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Permalink Reply by VSC DeSoto South on September 23, 2010 at 1:57

Not sure this would really stand up as a counter-point to Gasland.

I am pro-shale and the site was 'quaint', but saying it was a counter-point might be a wee bit of a stretch.

Clean skies and the O&G companies need to make a much louder , direct and stronger point if they seriously want to counter the negative perception Gasland is contributing to.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on September 23, 2010 at 3:19

No problem with the post and thanks Skip for bringing up the policy.

I have been putting some thought into the promotion of shale gas/natural gas and I must say I am quite bewildered at the money that is being spent with little to show for it. Between all these groups, 100s of millions have been spent with little organization/grassroots structure to show for it. T. Boone has been the most successful, but his initial emphasis, which was his greatest gusto, focused too much on wind. Sorry, but wind energy advocates are not gonna get excited to promote natural gas.

Throwing $$$ at the problem may feel good, but it doesn't get at the need for having a well oiled grassroots machine to support natural gas.

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Permalink Reply by Alamo on September 23, 2010 at 11:52

We all recognize that natural gas (NG) is our most superior fossil energy source. Coal is too environmentally destructive and crude dependency puts us and our economy at the mercy of OPEC oil ministers. Anyone recall the chaotic situation that the 1973 Arab oil embargo produced? I remember those red and green flag days all too well. Now 37 years later, we are more addicted to OPEC-controlled crude than we were in '73. A lot of slow learners in these United States.

One of our greatest mistakes....those of us who advocate for much greater utilization of American NG...is to lump NG with crude oil. When people continually refer to the industry as "the oil and gas industry", they are not doing the NG industry any kind of favor. That "association" is very detrimental to the gas industry. In general America feels much better about the NG industry than it does about big oil. Poll after poll indicates this. From the time of John D Rockefeller's Standard Oil "Trust", America has distrusted big oil as a collection of calculating, cut throat thieves....it still does. After the disastrous Iraq "adventure" and the BP/Deepwater debacle in the Gulf that national sentiment is more entrenched now than ever. The oil industry has historically treated the NG industry as less than a second class partner...a necessary but junior partner best seen, but never heard from. For years NG was a "problem" rather than the precious resource it is. How to get rid of it was the compelling question, rather than how to use it. For years untold millions of dollars of NG was burned up by flaring it. What a terrible shameful waste that represented.

I believe that there is a concerted effort in effect to prevent NG from becoming the preferential American transportation fuel and that effort is sponsored in large part by lobbyist power directed by the American Petroleum Institute (API) who does the bidding for big oil. The API's first and primary allegiance is to promote big oil's agenda. In cases where the NG industry's welfare happens to "mesh" with that of the oil industry, the gas people are "considered", but that's as far as it goes. What the powers that be in the gas industry must do is to completely divorce their industry from that of big oil. There needs to be a well publicized campaign to this effect. Americans need to be advised to demand compressed natural gas vehicles (NGVs) from auto, truck and bus manufacturers and compressed natural gas (CNG) re-fueling facilities at every facility that dispenses gasoline or diesel fuel.

So long as we continue to rely on crude, we are bankrupting our economy. The current 350 billion dollars we import every year provides us with a "single use" economic benefit. If on the other hand we transitioned our national transportation system to one powered by CNG from American NG reserves, we would keep that massive amount of money....a billion dollars a day.... here in our economy and circulating throughout it. Applying the economic multiplier to that "circulation" could easily increase the economic benefit by 2, 3, 4, 5 or more times. In other words, we spend a billion dollars every day
and send it to the OPEC-controlled world crude market in return for which we derive the benefit of a full tank of fuel...and that's it. Use American NG and prime our economy annually to the tune of a trillion dollars or more. That's a trillion dollars to pay down our national debt; to improve education; advance medical research; improve the environment....you name it....but utilizing our American gas reserves can provide us the time our engineers and scientists need to develop and perfect truly clean and renewable energy sources; ie, solar, wind, geothermal, ocean currents; etc. Whether those reserves will last 50, 100 or 200 years our economy can operate cleanly and safely on American NG.

What benefits do those reserves represent? Well consider that there is virtually no product or service in this nation from apples to zebras that does not have a transportation cost inherent in them. Introducing the safety, certainty and efficiencies by utilizing our own resource in our transportation system would have a hugely positive effect on our economy. Cheaper, cleaner abundant and American that is natural gas. We have the means to recoup American prosperity if we have the will to do so.

Getting Congress to pass the NAT GAS Act or HR 1835 and the senate version (S. 1408) would be an excellent first step. There are millions of unemployed Americans that will thank you for it.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on September 25, 2010 at 20:53

Thank you DGaar for posting this website. You're right. It is very interesting! I love hearing these stories. In fact, it's a reminder to me to finally get around to ordering Haynesville the movie.

Also thanks Alamo for your thoughts on this subject. That's a very well written response there with good points I had not considered. Hopefully we'll get the right people elected in the next few elections to make things happen for natural gas.

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