Another winter has pretty much passed in the Williston basin, and I am glad of it. We didn’t have much snow this winter, which made for better road conditions, but the temperature and wind chills set records.
Industry creates profit and products we can all use, but it often comes at a significant cost. The positive outcome of hydraulic fracturing is the discovery of more usable natural gas, but one frequently mentioned downside is the way water is used in the process.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a revised underground injection control (UIC) program permitting guidance for wells that use diesel fuels during hydraulic fracturing activities.
Law shapes much of what we do. For writers, law affects what we can publish. We can’t, for example, libel people by printing accusations not supported by facts. Laws and government regulations also govern drilling, whether drillers go after water, turn to the right in search of oil or gas, or run horizontally installing fiber optic lines.
Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have revolutionized natural gas production in the U.S., projected to rise 44 percent from 2011 to 2040 largely due to these technologies.
I read in the news the other day that America may pass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. This certainly comes as a pleasant surprise to those of us who lived through previous booms and subsequent busts. It’s kinda like the old West Texas bumper sticker that read, “Lord, give us one more boom, we promise not to waste it away,” or words to that effect.