Saturday
Nov092013
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Water safe from fracking
Nov 9, 2013 Energy: gas 
The Telegraph has learned that the water industry has given the OK to fracking. Minister Michael Fallon is quoted as saying that all is therefore well with the technology (something that is obvious to anyone who has looked at it in an honest fashion).
The report also says that people across the south should expect fracking soon, although no evidence for this is provided. Given what shale gas company bosses said in Parliament last week I think this is extremely unlikely and is probably just a case of the headline writer getting overexcited.
Reader Comments (12)
I don't think anyone here is concerned about the threat to water from fracking.
What we're concerned about is the threat to fracking from Greenpeace...
Maybe I'm a bit obsessive about The Environment Agency - but they've been eerily quiet about fracking and in my experience that is not generally a good sign. Particularly as unreasonable "delay and start again" is one of the standard in house obstruction tactics.
I think it's safe to expect the fracking equivalent of a man wearing sponge soled seismic brothel creepers, a stethoscope and carrying a red flag proceeding ahead of a horseless carriage - expect dozens of comprehensively PPE'd up clipboard wielding clueless traffic warden types crawling all over any job...
Dodgy Geezer,
Given the tide of public indignation about energy prices, action by Greenpeace that so obviously forces prices upwards could finally force this bunch of verminous misanthropes from their entirely unwarranted position of 'authority' - the backlash could be enormous.
Bring it on.
No doubt the Beeb's 'environmental' team of Harrabin, McGrath & Amos are preparing their disinformation.
Fracking will certainly create an avalanche of that.
Hopefully this is just the start of government's drive to convince the public that fracking is safe, and essential. Government really needs to fight, tooth and claw, against the greenies in this matter. Organisations, such as Greenpeace, and Friends of the earth have been treated, by successive governments, as champions of the environment. Somehow government needs to harden its attitude towards these larger organisations. The smaller, fanatical anti fracking protest groups will soon follow in losing credibility.
SayNoToFearmongers , I'd love to think that a backlash was imminent but given the massive influence of the greens on regulation, especially at an EU level, the supine and ignorant nature of most of the media, the propaganda which has already poisoned fracking in the public's mind and the sheer complexity of the subject, which makes obfuscation easy, I think it's optimistic to think that a backlash is going to happen soon. The lights will probably stay on due to STOR, at massive cost, and the rise in bills will be blamed entirely on energy companies.
artwest,
The dam simply must burst at some point. On a related issue, I was looking at some statistics on crop protection earlier this week - over the past 18 years the number of companies researching into ways to protect our food supplies has fallen from 35 to 18.
Between 1995 and 2008, the cost of getting a new product to market rose from $152m to $256m.
Predictably, the rate that new products reach the market has practically halved:
1980-89 123
1990-99 128
2005-14 73
This is because of regulatory pressure. There have been no measurable impacts on health or environment because of this absurd over-regulation. This Green cancer is threatening humanity through deliberately increasing fuel poverty and wilfully sabotaging our food supplies. This isn't a complex message, is it?
Why is so little attention drawn to existing fracking sites? The only 'new' thing about it is the drilling capability, which is now controllable enough to allow horizontal boring, but fracturing has been going on for years. You'd think now might be a good time to mention it...
- Difference between old style fracking & new slickwater frackng in shale...as I understand it
..see Massive hydraulic fracturing in shales@stewgreen
They have been doing "slickwater" fracking in chalk formations since the '70s. A well in the chalk can be open bore horizontal, because it is not prone to collapse. An open bore horizontal well in shale is prone to collapse so it needs to have production piping.
I have actually fracked a test shale well in the '90s. It was really fun (not) to watch the pressure go from 3000psi to 7000psi in less than a second.
The real tech improvements that allowed the shale boom were cheaper production pipe installation methods and cheaper "thin gel" frack fluids. "Thick gel" frack fluids are just like jello and they use lots of expensive guar gum. "Slick-water" fracking can't be used because the sand will fall out and plug the production pipe. Another way to create a "fun" pressure spike.
What about rats, mice, badgers and other furry animals. Let alone worms, snakes and other underground creatures? I have no concerns but let's wait till the noble Eco warriors and their friends pitch in.
Sorry it's that time of year.
Eau, Eau, Eau :-)
There's still no rush of companies eager to produce shale gas.
Could it be that they think the wholesale price of gas is still too low to make shale gas economic?