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The revolution that has toppled coal from the top of the generating queue in the U.S. has not reached the rest of the world, according to the “BP Statistical Review of World Energy.” While natural gas may have supplanted coal as king of the hill in the U.S. electric generating mix, the solid mineral—geographically the […]

Much recent debate about shale gas recovery through horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has focused on methane emissions from shale gas wells. The general take on this topic is that methane (the remarkably simple molecule CH4) is a greenhouse gas “20 times” or “25 times,” or some other number, more “potent” than carbon dioxide, the […]

Linde Group, an international industrial gases firm based in Munich with a U.S. home in New Jersey, is an unusual beneficiary of the U.S. shale gas revolution. The company has developed technology using the industrial gases it can produce in copious quantities, to reduce some of the environmental objections to developing shale gas wells. Linde […]

Looking Out for Shale Gas Labor Issues The Houston Chronicle reports that the U.S. Department of Labor is closely watching how shale gas producers protect their laborers from workplace accidents and injuries. They suspect violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act on hours of work and overtime pay. The gas industry’s critiques say the companies […]

In a welcome development almost no one saw coming, America’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to 1992 levels and are expected to continue to decline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA). In addition to a sluggish economy and more fuel efficient cars, “fracking” has been a big driver of this trend. “Fracking” is shorthand for […]

The Marcellus shale formation—the second-largest natural-gas field in the world—has been a blessing for Pennsylvania’s workers and our economy. Almost a quarter-million people in Pennsylvania work to produce natural gas from the Marcellus shale or in related industries. Thanks to the growth of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, the Marcellus has been responsible for […]

Director and provocateur Josh Fox is confident, “There is no safe drilling” and has made two of what the New York Times called “muckraking documentaries” crusading against the practice of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” His movies are powerful propaganda rife with misleading or inaccurate claims and leave little to no room for the other side. […]

Most Americans have never heard of Texas oilman George Mitchell, who died in July at the age of 94 at his home in Galveston, Texas. But Mitchell, the son of a Greek immigrant goat herder, was arguably the most important individual in America’s energy history since Thomas Edison and John D. Rockefeller. Mitchell truly was […]

The shale gas revolution has so far been a U.S. phenomenon. But hydrocarbon-containing Devonian shale formations are far from a U.S. or even North American phenomenon. Geologic forces didn’t follow political boundaries in the Devonian period 400 million to 300 million years ago. Indeed, the continents then were not where they are today by large […]

A failure in one of the Venezuelan national grid’s transmission lines reportedly cut power to nearly half of the oil-rich country, including in much of its capital, Caracas, on Tuesday. The widespread blackouts reportedly affected the Capital District and 12 of Venezuela’s 23 states at about 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, cutting the lights in the […]