Let's Drill and Frack the Heck out of Texas.

[MyUncle]

Oil is a necessary, needed, used, abused, life saving, life threatening evil.

We need it. It is better for lower income people if it is less expensive.

Since we will have oil, doesn't it make sense to have the oil industry concentrated in places that have it already, want it, have the infrastructure to deal with it including the people who are willing to deal with it.

I've been through Texas. There are already wells, refineries, transport systems all over the place. Why not go nuts there there pump, frack like crazy? Set aside a significant area for those who don't want anything to do with it, build up the industry in the places that want it.

I know this is simplistic, but our needs are only increasing. I'd rather limit and control this cancer than see it spread everywhere.

[Vincardog]

1. They are already fracking the hell out of Ft. Worth

[MyUncle]

3. my point exactly, frack where the fracking is good.

[ergot]

4. O&G wells south of Ft. Worth have been fracked for 50 years.

It's not anything new...

[MyUncle]

5. I believe there is new technology that is opening up

oil fields that had not been economically feasible. This is true as long as oil is approximately greater than $60 a barrel. So there is going to be a new rush to exploit this oil and Texas has many feasible sites. I'd rather see it there than let's say Ithaca or Lake Saranac NY.

[FreeJoe]

10. Sort of

There is new technology, but it isn't fracking. Well, fracking has improved, but the big difference is better, cheaper horizontal drilling. It used to be that you drilled a well straight down to the "pay zone". You sucked up whatever oil and gas could migrate to that one "hole". Now, you can steer the well so that it goes down toward the oil and then turns so that it runs along the oil seem. Instead of draining one spot, you can drain a long seam. That allows you to recover a lot more oil with a single well. Even better, you can drill a bunch of wells from one pad and drain a large area with a much smaller surface impact.

[Bravo Zulu]

11. Too late, NY is already being poisoned!

Big Flats, N.Y, resident Joseph Todd turned to bottled water after his well water suddenly turned murky and smelly, shortly after gas drilling began.
http://shale.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/news/environment
http://shale.sites.post-gazette.com/

[ergot]

2. Ecological concerns notwithstanding, we will indeed do what you suggest...eventually.

Anyone who thinks Americans (not even to mention 5 billion other people) will opt for sacrificing their energy wants to mediate environmental destruction is completely delusional. And when the crude oil gets critically scarce, there will be huge support for nuclear power...and that is largely because the alternatives like wind and solar are nowhere near energy-dense enough to meet the demand. I'm not defending it nor do I like it, I'm just admitting the inevitability.

[Bravo Zulu]

6. It poisons the drinking water,

you can't drink oil!

[yawnmaster]

8. you can always purify water, though.

just takes energy.

[Bravo Zulu]

12. You funny!

[MyUncle]

9. All the more reason to have it one place - Texas.

The oil industry is toxic from start to finish, top to bottom. No way to avoid it-period. Frack, poison the wells THERE, pipe in your water, but keep it somewhere else.

The scariest thing about fracking and expensive oil is that it opens so many places to potential oil industry exploitation. Go nuts in the places that have it and WANT it.

[FreeJoe]

15. You have to go where the oil is

There is a lot of drilling activity in Texas. The Haynesville area was the start of modern shale plays. It was what started the new natural gas boom. The Barnett Shale is also a big producing area. The Eagle Ford Shale is getting lots of attention now as it has more liquids and they sell for much more than gas these days.

The "problem" is that there is a lot of oil/gas in other parts of the US and people in those places want to sell it. The Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania is huge. The Niobrara in Colorado could be monstrous. People with the mineral rights in these areas are usually quite happy to trade there underground hydrocarbons for cash.

[sharesunited]

7. Some of the best drinking water in the world resides in multiple underground Texas aquifers.

[BadgerKid]

14. Illinois, too. That's part of why BigAg

has been so desperate to push for privatization of municipal water.

[Bravo Zulu]

17. Explosive Methane and Benzene In Texas Aquifer!

HOUSTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an emergency order against a Texas gas driller Tuesday, accusing the company of contaminating an aquifer and giving it 48 hours to provide clean drinking water to affected residents and begin taking steps to resolve the problem.

The order is unprecedented in Texas, partly because the federal body overstepped the state agency responsible for overseeing gas and oil drilling in the state. The EPA’s move could ratchet up a bitter fight between Texas and the EPA that has evolved in the past year from a dispute over environmental issues into a pitched battle over states rights.

http://watersynergy.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/explosive-methane-and-benzene-in-texas-aquifer/

[Bucky]

13. Frak Earth

[MyUncle]

16. No, Frak Texas.

[randr]

18. That is not a very nice way to prepare the state for the future

Hispanic populations majority. I due time they will be making the decisions and I hope they treat the land well.

[MyUncle]

19. There would be many people of all races who would be employed.

As much as I am being sarcastic here, I really do believe we should be concentrating our energy production. I look at it like a large scale zoning issue. We have industrial zones in all states/municipalities because this type of activity is incongruous with residential areas. Why not have the same philosophy with with energy production. The same thing would go for solar and wind.

We need energy, let's get it from places that want to have it.