Full Throttle Ahead: US Tips Global Power Scales with Fracking

[xchrom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/new-gas-extraction-methods-alter-global-balance-of-power-a-880546.html


Across North Dakota's oil patch, makeshift camps cater to their hard-working tenants by offering different amenities. The state is running out of housing, and some communities have placed moratoriums on temporary compounds like this one, saying the influx of new workers is straining their resources.

Williston, North Dakota, is a bleak little city in the vast American prairie. It's dusty in the summer and frigid in the winter. Moose hunting is one of the few sources of entertainment. But despite its drawbacks, Williston has seen its population more than double within a short period of time.

The city is so overcrowded that new arrivals often have no place to stay but in their motor homes, which, at monthly parking fees of $1,200 (€880), isn't exactly inexpensive. And more people continue to arrive in this nondescript little town.

The reason for the influx is simple: Geologists have discovered a layer of shale saturated with natural gas and oil deep beneath the city. The Bakken formation, spanning thousands of square kilometers, has become synonymous with an American economic miracle that the country hasn't experienced since the oil rush almost 100 years ago.

North Dakota now has virtual full employment, and the state budget showed an estimated surplus of $1.6 billion in 2012. Truck drivers in the state make $100,000 a year, while the strippers being brought in from Las Vegas rake in more than $1,000 a night. President Barack Obama calls the discovery of Bakken and similar shale gas formations in Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Utah a "stroke of luck," saying: "We have a hundred years' worth of energy right beneath our feet."

[newfie11]

1. This will never end

Until they have killed the entire earth

[libtodeath]

2. Destroy the planet but yay,some got rich!

the fangs of capitalism sink deeper into our necks.

[snappyturtle]

3. Thanks for posting. K&R..I think this fracking is nuts. Here in

TX I find it doubly hard to believe because of the water needed to frack. Once again, it's all about money.

[JackN415]

4. We have to look at the brighter side...

Last edited Mon Feb 4, 2013, 11:52 AM - Edit history (1)

More natural gas means fewer coal-fired power plants. Less coal burning.
Need careful regulation and sound environmental policy, but it is an economic opportunity and the wealth it brings can be used to take care other environmental/health problems.

It's all about managing trade-offs.