Natural Gas Fuels La. 'Gold Rush'

Discoveries speed push to replace coal, oil

(NEWSER) - A huge natural-gas discovery in Louisiana, on the heels of similar finds elsewhere over the past decade, is fueling a push to shift the nation’s energy portfolio, the Wall Street Journal reports. Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale could hold the energy equivalent of 18 years of current US oil production; one industry group thinks there’s enough natural gas to satisfy a century’s worth of US demand. More»

'Fracking' can be an energy revolution: David Brooks

(NEWSER) - David Brooks jumps on the the "fracking" bandwagon in a big way today, writing in the New York Times that "it would be a crime if we squandered this blessing." Fracking is the controversial method of extracting natural gas from shale. As Brooks sees it, the US is sitting on what may be a 100-year supply of clean energy that can not only reduce our dependence on coal and oil but help us transition to the day when solar and wind power can play more of a role. Plus, it could create "hundreds of thousands of new jobs" in hard-hit areas such as western Pennsylvania and Ohio. More»

Enough to heat half a million homes is burned off every day

(NEWSER) - Gaze into North Dakota’s sky some night, and you might see flickering as flames light up the sky. That’s the sight of oil companies wasting staggering amounts of natural gas, the New York Times reports. The gas bubbles up alongside oil in the state’s Bakken shale field, and because oil is more lucrative, companies simply burn off the gas—wasting more than 100 million cubic feet of it a day, enough to heat 500,000 homes. More»

Region could see 20 inches of rain

(NEWSER) - A tropical depression heading toward the Gulf Coast could soak the area in as much as 20 inches of rain, prompting concerns about flash floods in Louisiana, whose governor declared a state of emergency yesterday. What could become Tropical Storm Lee prompted warnings from Mississippi to Texas, the AP reports, with heavy rain expected over southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama through Sunday. More»

An unexpected tale of economic success

(NEWSER) - Don't look now, but Texas's economy is in pretty great shape, and it's all thanks to alternative energy and regulation. Strange but true. Daniel Gross of Slate breaks down the reasons things are bigger in Texas:

• The housing market hasn't utterly imploded like the rest of the nation's—prices are down only 7% from their 2007 peak. That's in part because abundant land has kept speculation and price appreciation down, but also because the market's more tightly regulated—the state has rules that restrict home-equity loans.