is easy to find but it takes a massive amount of energy to “produce” crude oil.
This is why the cost of a fracked barrel of U.S. crude is four times higher than the cost for Saudi Arabia.
Oil imports and exports
In 2019, the U.S. imported 10 million barrels per day of petroleum from 49 countries. The U.S. is the top oil producer, but Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iraq are the top oil exporters.
US oil sold at a loss
The total cost of U.S. oil exceeds the price paid per barrel. The price of oil is set by commodity exchanges. The new OPEC+ deal to lower production was not enough. The prices will continue under $20 per barrel. Oil at $100 per barrel is not coming back.
The total cost of a barrel of oil equals the sum of the costs of production, storage, transportation, and overhead. Net profit from exports, based on the number of barrels sold in the commodity exchange is what matters.
From 2015 to 2020 there were 402 fracking companies filing for bankruptcy, with $207 billion total debt listed in the bankruptcy filings.
The energy sector is facing a double threat of oversupply and lower demand. There is a glut of cheap oil on the market and no place to store it. There is no reason to keep fracking.
Harold Ham, Trump’s energy wizard lost his shirt with shale oil. His net worth sunk from $17 billion in 2018 to $5 billion today.
The U.S. economy is getting hammered!
Let’s ban fracking
Like Colorado and California, working with the top environmental organizations, we can ban fracking. Why frack when there is a glut of cheap oil already on the market?
Please call the Arkansas Congressional Delegation and demand action!
Dr. Luis Contreras
Richard Nixon created the illusion of “Energy independence” – but in fact, the US imports 100 percent of many strategic minerals which are not available in the US.
https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/faq/which-mineral-commodities-used-united-states-need-be-imported
========= The Climate Emergency is real, Believe it or not! =======
Fossil fuels are stranded assets. We must stop carbon emissions. Carbon is the real threat – the Coronavirus is a minor inconvenience compared with extreme droughts, floods, and rising seas. Wearing masks and staying at home will not save lives under extreme weather.
EPA’s report considers only the domestic social cost of carbon, rather than its cost at a global scale. By using a domestic number in our evaluation of climate policy we’re saying we don’t care about impacts to people outside the U.S.” EPA said it was following guidelines from the White House.
======== ====== ===========
“The Trump administration has sidelined science to promote energy development. Trump revoked a policy that required the Interior Department to consider how its actions could contribute to climate change.”
“Interior Department officials wanted to make the business case for drilling on federal land to oil executives at a March 2017 meeting of the American Petroleum Institute’s board of directors at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. An email from then-Interior Department official Megan Bloomgren — who now works for the oil lobby group — to colleagues clarified the message that Zinke wanted to deliver.”
“The upshot is that Bloomgren wanted to persuade them that drilling on federal land would be easier under Trump than President Obama, in turn increasing companies’ revenues, returns for taxpayers and U.S. energy production.”
https://www.hcn.org/articles/climate-desk-trump-dreams-about-a-new-energy-boom-oil-leases-could-cover-this-mountain-valley/
Fracking is a false solution to a fictional problem.
The only way to mitigate the climate emergency and have low-cost secure energy is distributed solar and wind energy with large scale storage systems. NEC and other leading companies are using molten metal energy storage, based on electrochemistry technology from MIT.
Multinational trade agreements trump unrealistic notions of “Energy Dominance.” Dominance requires submission by threats and force. Why would any country want to submit to the US?
Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela and other countries have massive liquid oil reserves.
https://www.energy-storage.news/blogs/contenders-long-duration-energy-storage-technologies-and-whos-behind-them