Document 6wXzBxe9XVEJaGwwgXNYwoQZ1

In the lite ra tu re States into an exporter of natural Fracking Files gas, they convinced investors to support their efforts to convert these Mixing Energy, Economics, and Geopolitics facilities from importing LNG to exporting it." By G. Tracy Mehan III The "unconventional boom" in the production of shale gas and tight oil, the "windfall," was led by M eghan L. O 'Sullivan tells the story of how, on one hazy Sunday in late Febru The epiphany of the voyage of the Asia Vision illuminates the amazing developments in America's energy' the estimable George Mitchell, the struggling petroleum engineer who pioneered hydraulic fracturing, or ary 2016, the 935-foot, 100,000-ton sector, developments not without fracking, along with dozens of small Asia Vision was maneuvered into po controversy, showcasing entrepre and midsized American companies, sition by four red, white and green neurial drive, technological inno transforming the world of energy7. tugboats so as to perfectly align this vation, and a boom in the nation's In 2006 the United States pro behemoth with the four loading arms production of tight oil and shale duced enough shale gas to heat 15 of the jetty at Sabine Pass terminal, gas through new techniques such as million homes a y7ear. By 2014, it 'part of a one-thousand-acre facility hydraulic fracturing and directional could, hypothetically heat 200 mil straddling the Texas-Louisiana bor drilling. The impacts of this revolu lion homes. By 201 5 more than half der,'' tion in energy production encom of all natural gas produced in the ``With a wrench the size of a hu passed everything from local land use country came from shale, compared man arm, workers secured the ship to battles to gross domestic product, to just 6 percent a decade earlier. the jetty/' writes O 'Sullivan. "Natural international oil and gas markets, the What worked for shale gas gas, which had been cooled to --260 climate change debate, geopolitics, worked for tight oil, starting in the degrees Fahrenheit and first decade of the 2000s. liquefied over the course Production from places of traveling through more W indfall: How the New Energy like Eagle Ford in Texas than a mile of steel pipe Abundance Upends Global Politics and the Bakken fields in and refrigerating systems, and Strengthens America's Power. North Dakota resulted in flowed into the tanker." By Meghan L. O'Sullivan. Simon & American tight oil produc A few days later, the ship Schuster; 479 pages; $29.00. tion surpassing Iraq's over sailed on to Brazil with its three billion cubic feet of gasThis historic event was the culmination of more than a decade of work by Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas: Impacts from the Hydraulic Fracturing W ater Cycle on Drinking Water Resources In the United States. Environmental Protection Agency. all production by72014, "In the same y7ear, bur geoning U.S. tight oil production pushed over all American crude out put to be 10 percent of an American company, Cheniere Energy, at a cost liiip il l l l i l i i l i Water and Hydraulic Fracturing: A the world's supply," writes White Paper From the American Water O 'Sullivan, a professor at of $20 billion, to develop Works Association. Harvard's Kennedy7 School this extensive LNG op of Government and for eration -- without ever merly deputy national se turning a profit. Indeed, "the Asia and the rise and decline of nations curity7advisor for Iraq and Afghani Vision was the first vessel carrying across the globe, stan for President George W. Bush. LNG that shipped from the lower Ihe drastic reversal of the Ameri "Accounting for nearly half of over forty-eight states since the 1960s. can energy' situation, certainly since all U.S. crude oil production, tight After decades of fretting about its the 1973 OPEC embargo, is dem oil was the driving force behind burgeoning dependency on im onstrated by the fact that Cheniere America's oil resurgence." ported energy, the United States "had gambled big in 2003 to build If the diligent reader were to scour had become an exporter of natural facilities on the U.S Gulf Coast to O'Sullivan's 146 pages of notes, he gas,' observes O 'Sullivan in her new import expected waves of L N G ,' or she would be rewarded with the Simon & Schuster book Windfall. which O 'Sullivan calls "a second following nuggets: the number of How the New Energy Abundance Up multibillion dollar wager.'' She say's, w7ells in the Barnett Shale (Texas) ends Global Politics and Strengthens "Banking that this reversal of ener rose from 2,070 to 17,980, an in America's Power. gy fortunes would turn the United crease of 750 percent. .And this: nat- 6 !T H E ENVI RONMENTAL FORUM Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 5 ED 002061 00095310-00001 In the lite ra tu re ural gas produccin in die Barnett the official length of the recession, grew from 834 million cubic feet a according to the National Bureau of day in 2003 to 5,752 million cubic Economic Research." feet in 2012. From O 'Sullivan's perspective this explosive growth in domestic energy production resulted in noth ing less than an ``American Renais- Readers should understand that the focus of Windfall is . on the geopolitical conse sanee" of energy. "According to one quences of the United States' uncon study by the consultancy IHS, un ventional energy boom, including conventional oil and gas production the decline of Russian leverage over added almost 1 percent to GDP Europe and Ukraine, making China each year from 2008 to 2013, mak comfortable with energy markets ing it responsible for approximately rather than supporting rogue regimes 40 percent' of all GDP growth dur to acquire energy, and the taming ing that period," spanning the Great (somewhat) of OPEC. Recession. Now that both shale gas and tight "A 2015 Harvard Business oil are part of a global energy market, School/Boston Consulting Group the United States will still need to report used a more inclusive meth encourage more countries, especially odology and calculated that' oil and China, to exploit their unconven gas produced by fracking contrib tional resources to keep prices in line uted $430 billion --- or just about and the supply flowing, while reduc 2.5 percent of GDP -- to the U.S. ing carbon emissions in the case of economy in 2014 alone," O 'Sullivan gas. Europe's geology and environ relates. "This amount translates into mental politics make it unlikely on roughly $1,400 for the Continent. Yet, each American in a single calendar year Fracking spurred GDP even as prices drop, OPEC, which can and is equal to more growth while expanding bring oil production than half the entire American influence in on or off quickly, stimulus package passed in 2009 to foreign affairs can impact prices in a global market. But fuel investments in the salient point of infrastructure, education, renewable the book is the enhancement of the energy, and health over the course of strategic position and leverage of the the following decade." United States going forward. According to Windfall, "Moody's O 'Sullivan also seeks to justify Analytics . . . calculated that more fracking to environmentalists who than a quarter of a million jobs see it as (a) producing just another were directly created by oil- and fossil fuel, and (b) a mortal threat gas-related industries between 2006 to renewables given its low costs and and early 2015, with most stem cheap price. Aside from some ques ming from the shale gas and tight tionable claims that unconventional oil sectors." But the ultimate job energy led to the 2015 climate pact growth was much larger than that, between the United States and Chi O 'Sullivan notes. "Each of these na as well as the Paris Agreement, directly created jobs was estimated she hits the mark when she notes to have spurred another 3.4 related that "the advent of shale gas enabled jobs, making a total of over one mil the United States to bring down its lion new jobs attributable to the emissions to their lowest absolute boom. These new jobs were roughly level in twenty years. Between 2005 equivalent to half the number of and 2015, U.S. C 0 2 emissions re American manufacturing jobs lost lated to the energy sector declined from December 2007 to June 2009, by' 12 percent." She cites David Vic tor, a professor at the University' of California, San Diego, regarding the switch from coal to natural gas in the power industry'. Tire impact on U.S. emissions was "about twice the total effect of the Kyoto Protocol on carbon emissions in the rest of the world, including the European Union." She also argues that "there is not strong evidence to support fears that low fossil fuel prices will come at the expense of continued investment in renewables and other alternative energies." Windfall does not delve into any water quality issues related to frack ing and unconventional energy'. So readers may' want to consult publica tions by' the Environmental Protec tion Agency' and the American Water Works Association on the subject. EPA's report "Hydraulic Fractur ing for Oil and Gas," accessible at epa.gov/hfstudy, offers a review' and synthesis of available scien tific infor mation concerning the relationship between hydraulic fracturing activi ties and drinking water resources in the United States. While recogniz ing that data gaps and uncertainties limit its ability' to fully assess poten tial impacts locally' and nationally', the report does outline conditions under which impacts from fracking can be frequent or severe -- spills during the handling of hydraulic fracturing chemicals and discharge of inadequately treated wastewater to surface water. AWWA's white paper "Water and Hydraulic Fracturing" is a concise, well-illustrated document providing an overview of the topic. It also pro vides information on the life cycle of oil and natural gas development that may' present concerns to drinking water utilities and ways to mitigate risks. It is accessible at awwa.org. G. Tracy Mehan III is an adjunct professor at the Antonin Scaiia Law School, George Mason University, and executive director for government affairs at the American Water Works .Association. He may be reached at tmehan@awwa.org. Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 5 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2 0 1 8 | 7 ED 002061 00095310-00002