There must be a very big difference between Oil drilling and Gas drilling

[ThomWV]

It seems to me that there must be a very big difference between oil drilling and gas drilling. Otherwise why would so many members of Congress of the United States fight for years to stop drilling for oil in the ANWAR but be more than happy to allow massive drilling and fracking for gas in New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia? Either gas drilling in well populated areas is more benign than oil drilling in a scarcely habited area or something is horribly wrong in the halls of Congress. Which do you suppose it is?

[Ship of Fools]

1. Price of operation (?)

[ThomWV]

2. So its cheaper to buy off Congressmen to frack for gas than it is to bribe them to drill for oil?

Sounds plausible to me, except aren't there a lot more politicians from New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia than there are in Alaska so you might think it would cost way more to buy off the eastern contingent than the western.

[Ship of Fools]

7. Well, I'm sure you have a point --

but once *up* and *operational,* could it be that fracking ends up out-producing and out-revenuing (?)
oil, or is it vice versa? I'm asking this because I have no clue.

BTW, check it out: I felt aftershocks from OK earthquake last night, as did many acquaintances in KC area.
As I understand it, OK fracking operations were only a couple of miles away from the epicenter. I
think I read somewhere that this same scenario happened in the UK as well (?)

[NYC_SKP]

3. All of the above. And...

Legislators in NY state have less to gain if the project is in Alaska.

And, the whole lobbying dynamics might be different.

And, certainly, the costs and logistics of extraction are different between crude oil and natural gas.

And, not insignificantly, natural gas is used to generate electricity and petroleum is not (or only to a tiny degree), so the end markets are different beasts.

:patriot:

[Submariner]

4. They either need to see the documentary "GASLAND" or read up on the science

Our current crop of lawmakers are attorneys and such, so have probably had zero contact with science during their education or personal lives, the formative years. The professions they are degreed in have everything to do with short term monetary gain, the future be damned, and f*ck the grandkids, let them figure it out.

[Arctic Dave]

5. Becuase ANWR is a National Wildlife Reserve. There is no "A".

And it situated far, far from market.

Also, the State owns all subsurface rights and they get to say where oil companies can drill not your neighbor.

Neither one of them is benign, as the people will find out when all the stuff needs to be reomved when the well peters out.

[Philosopher King]

6. Technology is the great enabler...

It has made natural gas exploration more effective, drilling more efficient, production more prolific and at the same time, safer and far less intrusive to the environment.

[jwirr]

8. The times they are changing - resources are more scarce. nt

[lonestarnot]

9. Solar is not finite.

[jwirr]

11. The issue was oil vs gas in this op.

[lonestarnot]

14. I can read. I wasn't responding to the OP.

[lonestarnot]

10. Interesting thread.

First to rec.

[zbdent]

12. not to go one way or another, but I recently was at a place where I could

overhear a few of the louder bits of conversation of a group nearby ... and one person brought up something which hadn't occurred to me before ...

with this drilling going on in more populated areas, what happens when you've had all this equipment on your property and the drillers finally leave (after you've collected your $$$) ... and suddenly, you are faced with the fact that you can't sell your property because of all the "brownfield" (hazardous waste) that has accumulated?

[Drahthaardogs]

13. It's all exempt. There is no brownfield.

The 2005 energy act explicitly exempts any and all materials and products used in downhole production from RCRA, CERCLA, or any other environmental law. What is typically left behind is a reserve pit, which is usually solidfied with fly ash. The contents of the pit are exempt as well. Yes, I do this kind of stuff for a living so I know a little about environmental laws.