The Growing Oil & Gas Monster (Durango: rental, homes, cost of)

[DgoNative]

This is my friend's mom. She is still reeling from the effects of those chemicals to this day. And if the gas company would have just pulled its head out of its ass and told what the chemical was, she wouldn't have had such a life-threatening episode. I think it's time to really stand up to the behemoth in our backyards.


Nurse sick after aiding gas worker
Durango Herald Online (broken link)

[Idunn]

The present, and likely continuing, high cost of energy will influence a lot of change. How it's viewed is subjective, but surely we'll see a wiser use of energy in vehicles, homes, etc., as well as greater development of alternative energy sources. Such things as solar, with the advent of new and far more efficient solar panels, will surely finally really take off.

Of course in the interim, however long that is, there will be a lot of unrest, disquiet and hardship. And that's global.

Have also noticed about every oil company and half-baked scheme for questionable oil extraction has popped up of late. Many of these people seem to be using this serious problem as an opportunity to promote and rush through projects that in the calm light of day would never have a chance. Not that prudent work shouldn't be done to increase this and other recourses as warranted. BUT if the public isn't mindful they will surely suffer the result in such things as needless environmental degradation, with only a few sorry excuses at the end of it.

The oil shale extraction plans for western Colorado might be a good case in point. There is a lot of political pressure for this at the moment, the State of Colorado appears to favor it, and there are increasing advertisements advocating it. However my understanding that, aside from any other environmental impact, that the extraction process requires a lot of water, perhaps on the order of 3 gallons for every gallon of oil extracted. Aside from any issue of possible water pollution, where exactly would it come from? The only source of any great quantity is the nearby Colorado river, and its waters are already spoken for and over subscribed.

This is analogous to the tar sand oil extraction of Alberta, Canada. The US receives a major share of its oil imports from Canada, and likely from these tar sands, which is a major ongoing operation. But this process also uses a vast quantity of water, which they perhaps have more of up there. But many of this operations neighbors in Alberta have already raised serious complaints about the environmental degradation they are experiencing.

The sun alone could conceivably provide mankind with an abundance of inexpensive energy, if (he) could only figure out an effective way to tap into this vast power.

Other avenues, such as the ocean, also quite possible. But in the near term it is basically oil and the transit to a hopefully better future might be rather bumpy. And many of those with more greed than foresight will only, and encourage other's to, muck things up.

In context it might help to remember that only 100 years ago the automobile was not much more than a novelty, and somehow mankind had somehow survived many centuries before then to at last discover it.

[CosmicWizard]

Idunn wrote:

Have also noticed about every oil company and half-baked scheme for questionable oil extraction has popped up of late. Many of these people seem to be using this serious problem as an opportunity to promote and rush through projects that in the calm light of day would never have a chance. Not that prudent work shouldn't be done to increase this and other recourses as warranted. BUT if the public isn't mindful they will surely suffer the result in such things as needless environmental degradation, with only a few sorry excuses at the end of it.

Not merely promoting, but thinly veiled fearmongering. Create panic and get people to leave common sense and rationality by the wayside. Make a quick buck. To hell with the environment.

[Shuffler]

Who ever thought there'd be ozone alerts in Pinedale WY? It's happening now. My neighbor has a rental there, she hears all this type of stuff first-hand.

“We have only two modes—complacency and panic.”
—James R. Schlesinger, the first energy secretary, in 1977, on the country's approach to energy

[CosmicWizard]

Shuffler wrote:

“We have only two modes—complacency and panic.”
—James R. Schlesinger, the first energy secretary, in 1977, on the country's approach to energy

Leave it up to a politician to foster the belief that we have only 2 choices! Everything is black and white...no grey zone.