XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: wsmith@cbs.com   
      
   Meanwhile all the ground water in the US, once one of the finest   
   natural resources on the entire planet, is being contaminated   
   with industrial chemicals, solvents, herbicides, petroleum   
   waste, all manner of liquid manufacturing mistakes, and dead   
   animal by-products from rendering plants.   
      
   All in the name of Barack Hussein Obama's stated hatred of the   
   coal industry, despite studies from multiple California   
   universities that CNG vehicles are just as dirty and contribute   
   more pollutants to the environment than coal plants producing   
   electricity.   
      
   * * *   
      
   From his driveway, farmer Tom Wheeler's view of North Dakota's   
   grasslands seems endless. Fields of soy, wheat and canola   
   stretch to the horizon in all directions. But as drillers flock   
   to cash in on the state's booming shale gas industry, that   
   horizon has become increasingly marked by natural gas flares.   
      
   "In the '70s we had so many dry holes that you never noticed the   
   flares," said Wheeler, who worked on an oil rig in the state's   
   Bakken Basin 40 years ago. "But now every well is productive —   
   and the flares are everywhere."   
      
   The prairies — once dotted only with cattle and an occasional   
   oil derrick — are now marked by thousands of flares, open pits   
   or steel pipes burning off excess natural gas, a byproduct of   
   the rapid rise in oil drilling. New wells are coming online so   
   quickly that the pipeline infrastructure for natural gas has not   
   been able to keep pace.   
      
   Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, forces natural gas and crude   
   oil out of shale buried deep below the earth by using highly   
   pressurized and treated water. Drillers seek out valuable crude   
   oil, but natural gas comes out of the ground, too. Flaring is   
   the burning of natural gas that can't be processed or sold. All   
   those flares, meanwhile, are adding up. They burn so brightly   
   that NASA astronauts have taken pictures of their glow from   
   space.   
      
   "When I was growing up, we were taught not to waste anything."   
      
   Many oil drillers are unable to direct the flow of natural gas   
   coming off wells into existing pipelines, which already are at   
   full capacity. They have no choice but to add a flare at each   
   site with a well. The result is nearly a third of the natural   
   gas produced in the region is being burned to secure crude oil,   
   and subsequently creating thousands of flares.   
      
   Now regulators are cracking down. North Dakota passed new   
   flaring standards, with the goal of capturing more natural gas.   
   Energy companies are scrambling to meet the rules and curb   
   flaring — some with creative technologies. For some landowners   
   like Wheeler, it's not the noise or light pollution that gets to   
   them.   
      
   In Ray, Hess has a gas compression station bordering Wheeler's   
   property. Natural gas is pumped from several surrounding oil   
   wells, before being transported to a larger processing facility   
   in Tioga. A four-burner flare sounds like a jet engine, and the   
   20-foot flame, sitting atop the 30-foot torch, can be seen for   
   miles. "It's not just a waste to the landowner or the tax   
   collector, it's a waste of the land's natural product," Wheeler   
   said. "When I was growing up, we were taught not to waste   
   anything."   
      
   Every day, drillers in the Bakken burn off about 350 million   
   cubic feet of natural gas. That comes to more than $100 million   
   worth of gas lost each month — a figure that makes the state's   
   mineral rights holders' unhappy. There are at least 12 class-   
   action lawsuits filed against the drillers by mineral rights   
   holders seeking lost revenue.   
      
   Trying to manage the growth of the Bakken, North Dakota's new   
   flaring standards aim for drillers to capture 90 percent of all   
   the gas they release by 2020. Drillers now capture roughly 72   
   percent. When the new standards come into effect in October,   
   drillers will have to raise that figure to 74 percent, with   
   subsequent gains made leading up to 2020.   
      
   While environmentalists say the standards are still too lax when   
   compared to states like Alaska and Texas — where more than 99   
   percent of all natural gas is collected — regulators say the new   
   North Dakota standards will be strictly enforced. Any wells that   
   are found to be burning too much gas could face drilling   
   curtailments.   
      
   As new regulations begin to take effect, oil producers are   
   finding creative solutions to the flaring problem. The industry   
   isn't in denial when it comes to the flaring, says Lance   
   Langford, vice president of the Bakken Asset for Statoil.   
      
   "I think we all know we need to reduce flaring. We want to   
   reduce flaring," he said. "It's not just the environmental   
   footprint we have here. There's also value capture for us, for   
   the mineral rights holders and the state. I think it's fair, but   
   it's going to be a challenge."   
      
   Langford would know. His Norwegian-based company has been one of   
   the biggest players in the Bakken region, since it purchased   
   Brigham Exploration for $4.4 billion in 2011. With roughly   
   300,000 net acres, Statoil is making a concerted push to expand   
   its presence in the region. It's also working to cut its flaring.   
      
   Statoil last year announced a joint partnership with General   
   Electric and Ferus Natural Gas Fuels, a Canadian natural gas   
   logistics company. The companies have been piloting GE's "CNG in   
   a Box" technology at a Statoil rig just east Watford City, North   
   Dakota. The unit compresses natural gas and stores it for the   
   final distance of the fuel process.   
      
   This option is referred to as the "Last Mile" fueling   
   solution.The unit doesn't look like much — a brown box about the   
   size of a small shed, with pipes running out of it. But the unit   
   holds enough CNG to help power operations for a Statoil rig   
   drilling 11 new wells. By this time next year, Statoil hopes all   
   six of its rigs are partially running on natural gas captured   
   from its wells.   
      
   http://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/fracking-boom-waste-   
   flares-light-prairie-unused-natural-gas-n186946   
      
        
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)