ShaleDirectories, LLC.: Natural Gas NOW Picks of the Week

Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Natural Gas NOW readers pass along a lot of stuff every week about natural gas, fractivist antics, emissions, renewables, and other news relating to energy.

Nick Grealy Was Right!

Although he was no fan of David Cameron, the former UK Prime Minister, I dearly wish Nick Grealy was still alive to hear what Cameron has been saying recently about the UK’s successful drilling of its first shale well. Platts carried the story and here’s what Nicj would have really liked (emphasis added):

“I passionately believe that there is big potential for fracking and unconventional gas in Britain, which has some shale reserves that could make a real difference,” said Cameron, the keynote speaker at the American Fuel and Petrochemicals Manufacturers annual conference in San Antonio.
“In the United States, there are 15,000, 16,000 shale wells. In Europe there are about 10 — this is pathetic. We are going to fall behind if we don’t extract the gas that we have that can make us more competitive, more energy independent, less reliant on Russian gas.”

…”We passed the laws, changed the planning rules, talked to the companies, changed the regulations, set out the bonuses communities would stand to get if wells went ahead, but it was painfully slow and incredibly frustrating,” Cameron said. “The green movements have become absolutely obsessed with the notion that any new form of energy that has any reliance on carbon is a bad thing, so they are just opposed to fracking, come what may.”

“Yes, we will do it because there is so much in our national interest, it just may take some time. What we need are some wells up and running where the local community can see that they are not that disruptive, that there are big financial benefits, that they can see an industry can build up around it.”

Nick’s last post at No Hot Air and here was about the importance of developing the UK’s massive shale resources as an alternative to dependence on Russian gas. He would have reveled in Cameron’s comments, even though he would have grumbled about Conservative leadership taking so long to get it done, of course.

Sportman’s Club Federation Says “NO” to DRBC Politics

Hunters and anglers are among the true environmentalists in this country. Unlike the sort of modern yuppies targeted for political support by phony organizations such as the Open Space Institute, they really understand what it takes to preserve open space, why it’s important and how to make it happen without resorting to land scams and the like. They’re the real deal and the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs went to its members to decide whether or not to support a DRBC fracking ban advanced by the Delaware Povertykeeper and other elitist shills. Here’s how it turned out:

How do I join?

Mush for Brains Students Demonstrate How Little They Know

NYU has been a leader in reducing its carbon footprint but it’s bought them zero street cred with a batch of spoiled brat students determined to out signal the administration when it comes to climate virtues.

In 2011, NYU completed a natural gas-fired Co-Generation (CoGen) plant that decreased “greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent while reducing air pollutants by 68 percent compared to its 30-year-old, oil-fired CoGen predecessor.” Decarbonize NYU wants the university to commit to 100 percent renewable energy in their CAP.

181 Mercer Street, which includes NYU co-gen operation

The CoGen plant could be powered by fracked gas, which is a huge point of concern for Decarbonize NYU. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, two-thirds of natural gas in the United States is fracked. In New York City, natural gas comes from the Marcellus Shale, which is a section deep sedimentary rock that is hydro-fracked. Even if the plant uses natural gas that isn’t fracked, the use of it still produces methane, which has significant negative impacts on the environment.

The organization, in their demands list, acknowledges that NYU has made progress in terms of “building efficiency, its purchases of wind power, and more,” but as a student activist organization “recognize that that the climate crisis calls for more radical, ambitious, and comprehensive action.”

Among the student “demands” are these:

Carbon neutrality is not enough. The Climate Action Plan must commit NYU to achieving 100% renewable power, heating, cooling, and transportation by 2040. (a) NYU must commit to only purchasing electric vehicles in the future in order to achieve a 100% electric fleet. (b) NYU must ultimately phase out the gas-powered Cogeneration Plant and install Geothermal systems to meet its heating and cooling needs and some of its energy needs…

NYU’s Board must cease investing our endowment in the Fossil Fuel Industry.

These little snots obviously don’t know electric cars are fueled by natural gas or care how much more their parents would have to pay for their tuition, room and board (currently $68,128 per year) without college endowment investments in energy companies. Send them home to get some life experience before they waste any more of NYU’s time and parents’ money.

So, Just Who Is Phil “the Panderer” Murphy Pandering To?

That Phil Murphy is a panderer, is not in doubt. His posturing with the Delaware Povertykeeper during the public hearing process on the propose DRBC fracking ban, demonstrates that and it was anything but smart. But, perhaps he was pandering to his wife’s pet concerns more than the Povertykeeper:

In one of his first acts as governor, Murphy spent nearly $13,000 to install a new door for his wife Tammy Murphy’s office, NJ Advance Media has learned.

Well, not just a door. A doorway, too, so that a conference room just down the hall from the official governor’s office could become a private office for first lady, according to receipts obtained under the Open Public Records Act…

For in creating her office on the fifth floor of the State Archive building, just down the hall from his own, Murphy hasn’t just given the first lady unprecedented access to him and substantial influence over his policy planning efforts — he’s also created confusion about the exact role she’ll play, some state lawmakers say…

“She has a prominent seat at the table for policy discussions,” Murphy wrote in an email forwarded by his spokesman.

“She has certainly become a driving force on the issues that matter most to her — particularly on environmental issues and our plans for transitioning to a clean-energy economy, an area where she has a wealth of valuable insight.“