Guest Writers's articles

In a first, federal environment officials Thursday scientifically linked underground water pollution with hydraulic fracturing, concluding that contaminants found in central Wyoming were likely caused by the gas drilling process.

The findings by the Environmental Protection Agency come partway through a separate national study by the agency to determine whether fracking presents a risk to water resources.

In the 121-page draft report released Thursday, EPA officials said that the contamination near the town of Pavillion, Wyo., had most likely seeped up from gas wells and contained at least 10 compounds known to be used in frack fluids.

"The presence of synthetic compounds such as glycol ethers ... and the assortment of other organic components is explained as the result of direct mixing of hydraulic fracturing fluids with ground water in the Pavillion gas field," the draft report states. "Alternative explanations were carefully considered."

The agency's findings could be a turning point in the heated national debate about whether contamination from fracking is happening, and are likely to shape how the country regulates and develops natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale and across the Eastern Appalachian states.

Some of the findings in the report also directly contradict longstanding arguments by the drilling industry for why the fracking process is safe: that hydrologic pressure would naturally force fluids down, not up; that deep geologic layers provide a watertight barrier preventing the movement of chemicals towards the surface; and that the problems with the cement and steel barriers around gas wells aren’t connected to fracking.

Environmental advocates greeted today’s report with a sense of vindication and seized the opportunity to argue for stronger federal regulation of fracking.

A deal with a native chief that Enbridge Inc. held up last week as an example of rising support of their planned oil pipeline to the Pacific appears to be unraveling as the community battles over who has the authority to negotiate.

Enbridge touted the Gitxsan agreement to take an equity stake in the Northern Gateway pipeline as the first public display of what it says is substantial support for the $4.5 billion project among British Columbia's First Nations, the aboriginal groups whose traditional territories make up vast swaths of the province.

Enbridge signed the deal with Hereditary Chief Elmer Derrick, chief negotiator for the Gitxsan Treaty Society (GTS), an embattled organization that is facing a legal challenge to its authority from four of the five community bands that make up the first nation.

Some other hereditary chiefs, community members and the three clans that form the complex structure of Gitxsan First Nation oppose the deal and met on Monday to try to shut down the treaty office and fire Derrick and other staff.

The U.S. government on Thursday delayed approval of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline until after the 2012 U.S. election, bowing to pressure from environmentalists and sparing President Barack Obama a damaging split with liberal voters he may need to win reelection.

The decision to explore a new route for TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL oil pipeline to avoid fragile territory in the Sand Hills of Nebraska dismayed the Canadian government, which had lobbied assiduously for the $7 billion project.

It also drew a harsh reaction from the oil industry and from Republicans in Congress who accused Obama of sacrificing jobs for the sake of his reelection.

The State Department suggested that looking at new routes for the pipeline within the state of Nebraska would take until at least the first quarter of 2013, well beyond the November 6, 2012 U.S. election. The department had previously said it hoped to make a final decision by the end of this year.

TransCanada, which proposes to build and operate the pipeline, said it remained confident that it would ultimately win approval. Industry analysts had previously said a significant delay could kill the project.

The Obama administration said U.S. domestic politics played no part in the decision. Analysts suggested the delay may actually be an effort to split the difference.

ALBANY, N.Y.—In the debate over hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, two facts are beyond dispute: Huge amounts of water are used to break up gas-bearing rock deep underground and huge amounts of polluted water are returned to the surface after the process is complete.

Tainted with chemicals, salts and even mild radioactivity, such water, when mishandled, has damaged the environment and threatened drinking water, helping fuel a heated debate in New York and other states over whether gas drilling is worth its risk to clean drinking water, rivers and streams.

Now, an emerging technology developed in Canada and just making its way to the U.S. does away with the need for water. Instead, it relies on a thick gel made from propane, a widely-available gas used by anyone who has fired up a backyard barbecue grill.

Called liquefied propane gas (LPG) fracturing, or simply "gas fracking," the waterless method was developed by a small energy company, GasFrac, based in Calgary, Alberta.

Still awaiting a patent in the U.S., the technique has been used about 1,000 times since 2008, mainly in gas wells in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and New Brunswick and a smaller handful of test wells in states that include Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Oklahoma and New Mexico, said GasFrac Chief Technology Officer Robert Lestz.

Like water, propane gel is pumped into deep shale formations a mile or more underground, creating immense pressure that cracks rocks to free trapped natural gas bubbles. Like water, the gel also carries small particles of sand or man-made material—known as proppant—that are forced into cracks to hold them open so the gas can flow out.

Unlike water, the gel does a kind of disappearing act underground. It reverts to vapor due to pressure and heat, then returns to the surface—along with the natural gas—for collection, possible reuse and ultimate resale.

And also unlike water, propane does not carry back to the surface drilling chemicals, ancient seabed salts and underground radioactivity.

"We leave the nasties in the ground, where they belong," said Lestz.

Reeling from months of protests, President Barack Obama's advisers are worried that administration approval for a planned oil pipeline from Canada could cost him political support from Democrats in 2012.

Senior officials at the White House and Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters have fielded complaints from supporters who are unhappy about TransCanada Corp's plan to build a massive pipeline to transport crude from Alberta to Texas, sources familiar with the situation said.

The concerns could contribute to a delay in the approval process for the Keystone XL pipeline just as the 2012 presidential campaign heats up.

The State Department, which is overseeing the process, said this week a delay from its end-of-year target was possible.

Obama's re-election plans depend partially on his ability to energize his base of supporters, many of whom are disillusioned with his progress in fighting climate change and attaining other environmental goals.

The pipeline has galvanized that discontent, leading to protests in Washington and across the country. More than 6,000 opponents have signed up to form a human ring around the White House on Sunday in what they hope will be a dramatic signal to keep the pressure on Obama, according to environmental groups.

Obama advisers fear that a decision in favor of the project could dampen enthusiasm among volunteers needed for door-to-door campaigning in battleground states that are critical to Obama's re-election.

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday health and economic factors would be taken into account when he decides whether to approve TransCanada Corp's Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline proposal.

Speaking in a television interview, Obama said the State Department would give him a report on the issue "over the next several months."

That could indicate a delay in the decision, which the State Department had previously targeted for the end of this year.

Obama's inclinations about the pipeline are being closely watched by environmentalists, who oppose the project, and proponents, who say it would create jobs.

"My general attitude is, what's best for the American people? What's best for our economy both short term and long term? But also what's best for the health of the American people?" Obama said in an interview with Nebraska television station KETV, discussing the criteria he would judge when making a final decision.

Winning U.S. State Department approval for the Keystone XL oil pipeline is not likely to be the last hurdle TransCanada Corp faces in its efforts to build the controversial project.

Even if it gets the State Department's greenlight, legal and regulatory snags lurk at federal and state levels and each could mean more costly delays to the $7 billion project, which is intended to move more than half a million barrels of oil sands-derived crude oil a day to Texas from Canada.

Environmental groups are girding for a host of battles aimed at putting the brakes on Keystone XL, which is already about a year behind schedule, legal sources said. The first lawsuit over wildlife could be filed this week.

In Nebraska, the state where political opposition to the project is highest, a lawmaker plans to introduce legislation next week that would give the farm state authority to regulate oil pipelines, adding more uncertainty for TransCanada.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to rule on the project by year's end. Her department released an environmental assessment that concluded after three years of study that Keystone XL would have minimal impact.

A positive ruling would give TransCanada a presidential permit to cross the Canada-U.S. border with the 1,661-mile (2,673 km) line, decried by environmentalists for what they say are unacceptable oil spill risks and the likelihood of increased development of carbon-intensive tar sands.

But a start to construction in 2012 is still anything but certain, despite tens of millions of dollars TransCanada has spent so far.

A proposed $7 billion Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline cleared a major obstacle on Friday with the release of a U.S. State Department review that suggested it would do little damage to the environment.

The review concluded the Keystone XL pipeline would not lead to a big boost in Alberta's oil sands production, which releases large amounts of carbon dioxide when produced.

"Even without it .. .the oil is going to develop and is going to get to different refineries that are demanding it," a State Department official said.

The review said the oil would get to markets by barge, rail, and other pipelines if the Keystone XL was not built.

The TransCanada Corp. pipeline would bring more than 500,000 barrels per day of oil sands crude from Alberta to refineries in Texas.

Environmentalists rejected the department's assessment and said they will continue efforts to block the project. More than 320 protesters of the pipeline have been arrested this week in demonstrations in front of the White House in an action expected to continue into early September.

POINT OF ROCKS, Wyoming—On a mid-June afternoon in the dusty plains of southwest Wyoming a team of oil drillers got the final thumbs-up to begin boring deep into the earth. As of yesterday they were more than 90 percent of the way to reaching their goal of drilling a test well 2.5 miles below the surface.

But this is not any old well.

The crew from Baker Hughes, the Houston, Texas-based oil services company, is not even searching for oil but something far more elusive: a leak-proof place to permanently store carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants to curtail global warming pollution.

The effort is part of the Wyoming Carbon Underground Storage Project, or WY-CUSP. Fourteen years in the making, the project is being closely watched to see if it can overcome the financial and technical challenges that have plagued other carbon capture and and sequestration (CCS) plans in the United States.

Up until last month, American Electric Power's Mountaineer CCS plant in New Haven, W.Va. had grabbed the lion's share of industry attention. It was the nation's most advanced attempt at capturing CO2 from the 31-year-old coal plant's exhaust gases and burying it in the deep-rock sandstone there. But on July 13, citing an uncertain U.S. climate policy and the continued economic downturn, AEP shelved the project.

Ron Surdam, director of the University of Wyoming's Carbon Management Institute (CMI), which manages WY-CUSP, believes his team's project is worthy of a different fate than AEP's pilot. "We think we've got a world class place to store CO2," he told SolveClimate News.

But while the focus of attention may be shifting to WY-CUSP, it, too, faces enormous hurdles, and commercialization of CCS — touted by many as a critical national energy policy — remains a distant and uncertain prospect. Even if WY-CUSP succeeds in identifying a massive underground storage location for CO2, that is only half the battle — and perhaps the easier one to win for this technology.

Markets in water rights are likely to evolve as a rising population leads to shortages and climate change causes drought and famine.

 But they will be based on regional and ethical trading practices and will differ from the bulk of commodity trade.

 Detractors argue that trading water is unethical or even a breach of human rights, but already water rights are bought and sold in arid areas of the globe from Oman to Australia.

 "We at Blackhawk strongly believe that water is in fact turning into the new gold for this decade and beyond," said Ziad Abdelnour, president and chief executive of U.S.-based private equity firm Blackhawk Partners.

 "No wonder smart money is aggressively moving in this direction."

 For now, however, he cited buying shares in water treatment companies or utilities, rather than water trade per se.

 Some of the big investment banks dominant in commodities are among those who have voiced skepticism water could ever attract direct trade.