Not so many years ago, the notion that we were running out of oil and natural gas was all the rage.
It was termed “peak oil” or perhaps “peak energy”.
In short, we had apparently discovered all the available oil and natural gas there was to discover and that in future the output of oil and natural gas would inexorably decline. The world was coming to an end and the sky was falling and someone (read: the government) should do something about it. The prophets of doom were swarming and the media seemed to buy it hook, line, and sinker.
Fast forward to 2015 and you cannot find a commentator or author who is putting forth the notion of peak energy. In the past seven or eight years, oil and natural gas production in the United States has surged — largely on private property — to record highs.
You know about the Marcellus Shale, Utica Shale and other shale gas oil finds here in the United States. Brazil located a huge fund of oil off its Atlantic coast. Both Egypt and Israel have located large natural gas fields in the Mediterranean off their coasts. The U.S. now produces more oil and natural gas than any other country on earth, exceeding even Saudi Arabia and Russia.
This has all occurred even though some states (notably New York and California) have banned the development of their shale energy resources. I guess they are allowed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. More broadly, the political agenda for renewable resources (i.e. solar and wind) has dissuaded development of government lands for shale resources, going so far as to try and slow energy development in Canada by slowing the completion of the XL pipeline.
Ironically, such energy development has substantially reduced carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. since coal is being replaced with natural gas to generate electricity. We are becoming less of a problem for climate change than the rest of the world.
It is now clear that the world has all the energy resources it needs for as far into the future as we can currently estimate. Development of further resources is progressing as improved technology opens up new opportunities. We may soon be shipping our very inexpensive natural gas to Europe and Asia as LNG (liquefied natural gas). It will take a few more years until the Marcellus Shale gas starts to be shipped from Cove Point to Europe and other points.
You may be surprised to learn that I was sadly disappointed when the development of shale gas on my property in Lycoming County did not create a surge in the natural gas (methane) in my well water. Rather than lighting my kitchen faucet, I was hoping to put a methane separator on my well and use the gas to heat and cool my structures.
Alas, after the fracking, my water quality is the same as it was before: cool, clear, and wonderfully pure. I guess we will have to wait for another crisis to see if the sky can fall. Meanwhile, I keep planting a variety of trees to generate more oxygen and reduce carbon dioxide in the air on my property.
