Marcellus Shale Deposit – Green or Not?

Hi Shawn - Great topic!

I'm personally a believer in natural gas as part of the overall solution to getting off the oil. Of course, it always gets a little personal when the deposit sits underneath your own property or home. The Marcellus Shale Deposit extends into upstate New York, not so far from where I live, and I know some folks there are concerned about the wastewater generated by the NG extraction process.

However, I also understand hydrogen fuel cell technology - used for home heating and residential power generation - developed for home use by Plug Power (Latham, New York) uses natural gas as a fuel source. Plug's competition in Japan - Panasonic - seems ahead - "a decade lead" - of the U.S. in deploying similar technology in Japan. Japan has an aggressive 25% fuel-cell deployment target by 2050, connected to Copenhagen / reducing CO2 - according to a recent NPR report.

So if it's done right, NG from Marcellus may be an important part of New York's solution to climate change, driving hydrogen fuel cells here. My two cents.

- Larry

I couldn't agree more and if the natural gas reserves can be used as a "bridge fuel" then this discover that took place about a decade ago is of grave importance to the global carbon budget now that technological advances allow us to effectively tap into it.

We can be hopeful that coal reserves will be downplayed and that the cheap infrastructure needed to immediately make use of the natural gas will allow us to explore hydrogen fuel cell technology, but why build future infrastructure around fossil fuels? Why not explore PV solar cell farms, wind mill farms and fusion plants that have negligible carbon footprints.

I will end my debate by asking when will we see a decrease in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide over a full calender year? Because this has not been the case since the industrial revolution and there is still great debate of the anthropogenic influenced climate patterns. Please help us by not exploiting our resources yet planning more for the future.

The debate over the long term effects of "man caused" what ever it is this month, global warming, oops, climate change can wait until we secure a large measure of independence from the mess we have because we continue to pour our dollars into the hands of the likes of Chavez and the Saudis.

This dependence is a "man caused" situation for sure and we have to look no further than 911 to see the effects. This problem is of geometric proportions compared to the risks associated with a sea level rise of a few centimeters a century (which may have occured anyway.....or not).

The Al Gore contingent has stirred this climate change pot for profit and wealth redistribution.

My nickel says let's develop the Marcellus Shale deposit, drill for oil offshore all up and down the Florida coast and put windmills off Nantucket. Let the middle eastern potentates make an honest living for a change.

There have been some test bores up here in the Catskills. It has been agreed that no wells will be driven in the New York City Aquifer due to the chemicals/methods used in the extraction process. Some wells in the area have turned sour, one in particular a mile from my home as the crow flies.

Added to that is a lack of infrastructure, mainly the roads up here will not be able to handle the increased truck loads expected from a successful well.

Other than that; No comment.

Many thanks for the information, Tippycanoe. - Larry