The Case of the Missing Coal Seam Gas
Globally the Shale gas industry is getting a lot of press recently as a boom in the Frakking industry has temporarily increased supply of gas to the market in some countries like the USA. What the press refuse to discuss is the failed mathematics behind this supposed boom. The reality is that the shale gas boom is being driven primarily by corrupt business scams that seek to use the energy industry as a way to obtain government funds so they can place bets on the stock market.
The simple truth is that coal seam gas or “shale” gas is simply not abundant enough to make an significant impact on a global scale. All the ‘coal seam gas’ has a layer of shale above it. The coal is probably NOT the source of most of the gas, it is just trapped below the shale. Commercial gas reserves are in porous sandstone or limestone,usually with a shale cap or seal. With the majority of the shale gas composed of high amounts of Nitrogen it also requires a significant amount of energy to clean it so that it can actually be used as an energy source. Hence the majority of the Shale gas boom is energy negative meaning it takes more energy to get it to market than it provides.
What this translates to is a massive fraud leveraged against the public purse. When the bets placed with Government cash fail to generate the income that is being hoped for the companies that placed them go bankrupt and the government is left holding the tab. In the meantime the unscrupulous directors of the Frakking companies are enjoying the wealth they have obtained which is conveniently deposited in offshore bank accounts to be used for their retirement.
Of course the people who work in the Frakking business are not complaining about the money that they are earning as they dig more and more wells and pollute the environment with their toxic brew of chemicals required to complete their task. the chemical companies are also not complaining about the large amounts of product they are required to produce in order to meet the needs to the Frakking industry.
It seems the only people who are complaining are the ones who actually live where the gas fields are being exploited as they witness the wholesale environmental destruction of their region and water table. The roving crews of Frakkers are no more accountable for their destruction than the people who were employed to work on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico are for the Gulf Oil Disaster.
As the USA descends into the mess of complete economic meltdown that is represented by the exponentially increasing cost of living and the exponentially decreasing availability of fossil fuel the only silver lining appears to be that the Frakkers will eventually run out of energy to cause so much destruction any longer. At least on some communities there is action being taken to try to stop the industry before it gets to that point.
