Hydraulic Fracturing Series: Water Usage Objections

As the debates concerning Hydraulic Fracturing heat up and the protestors circle with brightly colored signs and chants, we thought it would be a good idea to take each objection/issue presented by “Fractivists” to give them a treatment and present some thoughts about their objections.

We will take on each issue individually, taking care to ask some important questions of them.

This is the first blog in what will be a series.

1.) Water Usage Objections

There are objections in the anti-fracturing community about the usage of water in the fracturing of wells.

The arguments hoist water up as the sacred life blood of the earth and they treat the water as if it is in poor supply. They report that millions of gallons are used to Frac each well and then they attempt to explain how this is such a terrible waste of a precious natural resource.

They are accurate in their report that millions of gallons of water are used in the fracturing of a well.

What they don’t report, which I am beginning to believe is the greatest crime they commit, is how much water fracturing utilizes in comparison to other uses for water.

A million sounds like a lot when we think in terms of human consumption.

Drinking a gallon of water a day means drinking a lot of water and a family with 12 people in it would only consume 12 gallons of water per day. Millions of gallons of water compared to human consumption (which outside of industry is really the only reference point we have for water usage) is a staggering comparison.

But, when we consider both normative human usage and consumption and then compare the millions of gallons of water used in hydraulic fracturing to other non fracturing usages, there is no comparison.

According to an article by Popular Mechanics,

“…of the 9.5 billion gallons of water used daily in Pennsylvania, natural gas development consumes 1.9 million gallons a day (mgd); livestock use 62 mgd; mining, 96 mgd; and industry, 770 mgd.”

9.5 billion gallons of water are used everyday.

Only 1.9 million gallons of that water is used in fracturing. Wanna calculate that percentage?

To give this more clarity, we are going to use some round numbers. Feel free to check this.

According the Eartheasy.com, the average American uses 100 gallons of water per day (Shower, Toilet, Sink, Wash, Watering, Drinking etc.) in a normal day.

Using these figures, this is 700 gallons per week per person, or 36,500 gallons per person, per year.

If the average family is four people, these numbers are multiplied by four, which equates to 400 gallons per family per day, 2,800 gallons per week, and 146,000  gallons per year.

According to the US Census Bureau, 12,702,379 people lived in Pennsylvania in 2010.

This math means that, in terms of normal use, Pennsylvanians use 1,270,237,900 gallons of water per day or 8,891,665,300 gallons per week, or 462,366,595,600 gallons per year.

This is for normal usage.

This is showering, using the restroom, brushing teeth, washing hands, doing dishes, washing laundry, watering the garden and the like.

Hopefully your head isn’t swimming with all of the numbers.

Granted, these are ball park figures but there is a question that begs to be asked.

How can Green groups legitimately act like water usage for frac’ing is a problem when the actual usage of water is less than fractional in terms of overall water usage?

People flush more water down the toilet than the Fracturing industry uses to frac wells.

If every person who flushes uses a water friendly toilet at 1.6 gallons per flush rather than the old 5 gallons per flush and those same Pennsylvanians use the restroom the national average of 8 times per day, that is 162,590,451.20 gallons of sewage per day.

The (sewage) contaminated water has to be processed as well, yet they want to interpret what is necessary for life when they protest. They don’t believe Natural Gas is necessary to maintain their quality of life.

When Steel was blowing and going in Pennsylvania, the state had no problem with it. They named a football team after the industry. With the decline of Steel in the state, the water that Steel is no longer using is being utilized by Fracturing companies.

Why don’t they name their football team the friggin’ Frac’ers?

The protestors never provide perspective because as soon as it is provided, their objections are ridiculous.

So, the next time they go to the bathroom and flip on the light (30% of electricity comes from Natural Gas) and use the facilities and use toilet paper (which requires natural gas to make) and flush 1.6 – 5 gallons of waste-water down the toilet (with an average of 8 flushes per person per day) or take that warm shower (also heated by natural gas either through gas powered electricity or water heaters using natural gas) for 8 minutes (at 20-40 gallons per shower), they should think about what the end of fracturing would actually mean.

They should put it in perspective.

It is what they need more than anything else.

Jobs Mean a Healthy Economy

Perhaps one of the most important factors in assessing the health of an economy is the unemployment rate. So goes the unemployment rate, so goes the health of the economy.

People with jobs make money.

Because they make money, they pay taxes on their income, buy goods and services, and invest. The corollary effects of occupation are vast and the economic ripples in the pool are great.

When people are unemployed, they don’t make money, they don’t pay taxes on income, don’t buy the same goods and services, and they don’t invest like those who are employed. Therefore, from the smallest local franchise to the largest corporate office, economies feels the consequences of an unemployment rate that sits above 9%.

We could hash through all of the human difficulties faced by the regular families who are stressed by the difficulty and strain of unemployment but chances are, if you are reading this article, you may very well be one of the myriad of unemployed in the United States.

According to a statement released by the Marcellus Shale Coalition:

“The average wage in the core industries was $73,150, which was about $27,400 greater than the average for all industries.” (Center for Workforce Information & Analysis, June 2011) ·         “The average wage in the ancillary industries was $61,871, which was more than $16,100 greater than the average for all industries.” (ibid)  Employment Impact  ·         “Areas with significant Marcellus Shale drilling activity have seen notable decreases in unemployment rates.” (ibid)  ·         “The Northern Tier Workforce Investment Areas (WIA) experienced an increase of employment growth of over 1,500 percent.” (ibid)  ·         “The Central WIA was second in terms of employment growth by volume and by percentage with an employment increase of almost 1,000 percent.” (ibid)  ·         “Significant employment gains were seen in each WIA that had substantial Marcellus Shale drilling activity.” (ibid)    Infrastructure Investment  ·        “Marcellus shale drillers spent $411 million in the past three years to help rebuild Pennsylvania roads…” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 21, 2011)  ·         “Since 2008, approximately 21 percent of the payments have been made toward local roads, while approximately 79percent went toward improving roads maintained by the state.” (MSC press release, June 21, 2011)  Tax Revenue Generated by responsible Marcellus development  ·         “Drilling Industry Paid More Than $1 Billion in State Taxes Since 2006, Tax Payments in First Quarter of 2011 Already Surpass 2010 Totals” (Dept. of Revenue press release, May, 2, 2011) ·         “The Revenue Department’s analysis, which breaks out tax payments from oil and gas companies and their affiliates through April 2011, indicates that 857 of these companies have already paid $238.4 million in capital stock/foreign franchise tax, corporate net income tax, sales/use tax and employer withholding to the state in 2011. These figures from the first quarter of this year already exceed by nearly $20 million the total tax payments made in all of 2010.” (ibid) ·         “The data indicate that counties with 150 or more Marcellus wells experienced an 11.36 percent increase in state sales tax collections between 2007 and 2010.” (Penn State University, February 27, 2011)  ·         “In counties with ten or more Marcellus wells, returns reporting royalty income increased 44.1 percent and tax income increased 325.3 percent.”

In case you were wondering, this is what healthy economic growth looks like.

Pennsylvania has allowed both Natural Gas drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing throughout the state and this growth is what they’ve experienced. In watching the state of affairs across their Southern border, New York State appears to be changing their tone. According to a recent survey conducted by Quinnipiac University, the majority of New Yorkers are in favor of Natural Gas drilling for employment’s sake. In a State that has been historically opposed to Natural Gas drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing, the current economic downturn, paired with the momentum gained by factual rebuttals of Anti “Fracking” hype, has created what looks to be change in the wind.

New York wants a healthier economy and they can have it.

With the credibility of Anti-Frac “industry experts” being called into question and the benefits of Natural Gas drilling materializing, the energy sector is postured to provide the casts for the broken legs of the American Economy to heal in.

The potential is that large when considering the possibility of converting trucking fleets, saving money at the pump, and freedom from dependence on OPEC. All of those factors have the potential to create more jobs. Think about it. Trucking companies cut fuel costs and can afford to put more drivers on the roads. More refining is needed and in turn more jobs.

According to Mark Green of Energy Tomorrow, “…job creation isn’t just an item that has screamed its way back to the top of the nation’s agenda. It’s the hinge of the nation, its life force – transcending politics, talking points and election campaigns.”

Natural Gas can tremendously bolster that hinge so the door doesn’t falter.

Why shouldn’t it?  It is an American energy source that creates jobs for Americans in American towns.  The largest detractors of natural gas talk about waste water problems. Siemens is currently refining a method to bring water treatment plants to Frac sites to reduce the amount of water needed for Fracturing by enabling the reuse of treated water on location. The more this is used, the more jobs it will create jobs. More regulations are being put in place which will require more inspectors.

They attack Hydraulic Fracturing when Frac’ing isn’t the problem.

So what is the problem?

The major problem is a lack of jobs that Natural Gas can help to create.  There is no perfect process and there is no magic pill to fix the mess we are in but one thing is certain: the lower the unemployment rate, the better we are, and when all the reasons for stopping the Natural Gas Industry from lowering that unemployment rate are floundering, it is time to get something done.

Frac Bans Violate the Constitution and Rob People

Ever heard the term “Shaleionaire“?

It is a term that has been applied to citizens who own and profit from the mineral rights to their land.  As a result of having Natural Gas under that land, they’ve been paid lots of money for it to be extracted.

For industry folks, the anti-Frac’ing argument is getting tiresome, mostly because there is no real argument. Green groups around the country have been playing up the pollution of aquifers without proof and have been directly targeting industry.

They are penalizing a struggling economy as a result.

All of this has been an irritant to those in the industry who cannot comprehend how arguments, which are not scientifically based, have gained traction. Especially when the Natural Gas Industry’s scientifically backed arguments are not gaining that same traction in the national spotlight or with law makers.

This controversy is absurd because it makes no sense.

When the NYT’s own public editor (Arthur Brisbane)  calls into question the legitimacy of the journalistic faithfulness of one of its writers  (Ian Urbina: Fibber Extraordinaire) for redacting emails he based his articles on, we could think it was bad.

But when law-makers like Markey and Maley begin to butt in after baseless articles like those were published, it turns the corner and a whole new ballgame ensues.

If you are interested, you can see how some anti-Frac’ing folks are responding to the prospect of Natural Gas drilling in Maryland.

Maryland has a front row seat for the growth happening in Pennsylvania as a result of gas drilling. They are witnessing the growth of Pennsylvania’s economy directly across the border because of a shale play that they share.

According to that article, the University of Maryland values the Natural Gas in Maryland’s portion of the Marcellus between 5.9 and 49.1 billion dollars.

Heather Mizeur, Delegate D-Montgomery, who failed in her efforts in the General Assembly to restrict drilling in the Marcellus, proposed that there be an extraction tax placed on drillers of 10%.  This would stifle the incentive for drilling in the state of Maryland and retard growth she has witnessed in Pennsylvania from flourishing in Maryland.

She is a MORON.

Here is why: She could not succeed in restricting drilling so she went another route.  If she can push taxing the tar out of the industries then they will be less likely to work.  She is doing all of this without factual basis for her actions.

The Lt. Gov. of Pennsylvania had to respond to Pennsylvanians who act like Maryland’s Delegate Hizeur because of proposals for extraction taxes on the Natural Gas Industry in Pennsylvania.

According to him:

Tax enthusiasts also make the claim that Marcellus poses an imminent environmental danger to the rest of the state that, for some reason, can only be solved by a tax. What will protect the state’s environment is aggressive and impartial enforcement of environmental regulations.

This year, the Department of Environmental Protection levied more than $1 million in fines against a single drilling company for environmental violations. Taxes don’t stop pollution. Environmental enforcement does.

What Lt. Gov. Cawley realizes that Delegate Mizeur does not is that Natural Gas drilling is great for state economic growth and it is great for the citizens of those states.

Here is where I would like it to go a step further and it will require no great amount of imagination.

Remember the “Shaleionaires” I mentioned earlier?

They are making real money.  So are the approximately 50,000 people put to work in Pennsylvania in the last 12 months. As a result of them, Nat Gas companies have already paid over 1.2 billion dollars in taxes to the state of Pennsylvania because they are making tons money and created tons of jobs.

This is not a calculation of associated economic growth from businesses that start or grow to support the influx of workers.

So what does this have to do with Frac Bans and Stifling Restrictions?

Check this out to understand where I am going.

I am sure the wheels are turning now.

You see, there are dollar amounts associated with the losses of revenue due to Frac Bans and Restrictions.

Frac Bans violate the 5th and 14th Amendments. They disable landowners and mineral rights owners from profiting from resources they possess. This could mean hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

The 5th amendment reads “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

Imagine knowing that your lands were worth millions to you in royalties and fees but your state banned drilling when that same drilling is happening 50 miles away, across a state line, and making millionaires out of folks in a similar situation.

Would you be infuriated? I would.

The Dryden Safe Energy Coalition issued that letter to help their local government understand that by instituting a ban,

The ban entirely confiscates mineral rights to an estimated value of $175 million (valuations may vary, but the significance of the sum involved remains), not including the additional value of royalty rights also likely in the many millions and the costs of litigation.

In violating the Constitutional protection of wrongful seizure, the government would assume responsibility to justly compensate the losses realized by those who couldn’t earn money they were previously capable of making.

Because Natural Gas companies are willing to pay fees and royalties to the mineral rights owners of land, the number of their loss is quantifiable. To institute a ban would be to remove money from their pockets, which those who impose the ban should be required to pay. This would fall on the tax payers and is impossible.

So the question is “How much will all of the inaccurate information presented by Greenies to create public anxiety cost the public?”

The answer to that is countless millions of dollars. It has already cost them money. While Pennsylvania flourishes, New York flounders.

If the Greenies prefaced their protests with “We are disabling you from becoming much wealthier, here is the check you could have had.” then I am certain that they would lose some of the wind in their windmills.

By the way, the EPA still doesn’t have a single confirmed instance of Hydraulic Fracturing polluting groundwater. So what is the argument? The argument is always rooted in uncertainty without any glance back at the history of Natural Gas drilling.

The argument should be that there are Americans being robbed of money right now because of all of their bull. They should be liable for it and they should be sued.

Let see if they are willing to compensate the people the millions they’ll lose in the name of the environment. I doubt it.

They can’t put their money where their mouths are but they sure have no problem with taking money from the people and businesses who can.

The Proof in the Pudding

Natural Gas is good for America.

A simple comparison of two states that share the Marcellus Shale (Pennsylvania and New York) by the Wall Street Journal shows the stark contrast between the two in terms of capitalizing on the boom that Shale Gas can provide.

As you will note from that article, Timothy Considine, University of Wyoming professor, estimates that each individual well drilled in the Pennsylvania shale “generates some $2.8 million in direct economic benefits from natural gas company purchases; $1.2 million in indirect benefits from companies engaged along the supply chain; another $1.5 million from workers spending their wages, or landowners spending their royalty payments; plus $2 million in federal, state and local taxes. Oh, and 62 jobs.”

In the words of native Pennsylvanians, shale gas has positively impacted the state in amazing ways:  ways that generate billions of dollars and pay taxes on those billions of dollars, ways that generate new jobs for locals and increase the quality of life for folks living in that state. These are real testimonials from real folks in the workplace and in government that speak for the improvements that Shale Gas has already provided.

Meanwhile, in the state of New York, “Job No. 1 is Jobs”.  According to a study by the Manhattan Institute,

…a quick end to the moratorium would generate more than $11.4 billion in economic output from 2011 to 2020, 15,000 to 18,000 new jobs, and $1.4 billion in new state and local tax revenue. These are conservative estimates based on a limited area of drilling. If drilling were allowed in the New York City watershed—which Governor Andrew Cuomo is so far rejecting—as well as in the state’s Utica shale formation, the economic gains would be five times larger.

Consider New York’s Broome County, which borders Pennsylvania and from which you can spot nearby rigs. The county seat of Binghamton ought to be a hub for shale commerce, but instead its population is falling as its young people leave for jobs elsewhere.

A study commissioned by the county in 2009 found that Broome could support up to 4,000 wells, but drilling even half that number would create some $400 million in wages, salaries and benefits; $605 million in property income from rents, royalties and dividends, and some $43 million in state and local tax revenue.

While Pennsylvania thrives, New York watches them.

Instead of claiming the approximately 20% of the production available in the Marcellus, environmental groups uninterested in anything resembling a compromise are in favor of protecting their land due to extremist environmental concerns (which, by the way, were proven by the mountain of evidence substantiated by environmental agencies like New York’s own DEC…wait,…they didn’t say that Frac’ing for Natural Gas was harmful? Wait, what did they say? They said that as long as Frac’ing precautions are in place, Frac’ing can be done safely and won’t contaminate drinking water…oh, ah, who cares, the last thing New York needs is people living and working in it. They pollute the environment.) that they have yet to put any real weight behind in terms of scientific data.

New York could not only benefit from Shale Gas, it needs to but ads like the second one run on the page continue to run, not on CNG but emotion. Emotions don’t make money, CNG does.

I want New York to help themselves with what is within their means and stop letting people like Mark Ruffalo and Josh Fox halt the progress of their own economy.

And because New York has chosen, up until this point, to value the voices of the detractors more than the voices of those for economic stimulation, and acted preemptively and detrimentally without hard scientific evidence to reasonably justify their actions…and it has already cost them billions of dollars.

I don’t want film-makers or movie stars or irresponsible journalists costing my state billions of dollars because of the influence they can leverage.

I propose an idea. Instead of warring ideologies, let’s quantify the successes of Natural Gas and the criticisms against its method of production in concrete terms to evaluate which argument needs to be eliminated.

The headache is that while all of the barkers moan about the dangers of Frac’ing because they are opposed to it, the companies who are making money for this country and for its people have to deal with them.

I hope it won’t be a headache for long. The longer they make arguments that they can’t back up, the longer they call the independent gas companies into question without tangible reasons, the more foolish they are going to look and the more credibility they are going to lose.

During that time, New York will have lost more money because they listened to them in the first place. Pennsylvania isn’t worried about any of this because they are too busy making money.

Facts Vs. Fiction

If you look at the current debt of  the United States and pair that with the ability for the United States to free itself from its dependence on foreign oil, it doesn’t seem that the debate on whether or not the US should go forward with capitalizing (we are a country built on capitalism by the way) on our Natural Gas resources is fair. If you look at the current level of our consumption of resources in comparison with other countries, it is safe to say that a home grown energy resolution would exponentially improve our current economic situation.

If you also note that the voice of detractors (as of yet) has no significant hard scientific evidence backing up their concerns about the pollution of aquifers and the harmful effects of Frac’ing, then the debate is not reasonable or rational. This article cites that the Department of Environmental Conservation for the State of New York released the second draft of its Environmental Impact study. According to the article’s author, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the study concluded “that as long as precautions are in place, fracking can be done safely and won’t contaminate our drinking water.” He added “Remember, this was not an industry report. It was issued by an environmental watchdog in a very liberal state.”

As we’ve reported before, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said, in a statement to congress that there are “no proven cases where the frac’ing process itself has affected water.” and “We have in place a national regulatory system to protect ground water and well developed principles of property law that protect neighbors,…”  “We don’t need more rules, just consistent application of those we have already.”

Not only are the detractors void of hard evidence, the smoking guns that they were hoping to find are missing. This leaves one conclusion, they are relying on reporting unproven, not unfounded concerns.

In several News articles from multiple states like Ohio, Louisiana, and West Virginia, Natural Gas, and immediately related Frac’ing is creating lots of jobs and will continue to create jobs. This is what we need.

In a report comparing the growth in places like Pennsylvania, who have allowed Frac’ing, and New York, whose Frac’ing ban expired July 1st, Matt Schmidt, summarizes the Public Policy Institute’s release on the potential of Natural Gas in the State of New York.

Some of the Highlights are that the State of New York could potentially create 37,500 jobs annually with only 300 wells.

He also says “From 2009 to 2010, Oil and Gas Extraction and Support Activities for Mining, just two of the Marcellus-related industries, gained 4,355 jobs in Pennsylvania. In New York, these sectors combined saw only 42 new jobs.”

With new job creation and a move away from sending our monies to OPEC, this is a phenomenal opportunity to both stimulate our own national economy and create work for people desperately looking for it.

The Full Article Schmidt references can be found here.

According to MIT and all of the major companies investing billions in Natural Gas and related industries, Natural Gas could be the next big thing. MIT reported that “Natural gas is well positioned, with current technology, to play an increasingly important role in serving society’s clean energy needs over the
next decades…”

According to a Duke University study and the EPA, the concerns about water contamination are not legitimate. There is always the potential for a mistake but the fears are speculative at best as of now.

If the concerns are unfounded, the evidence in favor seemingly one-sided, the potential for an economic boom in front of us, the only question left is “What are the real problems and why is growth being opposed?”

The answer is ignorance.

We love being Americans over here and we love the idea of America getting out from underneath the thumbs of some of our enemies with the prospect of Natural Gas. We love the idea of keeping our wealth rather than spending it needlessly away while we have all the tools we need.

It reminds me of the Great Famine in Ireland. The major export at the time was food. Let’s stop starving while we have the means in-house to get out of needless debt, because we have a lot of it, needless debt that is.

Let’s do this.