Natural Gas Better Than Nuclear? Um, Not Really

by: Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said

Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 06:43:15 AM MST

When a system is constrained to bad choices, there is a tendency to bounce from solution to solution, as the drawbacks of each crappy choice become public and the cry goes out for a change. This is where we find ourselves in regards to electric power generation in the United States.

Coal is very, very dirty in terms of carbon, in terms of disposal of ash (fun fact, coal ash is mildly radioactive due to the fact that there is some Carbon-14 in almost all coal) in terms of lives and health lost in acquiring it. Though there is a huge amount of it and it is relatively cheap (as long as you don't worry about miners lives).

Oil has all the same problems but it is more expensive and we have nowhere near enough of it to make it cheap in any way, shape or form.

Nuclear has been being pushed (side note: as a technophile I love nuclear power, but really something this dangerous should not be as widely used as it is in a country that allows big industry to lobby away safety regulations), but for obvious reasons that is going to have a lot of resistance in the future.  

Colorado GOP to EPA: Keep your noses out of our fracking fluid

by: ArgusFest

Wed Jul 28, 2010 at 01:10:40 AM MST

Eighteen Republican members of the Colorado State Legislature Monday sent a letter (pdf) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) demanding the federal agency refrain from regulating the natural gas drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," no matter what a two-year EPA study of the process reveals.

Landowners and environmentalists around the country are increasingly concerned about instances in which they claim fracking has contaminated streams and drinking water sources. Oil and gas industry officials mostly resist attempts to further regulate the process, which was granted an exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act during the Bush administration.

"The EPA shouldn't stick its nose into the regulation of fracking or other oil and gas industry practices in states," state Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, said in a release. "Once the EPA completes its study, states should maintain jurisdiction over oil and gas operations."

While the letter was addressed to the EPA, the matter is actually up to Congress, where U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, and Jared Polis, D-Boulder, introduced the FRAC (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals) Act in 2009. The bill requires full public disclosure of the chemicals used in the fracking process, which industry officials say amount to trade secrets.

Still, a growing number of companies are offering up some form of disclosure in order to head off looming federal regulation.

"Oil and gas employers have already been barraged by new regulations in Colorado, making it harder for them to do business in the state, particularly during these tough economic times," Renfroe added, referring to amended drilling rules that went into effect last year and provide higher levels of public safety and environmental protection. "The last thing we need are further industry-crushing regulations out of Washington, D.C., that will cause even more lost jobs in Colorado."

Proponents of those new regulations say the industry has actually gained greater regulatory certainty through the new drilling regs and that other states are all moving toward models similar to Colorado's.

Republican state Rep. Randy Baumgardner, whose House District 57 includes heavily drilled Garfield County, also signed Monday's letter.

Gasland, a movie review

by: Song

Wed Jun 23, 2010 at 18:27:02 PM MST

(More after the fold, including some spoilers)