Prof. Ingraffea, Keynote Speaker

In a public forum this past week, Professor Tony Ingraffea of Cornell University continued his campaign to expose a variety of myths of Marcellus shale drilling and fracking, as explained here.  The excerpts below are intended to summarize his explanations:

Natural-gas drilling dates back to 1824, with a traditional fracking technique used for several decades. But hydraulic fracturing (or “hydrofracking”) in the Marcellus Shale began within the last 10 years. It was within the last decade that the industry figured out how to extract natural gas from shale, an extremely impermeable rock formation that is more watertight than concrete.

While the natural-gas industry is correct in the literal sense when it says “fracking is a 60-year old proven technology,” the claim is misleading because fracking in Marcellus Shale is a new technology, still being developed and requiring “unconventional” methods, said
Anthony Ingraffea, Cornell University’s Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering. Those methods include horizontal directional drilling covering vast underground areas and the use of huge volumes of water.

From 1982 to 1991, he did research for the industry on hydraulic fracturing and gas pipeline design. While the industry is doing what it can to prevent problems with this newest technology, Ingraffea said, it is still experimental. As far as solid data, he said, “we know virtually nothing.”

When asked by someone in the audience if he would allow hydrofracking in New York now if he had the power to decide, Ingraffea said he would not. “The technology is immature. We haven’t had sufficient time to determine all the costs and impacts,” he said, referring to its effects on water and air quality, and human health. If hydrofracking is permitted in New York, the first 1,000 shale gas wells will consume more water than all 44,000 existing gas wells do now in the state, he said.

New Yorkers are in a good position to protect themselves, said Ingraffea, who has a Ph.D. in rock- fracture mechanics. As other places experience hydrofracking, whether it is Pennsylvania, Texas or British Columbia, we can learn from that, Ingraffea said. “Now we are in the driver’s seat. And we can look to the future.”

See the recent video of Professor Ingraffea discussing shale drilling and fracking here.

Prof. Anthony Ingraffea

Four myths frequently reported by the gas industry were recently described by Professor Anthony Ingraffea, who is a Faculty Fellow at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University:

Myth 1. Fracking is a 60-year-old, safe, well proven technology – -

Yes, fracking is 60 years old. But using this shorthand obscures the truth that what’s at issue here isn’t really just fracking. It’s the entire process of coaxing gas from shale using high-volume, slickwater fracking with long laterals from clustered, multi-well pads. Used together, they form a new process, having been introduced about five six years ago, the jury is still very much out on its safety.

Myth 2. Fluid migration from faulty wells is rare – - -

Fluid migration is not rare. For example, industry researchers Watson and Bachu, in a Society of Petroleum Engineers paper in 2009, examined 352,000 Canadian wells and found sustained casing pressure and gas migration. They found that about 12 per cent of newer wells leaked, considerably more than older wells. Also, EPA found benzene, methane and chemicals in water-monitoring wells in Pavilion, Wyoming.

Myth 3. The use of clustered, multi-well drilling pads reduces surface impacts – - -

Such pad sites are large and growing, up to 10 acres or more. Newer sites, in Canada, are bigger than 50 acres, and each will leave behind clusters of wellheads and holding tanks for decades. Cluster drilling facilitates and prolongs intense industrialization and leaves a larger, more concentrated, and very long-term footprint, not a smaller and shorter one.

Myth 4. Natural gas is a “clean” fossil fuel – - -

The newest evidence here is discouraging. NASA climate scientist Drew Shindell’s work, published in Science, shows that methane (i.e. natural gas) is 105 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming contributor over a 20-year time horizon, and 33 times more powerful over a century. Unfortunately, unconventional gas drilling techniques actually leak more methane than conventional ones. Leakage happens routinely during regular drilling, fracking and flowback operations, liquid unloading, processing, and along pipelines and at storage facilities.

Other myths were also mentioned in the article: “There are plenty of other myths swirling around this debate which require analysis: local job-creation versus the reality of imported expertise from Oklahoma and Texas; development of a home-grown resource versus selling gas on the world markets; revitalized, vibrant local economies versus boom-and-bust syndromes of strangled small business investment and profits sent to Norway or China; natural gas as a short-term bridge fuel to renewables, versus an impediment to developing the long-term sustainable energy future the world so desperately needs.”