Here's your weekly rundown of our favorite stories from the past week in the oil and gas industry!
Energy In Depth
One of the truly underrated things about our industry: it's clean, particularly when compared to something like coal, and our skyrocketing production has already produced results in terms of air quality. But I knew that even before working here, at least when it came to propane. Thanks, Hank Hill. You tell that Ivy League nerd what's what.
Also, while Hank's devotion to his particular form of gas was played for comedy,
Broomfield Enterprise
Letters to the editor might seem passe in the age of Twitter, but they are still necessary, especially when someone else writes in dropping some nonsense and you need to clap back, as the kids say.
The assumption that the majority of taxpayers in Broomfield are opposed to fracking is just that...a guess. What is the source of his claim? The oil industry has an outstanding record of safety and it is there best interests to continue to make drilling even safer.
It's a heck of a lot of fun when the facts are on your side. Take advantage of it whenever you can.
Minnesota Public Radio
While is hasn't translated to much specific policy yet beyond a proposal to relax federal fuel mileage standards, President Trump and his Energy Department declaring, essentially, that there's no point to energy conservation standards is sure to be a point of discussion and debate in the immediate future. Regardless of anyone's thoughts on the matter, the fact of Trump even being in a position to say something like that is yet another testament to just how far the American energy situation has come in the last couple decades...
The Daily Caller
...well, for most of us.
Rather notoriously, and as most know, the state of New York has a fracking ban in effect. That, combined with a lack of investment in pipeline infrastructure both there and points north and east, has resulted in New York and New England being unable to enjoy most of the benefits of our energy boom - including full employment for people involved in the construction of such things. Individual states are able to hold up infrastructure projects under the Clean Water Act, even if they've been federally approved. The good news is that a Senate committee is examining the situation and...eh, nevermind.
WTAP
Another one of the ongoing complexities involves mineral rights, which can obviously become quite a mess when it comes to horizontal drilling underneath property owned by several different people. Some states like Pennsylvania are taking legislative steps to streamline things a bit, but here in Ohio, the Bureau of Land Management is being blamed for holding up drilling near the Wayne National Forest despite an executive order permitting it.
WV News
In case you haven't had enough from the world of suffocating bureaucracy, here's a situation where a pipeline's issues with the permit process has hampered construction, with the obvious effect on its worker.
The Daily Signal
Let's close this one on some mostly-good news:
According to the latest statistics, the U.S. liquefied natural gas exports quadrupled from 0.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day in 2016 to 1.94 billion in 2017.
Anthony B. Kim, the guy who wrote this piece, goes on to suggest that in order for growth to continue, regulations need to be addressed, such as those governing the approval of exports and the building of new infrastructure (tying into the previous story, obviously).
But in all honesty, the main reason I included this story was for this photo:
Throughout all of these stories I've read about how we export all of this LNG and how that's awesome, I've never once seen one of the actual ships doing that work. Pretty cool. Looks a little like Spaceball City.
See you next week!
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