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FracNatural The Unconventional Energy Boost

by Tomas DiFiore
Two studies: One study is based on algorithms of expansion under economic models with unquantified terms such as 'prudent development' of the Monterey Shale. And one study is based on the geologic strata, actual well numbers, production records per well, core analysis by industry logs, source rocks vs migration and trapping timescales, production trends over the course of time, maturity of fields and known reservoir assets vs new exploration, and shifting company profiles and investments.
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Drilled: The USC Study, Developing The Monterey Shale - Lacks Credibility

“Considering that some 50,000 wells are required for current California oil production, estimates of more than 200,000 additional wells to grow California production seven-fold (USC’s highest case) are not unreasonable. One might argue that the reference wells chosen by the USC were not representative, and production estimates should have been higher. Even so, tens of thousands of wells would have to be drilled to meet the USC forecasts, far more than the 4,112 wells it considered were necessary by 2030 in its report. Given that the estimates of available locations by the EIA/INTEK report are at most 28,032, and likely to be much less given the above analysis, the oil production estimates in the USC study lack credibility.” JD Hughes

J. David Hughes published Drilling California: A Reality Check on the Monterey Shale in December 2013 as a response to the UCSB Report. “Drilling California” was published in association with Post Carbon Institute and Physicians Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy 2013. Hughes is a geoscientist who has studied the energy resources of Canada for nearly four decades, including 32 years with the Geological Survey of Canada as a scientist and research manager.

How Green Is Your Frac?

“The program will feature an introductory video reel with representations of the various perspectives on unconventional gas and oil, followed by a moderated discussion and a question-and-answer session with the audience.

“This event is unique in that we are bringing together expert representatives from all sides of the debate,” said David Auston, executive director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency which is under the aegis of UCSB and funded by the DOE. “It is a critical time in our energy landscape for a balanced discussion.”

Panelists Include – and/or represent: 1) President of the Western States Petroleum Association, Reheis-Boyd who oversees the trade organization’s operations and advocacy in California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii, 2) an investment venture capital firm, 3) the new editor-in-chief of the journal Science who was past director of the U.S. Geological Survey, 4) EDF rep Steven Hamburg.

The discussion will be moderated by journalist and author Jeff Greenfield.

Moderated? The upcoming UCSB Symposium to Explore ‘Unconventional Gas & Oil and the Energy Landscape’ features a big oil industry lobbyist, a couple corporate "environmentalists" and the editor of Science magazine, but no opponents of fracking. Dan Bacher 02 20 2014

In 2011, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a report by INTEK Inc. which stated that the Monterey Formation contains 15.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable tight oil (therein referred to as “shale oil”) 64 percent of the entire estimated tight oil resource in the Lower-48 United States at that time.

This estimate was immediately seized upon by industry groups intent on the development of the Monterey shale, and was used as the basis of a March 2013 University of Southern California (USC) economic analysis which projected Tax revenue collected by California state and local governments could grow by $4.5 billion to $24.6 billion and add from 512,000 to 2.8 million new jobs in California, depending upon the year.

Frackademia is running interference for the industry, as predicted in the 09172013 Common Dreams article originally published in DeSmog Blog. An excellent journalistic research piece on the history of the people, who's financing what groups methods of research, and organizations promoting acquisition of the Public Debate.

When the UCSB report came out in the Spring of 2013, Greenpeace USA's Executive Director Philip Radford unpacked a worst-case scenario of how the report will be used by Big Oil in the coming days, weeks and months.

"At worst, it will be used as PR by the natural gas industry to promote their pollution," he wrote on The Huffington Post. "In fact, methane is 105 times more powerful than carbon pollution as a global warming pollutant, so figuring out its real climate impacts has very real consequences for us going forward."

Food and Water Watch was even more harsh in its assessment of the state of play.

“This industry-sponsored ‘study’ is more spin than science,” Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch said in a press statement. “The Environmental Defense Fund is running interference for the industry, and the result will be more drilling and fracking around the world. A must read perspective.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/17-1

Public Safeguards In California And Public Policy Are Under Attack 24/7

“The Monterey Shale & California’s Economic Future – USC Global Energy Network
A Joint Initiative of USC Price School of Public Policy & USC Viterbi School of Engineering in association with The Communications Institute.”

“Working from a model created by economists from the University of Southern California (USC) Price School of Public Policy and informed by and applied to a development scenario formulated by the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and blah blah and blah... well it was finally concluded that: “the prudent development of the Monterey Shale could add hundreds of thousands of new jobs to California over the next decade while stimulating economic growth and generating significant new state and local tax revenues.”

The study was funded by a grant from the Western States Petroleum Association but was conducted by an independent USC research team, that said read both documents.

Read them both, and with any intelligence at all one can discern a depth of integrity and clarity of communication in only one of the documents. One study is based on algorithms of expansion in economic models and unquantified terms such as 'prudent development' of the Monterey Shale. And one study is based on the geologic strata, actual well numbers, production amounts per well, core analysis by industry logs, source rocks vs migration and trapping timescales, production trends over the course of time, and maturity of fields and known reservoir assets vs new exploration, and shifting company profiles and investments.

FracNatural The Unconventional Energy Boost!

The event will be co-hosted by the Institute for Energy Efficiency, the Carsey-Wolf Center and the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. “Game Changer: Unconventional Gas & Oil and the Energy Landscape” is free and open to the public.

I'd like to see a discussion with J. David Hughes and Steven Hamburg.
I'd like to see a discussion with Deborah Rogers and Nancy Pfund.
I'd like to see a discussion with Sandra Steingraber and Catherine Reheis Boyd.
I'd like to see a discussion with Dr. Anthony Ingraffea and Marcia McNutt.

That discussion might need actual moderation.

As chief scientist of the Environmental Defense Fund, Hamburg is the EDF public voice PR for its commitment to science-based advocacy. Steven Hamburg has served as an advisor to corporations as well as non-governmental organizations and was awarded an Environmental Merit award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for his climate change-related activities. He has served as lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

So what does Steven Hamburg have to say about Fugitive Emissions?

How about an Investment Firm Manager representing investments in Real Green Technologies on California's surface landscape and Energy Landscape. not one who's vested interest is in changing Public Policy through high-impact investments. Fugitive emissions are just one achilles' heel of any green bid for 'fracnatural energy' as a bridge fuel game changer.

FracNatural Energy Report

FracNatural Energy, represents a balance sheet on unconventional extreme production methods and is a phase algorithm, used to assess How Green Is Your Frac? There is no bridge, only change.

Tomas DiFiore
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