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NEWS ABOUT: natural gas

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Please, US, Don't Blow It on Shale Gas

'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... More »

North Dakota Oil Drillers Waste Millions in Natural Gas

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,... More »

Bachmann: I'd Drill in the Everglades

...as long as it's done 'responsibly'

(Newser) - Speaking in Florida yesterday, Michele Bachmann supported drilling for oil and natural gas wherever we can find them, even in the Everglades—as long as we do it “responsibly,” the AP reports. “The United States needs to be less dependent on foreign sources of energy and more... More »

Halliburton More Than Doubles Its Profits in Q1

North American drilling, high oil prices help

(Newser) - Despite challenges arising from political unrest in the Arab world, Halliburton's net income has more than doubled during the first quarter of 2011. The oil-field services company credits the soaring earnings to an increase in unconventional North American oil and natural-gas drilling; the AP reports that North American revenue... More »

Recycling Gas Drilling Water Doesn't Stop Risks

Toxic wastewater can still get into drinking supply

(Newser) - The New York Times continues raising alarms about the drilling practice known as hydrofracking, in which water is blasted into rock to extract natural gas. Today's piece focuses on the dangers posed by the contaminated water that returns to the surface. Drilling companies in Pennsylvania have billed water recycling as... More »

Hydrofracking's Ugly Secret: From Gas Wells, Bad Water

Radiation more than 1K times legal limit not properly treated

(Newser) - It's called "hydrofracking"—injecting huge amounts of water, sand, and chemicals underground to break up rock formations and release natural gas—and it has an ugly secret. The technology allows energy companies to wring out small pockets of natural gas all across America—the number of gas wells... More »

Allentown Explosion Revives Pipeline Fears

Country's aging infrastructure could cause more disasters

(Newser) - If the massive explosion that killed five people and damaged 47 buildings in Allentown Pennsylvania Wednesday was, as authorities suspect, a natural gas blast, it will be the third major gas explosion in the country since fall, the Wall Street Journal observes. That apparent pattern has revived fears that the... More »

Israel's Natural-Gas Find Is Biggest in 10 Years

Deepwater discovery could have huge implications for region

(Newser) - Discovery of a massive field of natural gas off the coast of Israel could transform the Jewish state's economy and even alter the balance of power in the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reports. Houston-based Noble Energy confirmed yesterday that the so-called Leviathan field has 16 trillion cubic feet... More »

Is PG&E to Blame for San Bruno Fire?

It's been involved in many gas line breaks, but no blame assigned yet

(Newser) - As the victims of Thursday's San Bruno fire mourn their losses, Pacific Gas & Electric reps say they still don’t know what caused a high-pressure gas pipeline to rupture. But could PG&E itself be to blame? The company has been involved in almost half of California’s major... More »

Fracking Isn't Just a Battlestar Galactica Curse

Method of extracting natural gas may pose health risks

(Newser) - Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing, a process used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation found beneath parts of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. It involves forcing water, sand, and some not so nice chemicals under high pressure into the ground. Problem is that some... More »

Contaminated Wells Leave Wyoming Town Thirsty

Gas drilling may be to blame

(AP) - It's not Mexico, but rather the unlikely locale of Wyoming where feds are telling people not to drink the water. The EPA yesterday warned against using the water from 40 wells in the Pavillion area, including 17 contaminated by hydrocarbons—thought to be possibly related to oil and gas drilling... More »

Texas Thrives, Thanks to Regulation and ... Windmills?

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
... More »

Exxon to Buy Gas Company XTO Energy for $31B

All-stock deal will bolster Exxon's natural gas profile

(Newser) - Exxon Mobil has agreed to buy natural gas powerhouse XTO Energy for $31 billion in stock. Exxon’s been long rumored to be in the market for a natural gas company, hoping to take advantage of currently low prices, the Wall Street Journal reports. In XTO it’s nabbed a... More »

Energy Lobby Split on Climate, Thrilling Greens

Natural gas companies squabble with Big Oil as Senate negotiates

(Newser) - With the Senate set to consider legislation to tax carbon and rein in global warming, a split has emerged among the energy lobby that may make it easier to pass a clean-energy law. Natural gas producers favor a bill, while their colleagues in the oil industry oppose it; electric companies... More »

EU Slaps Gas Firms With $1.5B Fine for Price-Fixing

(Newser) - The European Union's powerful competition commissioner slapped two energy companies with record fines of $1.53 billion today for cartel misbehavior. GDF Suez and E.ON, two of the world's biggest gas producers, colluded to avoid competition in French and German energy markets and drive up prices. It's the first... More »

Feds Consider Limits on Oil, Energy Speculation

Commodity Commission to hold hearings on 'purely financial' energy futures trading

(Newser) - Federal regulators may impose new limits on the amount of energy-futures contracts that speculators can buy, the New York Times reports, an attempt to curb severe price fluctuations in commodities like oil and natural gas. Oil prices swung from $145 per barrel last summer to $33 in December, movement some... More »

6 Killed in Italy Train Explosion

(Newser) - A train carrying liquefied natural gas derailed in Italy tonight, causing explosions that killed at least six people and injured dozens more, the Times of London reports. The train jumped the tracks as it was leaving the station in the northern town of Viareggio, triggering the explosion of two gas-filled... More »

Congress Mulls Tighter Offshore Drilling Rules

Natural-gas firms currently exempt from clean-water laws

(Newser) - A bill pushed by Dick Cheney 4 years ago freed natural-gas drillers from clean-water laws, but pollution concerns are driving congressional Democrats to rethink the matter, ProPublica reports. They’ve drafted legislation that would end the natural-gas exemption and require drillers to reveal the chemicals they use in their work,... More »

Putin's Gas Strategy Backfires as Prices Fall

(Newser) - The very strategies that made Gazprom an international force are now causing the energy giant—and consequently, Moscow—unaccustomed financial stress, the New York Times reports. Vladimir Putin built Gazprom into a goliath by aggressively dominating natural gas supplies, but to do it, he entered into long-term contracts to buy... More »

Natural Gas Finds Could Herald Energy Shift in US

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;... More »

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