In last Friday’s Wall Street Journal, I read an article on natural gas (The Natural Gas Revolution) that got my attention and caused me a bit of concern. As Mr. Deutch points out, clean, abundant and domestic natural gas is rapidly becoming a much more important fuel than even two years ago. Unfortunately, he failed to address the benefits of natural gas’ direct use in homes and businesses; one of its most important and efficient applications.
When used directly to heat homes, to heat water and for cooking, natural gas emits 45 percent less carbon dioxide than coal and 30 percent less than heating oil. Natural gas water heaters and furnaces are more efficient than electric versions and have the added benefit of not adding to base load demand during peak hours. Electric water heaters also produce double the carbon dioxide emissions of natural gas.
In terms of efficiency, almost 70 percent of coal’s energy is lost by the time that coal-fired electricity reaches a customer. By contrast, only about 10 percent of natural gas’s energy is lost when it is produced and delivered directly to homes and businesses.
All of these attributes only highlight the important, and intelligent, role that natural gas plays in providing direct, reliable and low-carbon energy.
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I read a lot of stuff about the “smart grid” but it generally covers only the electric side. Here’s a good article from CleanTechies titled “The Natural Gas Grid – The Other Grid” that has some good information on the natural gas grid. The article brings attention to the industry’s record of safely and reliably delivering natural gas. Some highlights from the article:
The current demand to update the gas grid is more about reducing utility expenditures, increasing energy conservation, and meeting global climate initiatives and mandates, rather than dealing with failing system integrity issues
Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) was recently approved by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) to implement a $1.05 billion, 5.5 million meter AMI system in Southern California. SoCalGas is the largest gas utility in the United States and is a gas-only utility
The gas grid received zero funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
Putting it all together
The article goes on to talk about some of the initiatives to combine the information from the electric smart meters and the natural gas smart meters so that consumers can get comprehensive information on their energy use. They focus on sub-metering. In this process, a gas module is put on an existing gas meter, sending signals to an electricity meter. In turn, the meter sends a signal containing gas and electricity data to the utility business system.
Let us know your thoughts on the smart grid before you skip over to CleanTechies to read their article.
The other day I finally got a chance to meet the Route 66 guys in person. Well, at least one of them. Unfortunately Keith Barfield was back at his “day job” but I did get a chance to speak with Mark McConville. It was great to finally meet them after months of corresponding online and watching their progress.
Mark McConville and U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, outside the U.S. Capitol with a Capitol Police Officer. (The Birmingham News/Mary Orndorff)
NGVsNow was hosting them at the Capitol in celebration of their completion of the trip from Santa Monica to Chicago. Their trip covered took 10 days and covered 2,460 miles. After the trip was over, NGVsNow invited them to to continue their journey to the reflecting pool in front of the Capitol. The 1966 Pontiac GTO is a beautiful car to begin with, but the fact that it has been modified to run on compressed natural gas, and emits 80 percent less carbon monoxide than it’s gasoline-powered counterparts makes it look even better.
The first thing you’ll notice when you’re speaking with Mark, and what sends a little chill along your spine, is how much they believe in what they’re doing. One of the things Mark mentioned was the feeling he gets filling up his tank knowing that the compressed natural gas is an American fuel and that the money he’s spending to fill up isn’t going to support a country that might not be friendly to the United States.
Mark spoke about the timing of the trip and how he watched President Obama speak shortly before they left and heard his challenge to “unleash American innovation.” Mark said that they took that statement to heart and plastered it across the side of their trailer, with a little modification…”unleashED American Innovation.”
I wasn’t the only one taking notice though. Congressman Spencer Bachus (AL-6) stopped by to see the car and actually took it out for a short spin. Congressman Bachus had a great quote about the project.
“Mark McConville and Keith Barfield left a lasting impression all along Route 66 with their car and their message about alternative fuels. It’s fascinating to see how an old ‘muscle car’ can be converted into a clean-burning, low emissions vehicle. This shows that we can solve our energy challenges using American technology and ingenuity. It brought great publicity to Alabama here at the Capitol and the only other thing we needed driving it around was an eight-track tape of Little GTO.” You can read the rest of Congressman Bachus’ release here.
A lasting impression indeed. Here are some pictures I took including the trailer that was signed by people that saw the car during the journey. Mark was also nice enough to take a moment and talk about some of the people he met on the journey. Enjoy and leave a “congratulations” to them in the comments.
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As an engineer, I find misleading conversations and docudramas on the realities of drilling for natural gas frustrating to say the least. So I’d like to take a moment of your time and review drilling 101.
“Drilling is drilling.” Yes, it’s that simple. Even if you missed that day of class, you still graduate with this rudimentary fact. Active drilling…completion procedures…production…well stimulation by hydraulic fracturing – by any other name is still “drilling.”
This activity is currently regulated on the state level and some might ask why drilling is not completely federally regulated. Where should I start? Methods and means of drilling are common but can have characteristic geographic differences that determine the optimal drilling mud system and completion methods to be used. More importantly, each state jurisdiction has regulatory rules for drilling, completion, and production – the number of casings that must be used and where they must be set; cementing requirements; fracture gradient limitations; setback distances of well locations from drilling unit boundaries, etc. Augment this with water production, fresh water resource protections and produced water handling/disposal subject to state regulatory rules and a robust Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Underground Injection Control (UIC) program or, a state-administered program determined by the EPA to meet or exceed EPA standards as a result of regulations developed and continuing to evolve from enforcement of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Thus, there exists a strong and comprehensive measure of government oversight presently that effectively accounts for regional geological differences.
No one is disputing that further concern over drilling and production of any sort and the impact on fresh water resources should not be taken up. However, let’s focus our efforts where they will result in the most sensible applications – at the state level where issues of geologic and operational levels are best understood.
