Natural Gas Exploration
Today,
we are being told that America and the world must stop using fossil
fuels. We are going to try to do something that seems impossible these
days – and that‟s have an honest conversation about energy policy,
global warming and what proposed "cap and trade‟ regulation means for
you our future generations that will have to live with the consequences
of the policy choices we make. Our goal is to inform you with easily
verifiable facts – not hype and propaganda – and to appeal to your
common sense. Natural gas currently provides about one-fourth of
America‟s energy needs. But when you do the math, the inescapable
conclusion is that greater use of natural gas will be a consequence of
any policy aimed at cutting human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). You
cut CO2 emissions by up to 50% when you use natural gas instead of coal
to generate electricity. You cut CO2 emissions by 30% and NOx emissions
by 90% when you use natural gas instead of gasoline in a car or truck.
You can run a car on compressed natural gas at a cost of about 80 cents
per gallon equivalent of gasoline. You also cut CO2 emissions by 30-50%
when you use natural gas instead of fuel oil or electricity to heat your
home.
There may be no greater challenge facing mankind today
than figuring out how we‟re going to meet the energy needs of a planet
that may have 9 billion people living on it by the middle of this
century. The magnitude of that challenge becomes even more daunting when
you consider that of the 6.5 billion people on the planet today, nearly
two billion people don‟t even have electricity – never flipped a light
switch.
Now, the “consensus” back in the mid-1970s was that America
and the world were running out of oil. Ironically, some in the media
were also claiming a scientific consensus that the planet was cooling,
fossil fuels could be to blame, and we were all going to freeze to death
unless we kicked our fossil-fuel habit. We were told we needed to find
alternatives to oil – fast. That task, we were told, was too important
to leave to markets, so government needed to intervene with massive
taxpayer subsidies for otherwise uneconomic forms of energy. That
thinking led to the now infamous 1977 National Energy Plan, an
experiment with central planning
that failed miserably. Fast-forward to today, and: déjà vu. This time
the fear is not so much that we‟re running out of oil, but that we‟re
running out of time – the earth is getting hotter, humans are to blame,
and we‟re all doomed if we don‟t stop using fossil fuels – fast. Once
again we‟re being told that the job is too important to be left to
markets.
Well, the doomsters of the 1970s turned out to be remarkably
wrong and today's doomsters will be proven wrong. Over the past 39
years mankind has consumed nearly twice the world‟s known oil reserves
in 1970 – and today's proven oil reserves are nearly double what they
were before we started. The story with natural gas is even better – here
and around the world enormous amounts of natural gas have been found.
More will be found. And guess what? The 30-year cooling trend that led
to the global cooling scare in the mid-70s abruptly ended in the late
70s, replaced by a 20-year warming trend that peaked in 1998.
The
lesson that we should‟ve learned from the 1970s is that when it comes to
deciding how much energy gets used, what types of energy get used, and
where, how and by whom energy gets used –that job is too important not
to be left to markets.
Now, I'd love to stand here and debate the
science of global warming. The media of course long ago declared that
debate over – global warming is a planetary emergency, we've got to
change the way we live now. We've followed this debate closely for over
15 years. We've read everything we can get our hands on. So we tend to
be skeptical when journalists hyperventilate about science – “World
coming to an end – details at 11”. Our research convinces us that claims
of a scientific consensus about global warming mislead the public and
policy makers – and reflect a hidden agenda.
Yes, planet earth
does appear to be warming – but by a not so unusual and not so alarming
one degree over the past 100 years. Indeed, global average temperatures
have increased by about one degree per century since the end of the
so-called Little Ice Age 250 years ago. And, yes CO2 levels in the upper
atmosphere have increased over the past 250 years from about 280 parts
per million to about 380 parts per million today – that‟s .00038. What
that number tells you is that CO2 – the gas we all exhale, the gas in a
Diet Coke, the gas that plants need to grow – is a trace gas, comprising
just four out of every 10,000 molecules in the atmosphere. But it‟s an
important trace gas – without CO2 in the atmosphere, there would be no
life on earth. And yes, most scientists believe that humans have caused
much of that increase.
But that's where the alleged consensus
ends. Contrary to the righteous certitude we get from some, no one knows
how much warming will occur in the future, nor how much of any warming
that does occur will be due to man, and how much to nature. No one knows
how warming will affect the planet, or how easily people, plants and
animals will adapt to any warming that does occur. When someone tells
you they do know, we suggest Mark Twain‟s advice: respect those who seek
the truth, be wary of those who claim to have found it.
Our
perspective on global warming changed when we began to understand the
limitations of the computer models that scientists have built to predict
future warming. If the only variable driving the earth's climate were
manmade CO2 then there'd be no debate – global average temperatures
would increase by a harmless one degree over the next 100 years. But the
earth‟s climate is what engineers call a “non-linear, dynamic system”.
The models have dozens of inputs. Many are little more than the opinion
of the scientist – in some cases, just a guess. The sun, for example, is
by far the biggest driver of the earth‟s climate. But the intensity of
solar radiation from the sun varies over time in ways that can‟t be
accurately modeled. Another example, water vapor is a far more potent
greenhouse gas than CO2. The media now calls CO2 a “pollutant”. If CO2
is a “pollutant” then water vapor is also a “pollutant” – that‟s absurd,
but we digress. Some scientists believe clouds amplify human CO2
forcing, others believe precipitation acts as the earth‟s thermostat.
But scientists do not agree on how to model clouds, precipitation, and
evaporation, thus there's no consensus on this fundamental issue.
But
the reality for American consumers is that whether you buy that the
science is settled or not, the political science is settled. With the
media cheering them on, Congress has promised to “do something”. CO2
regulation is coming, the EPA has mandated it. Indeed, President Obama‟s
hope of shrinking the now the massive federal budget deficit depends on
vast new revenues from a tax on carbon energy – so called “cap and
trade”. Harry Reid has promised cap and tax legislation by this August.
Under
cap-and-trade, the government would try to create a market for CO2 by
selling credits to companies that emit CO2. They would set a cap for the
maximum amount of CO2 emissions. Over time, the cap would ratchet down.
In theory, this will force companies to invest in lower-carbon
technologies, thus reducing emissions to avoid the cost of buying
credits from other companies that have already met their emissions
goals. The costs of the credits would be passed on to consumers. Because
virtually everything we do and consume in modern life has a carbon
footprint the cost of just about everything will go up. This in theory
will cause each of us to choose products that have a lower carbon
footprint. Any way you slice it, cap and trade is a tax on the way we
live our lives – one designed to produce a windfall for government.
The
long term goal with cap and trade is "80 by 50‟– an 80% reduction in
CO2 emissions by 2050. Let‟s do the easy math on what "80 by 50‟ means
to you, using Northern Ohio as an example. Northern Ohio's carbon
footprint today is about 66 MM tons of CO2 per year. Northern Ohio's
population today is 2.6 MM. You divide those two numbers, and the
average Northern Ohioan today has a carbon footprint of about 25 tons of
CO2 per year. An 80% reduction in Noerthern Ohio's carbon footprint by
2050 implies a reduction from 66 MM tons today to about 13 MM tons per
year by 2050. But Noerthern Ohio's population is growing at 2% per
year, so by 2050 there will be about 6 million people living in Northern
Ohio. 13 MM tons divided by 6 Millio people = 2.2 tons per person per
year. Under "80 by 50‟ by the time High school seniors are retiring
you‟ll have to live your lives with an annual carbon allowance of no
more than 2.2 tons of CO2 per year.
Question: when was the
last time Northen Ohio's carbon footprint was as low as 2.2 tons per
person per year? Answer: Before Ohio was created and was still an
undiscovered territory.
You reach a similar conclusion when you do
the math on "80 by 50‟ for the entire U.S. "80 by 50‟ would require a
reduction in America‟s CO2 emissions from about 20 tons per person per
year today, to about 2 tons per person per year in 2050. When was the
last time America‟s carbon footprint was as low as 2 tons per person per
year? Not since the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620.
So
we want to focus you on this critical question: “How on God‟s green
earth – pun intended – are you going to do what the current generation
said we'd do but didn't – and that‟s wean yourselves from fossil fuels
in just four decades?” That's a question that each of you, and indeed,
all Americans need to ask now – because when it comes to “how” there
clearly is no consensus. Simply put, with today's energy technologies,
we can't get there from here.
The hallmark of this dilemma is
our inability to reconcile our prosperity and our way of life with our
environmental ideals. We like our cars. We like our freedom to “move
about the country” – drive to work, fly to conferences, visit distant
friends and family. We aspire to own the biggest house we can afford. We
like to keep our homes and offices warm in the winter, cool in the
summer. We like devices that use electricity – computers, flat screen
TVs, cell phones, the Internet, and many other conveniences of modern
life that come with a power cord. We like food that‟s low cost, high
quality, and free of bugs – which means farmers must use fertilizers and
pesticides made from fossil fuels. We like things made of plastic and
clothes made with synthetic fibers – and all of these things depend on
abundant, affordable, growing supplies of energy.
And guess what? We share this planet with 6.2 billion other people who all want the same things.
America's
energy use has been growing at 1-2% per year, driven by population
growth and prosperity. But while our way of life depends on
ever-increasing amounts of energy, we're downright schizophrenic when it
comes to the things that energy companies must do to deliver the energy
that makes modern life possible. We want energy security – we don‟t
like being dependent on foreign oil. But we also don‟t like drilling in
the U.S. Millions of acres of prospective onshore public lands that are
in the Rockies plus the entire east and west coast of the U.S. are
off-limits to drilling for a variety of reasons. We hate paying over
$3.50 per gallon for gasoline – but not as much as we hate the
refineries that turn unusable crude oil into gasoline. We haven't
allowed anyone to build a new refinery in the U.S. in over 30 years. We
expect the lights to come on when we flip the switch, but we don't like
coal, the source of 40% of our electricity – it‟s dirty and mining scars
the earth. We also don‟t like nuclear power, the source of nearly 20%
of our electricity – it's clean, France likes it, but we're afraid of
it. Hydropower is clean and renewable. But it too has been blacklisted –
dams hurt fish. We don‟t want pollution of any kind, in any amount, but
we also don't want to be asked: “how much are we willing to pay for
environmental perfection?” When it comes to global warming, Time
magazine tells us to “be worried, be very worried” – and we say we are –
but we don‟t act that way.
Let us suggest that our conversation about how to reduce CO2 emissions, if we must, begin with a few “inconvenient” realities:
Reality
1: Worldwide demand for energy will grow by 30-50% over the next two
decades – and more than double by 2050. Simply put, America and the rest
of the world will need all the energy that markets can deliver.
Reality
2: There are no near-term alternatives to oil, natural gas, and coal.
Like it or not, the world runs on fossil fuels, and it will for decades
to come. The U.S. government's own forecast shows that fossil fuels will
supply about 85% of world energy demand in 2030 – roughly the same as
today. Yes, someday the world may run on alternatives. But that day is
still a long way off. It's not about will. It's not about who's in the
White House. It's about thermodynamics and economics.
Now, It
was told back in the 1970s what you're being told today: that wind and
solar power are "alternatives‟ to fossil fuels. A more honest
description would be expensive novelty supplements‟. Taken together,
wind and solar power today account for just one-sixth of 1% of America‟s
annual energy usage. Let us repeat that statistic – one-sixth of 1%.
Over
the past 30 years our government has pumped roughly $20 billion in
subsidies into wind and solar power, and all we‟ve got to show for it is
one-sixth of 1%.!
Undaunted by this, President Obama proposes
to double wind and solar power consumption in this country by the end
of his first term. Great – that means one-thir of 1% by 2012. We would
point out that wind and solar power doubled in just the last three years
of the Bush administration. Granted, W. started from a smaller
baseline, so doubling again over the next four years will be a taller
order. But if President Obama's goal is achieved, wind and solar
together will grow from one-sixth of 1% to one-third of 1% of total
primary energy use – and that assumes U.S. energy consumption remains
flat, which of course it will not.
The problems with wind and
solar power become apparent when you look at their footprint. To
generate electricity comparable to a 1,000 MW gas-fired power plant
you'd have to build a wind farm with at least 500 very tall windmills
occupying more than 30,000 acres of land. Then there‟s solar power. A
Denver Post article that tells the story of an 8.2 MW solar-power plant
built on 82 acres in Colorado. The Post proudly hails it “America‟s most
productive utility-scale solar electricity plant”. But when you account
for the fact that the sun doesn‟t always shine, you‟d need over 250 of
these plants, on over 20,000 acres to replace just one 1,000 MW
gas-fired power plant that can be built on less than 40 acres.
The
Salt Lake Tribune recently celebrated the startup of a 14 MW geothermal
plant near Beaver, Utah. That‟s wonderful! But the Tribune failed to put
14 MW into perspective. Utah has over 7,000 MW of installed generating
capacity, primarily coal. America has about 1,000,000 MW of installed
capacity. Because U.S. demand for electricity has been growing at 1-2 %
per year, on average we‟ve been adding 10-20,000 MW of new capacity
every year to keep pace with growth. Around the world coal demand is
booming – 200,000 MW of new coal capacity is under construction, over
30,000 MW in China alone. In fact, there are 30 coal plants under
construction in the U.S. today that when complete will burn about 70
million tons of coal per year.
Why has our generation failed
to develop wind and solar? Because our energy choices are ruthlessly
ruled, not by political judgments, but by the immutable laws of
thermodynamics and economics. Turning diffused sources of energy such as
photons in sunlight or the kinetic energy in wind requires massive
investment to concentrate that energy into a form that's usable on any
meaningful scale.
What's more, the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine.
Unless or until there‟s a major breakthrough in high-density
electricity storage – a problem that has confounded scientists for more
than 100 years – wind and solar can never be relied upon to provide base
load power.
But it‟s not just thermodynamics. It's
economics. Over the past 150 years America has invested trillions of
dollars in our existing energy systems – power plants, the grid, steam
and gas turbines, railroads, pipelines, distribution, refineries,
service stations, home heating, boilers, cars, trucks and planes, etc.
Changing that infrastructure to a system based on renewable energy will
take decades and massive new investment.
To be clear, we need all the
wind and solar power the markets can deliver at prices we can afford.
But please, let's get real – wind and solar are not “alternatives” to
fossil fuels because we cannot realistically afford them.
Reality
3: You can argue about whether global warming is a serious problem or
not, but there‟s no argument about the consequences of cap and trade
regulation – it's going to drive the cost of energy painfully higher.
That's the whole point of cap and trade – to drive up the cost of fossil
energy so that otherwise uneconomic “alternatives” can compete. Some
put the total cost of cap and trade to U.S. consumers at $2 trillion
over the next decade and $6 trillion between now and 2050 – not to
mention the net loss of jobs in energy-intensive industries that must
compete in global markets.
Given this staggering cost, we hope
you‟ll ask: will cap and trade work? If Europe‟s experience with cap and
trade is an indication, the answer is an unequivocal “no”.
With
much fanfare, the European Union (EU) adopted a cap and trade scheme in
an effort to meet their Kyoto commitments to cut CO2 emissions to below
1990 levels by 2012. How are they doing? So far, all but one EU country
is getting an “F”. Since 2000 Europe‟s CO2 emissions per unit of GDP
have grown faster than the U.S.! The U.S. of course did not implement
Kyoto – nor did over 150 other countries. There‟s a good reason why most
of the world rejected Kyoto: with today‟s energy technologies there's
no way to sever the link between CO2 emissions and modern life. Europe's
cap and trade scheme was designed to fail – and it‟s working as
designed.
Let's do the math to explain why Kyoto would have failed in
the U.S. and why Obama's cap and trade scheme is also likely to fail.
Americans were responsible for about 5 billion metric tons of CO2
emissions in 1990. By 2005 that amount had risen to over 5.8 billion
tons. If the U.S. Senate had ratified the Kyoto treaty back in the 1990s
America would've promised to cut manmade CO2 emissions in this country
to 7% below that 1990 level – to about 4.6 billion tons, a 1.2 billion
ton per year cut by 2012.
What would it take to cut U.S. CO2
emissions by 1.2 billion tons per year by 2012? A lot more sacrifice
than riding a Schwinn to work or school, or changing light bulbs. We
could‟ve banned gasoline. In 2005 gasoline use in America caused about
1.1B tons of CO2. That would almost get us there. Or, we could shut down
over half of the coal-fired power plants in this country. Coal plants
generated about 2 Billion tons of CO2 in 2005. Of course, before we did
that we'd have to get over 60 million Americans and a bunch of American
businesses to volunteer to go without electricity. This simple math is
not friendly to those who demand that government mandate sharp cuts in
manmade CO2 emissions – now.
Reality 4: Even if America does
cut CO2 emissions, those same computer models that predict manmade
warming over the next century also predict that Kyoto-type CO2 cuts
would have no discernible impact on global temperatures for decades, if
ever. When was the last time you read that in the paper? We've been told
that Kyoto was “just a first step.” Your generation may want to ask:
“what‟s the second step?”
That begs another question: “how much are
Americans willing to pay for "a first step‟ that has no discernible
effect on global climate?” The answer here in Ohio is: not much,
according to a polling. 57% of those surveyed said they worry about
global warming. But when asked how much they'd be willing to see their
electricity bills go up to help cut CO2 emissions, less than half were
willing to pay more for electricity. Only 18% were willing to see their
power bill go up by 10% or more. Only 3% were willing to see their power
bill go up by 20%.
Here's the rub: many Europeans today pay up to
20% more for electricity as a result of their failed efforts to sever
the link between modern life and CO2 emissions. So, if Americans aren't
willing to pay a lot more for their energy, how do we reduce CO2
emissions? Well, here are several things we could do if you really
believe we have to cut emmisions:
- We should improve energy efficiency.
- We should stop wasting energy.
- We should conserve energy.
- We should rethink our overblown fear of nuclear power.
- If we let markets work, markets on their own will continue to substitute low-carbon natural gas for coal and oil.
Indeed,
2008 through 2012 will be remembered in the energy industry as the
years U.S. natural gas producers changed the game for domestic energy
policy. Smart people in the Natural Gas industry "cracked the code‟ –
they've figured out how to produce stunning amounts of natural gas from
shale formations right here in the U.S. As a result, we now know that
America and the world are “swimming” in natural gas. U.S. onshore
natural gas production has grown rapidly over the past three years – a
feat that most energy experts thought impossible a few years ago.
America's known natural gas resource base now exceeds 100 years of
supply at current U.S. consumption – and that number is growing.
Abundant supply means that natural gas prices over the next decade and
beyond will likely be much lower than over the past five years. While
prices may spike from time to time in response to sudden, unexpected
changes in supply or demand – for example, hurricanes in the Gulf of
Mexico or extreme cold or hot weather – these spikes will be temporary.
Indeed, the price of natural gas today is less than $24 per barrel
equivalent of oil – a bargain, even without taking into account lower
CO2 emissions and cleaner burning nature.
Greater use of natural gas
produced in America – by American companies who hire American workers
and pay American taxes – will help reduce oil imports. Unlike oil, 98%
of America‟s natural gas supply comes from North America.
And get
this: we don‟t need massive investment in new power plants to use more
natural gas for electric generation. We mentioned earlier that America
has about one million MW of installed electric generation capacity.
Forty percent of that capacity runs on natural gas – about 400,000 MW,
compared to just 312,000 MW of coal capacity. But unlike those coal
plants, which run at an average load factor of about 75%, America‟s
existing natural gas-fired power plants operate with an average load
factor of less than 25%. Turns out that the market has found a way to
cut CO2 emissions without driving the price of electricity through the
roof – natural gas's share of the electricity market is growing, and it
will continue to grow – with or without cap and trade.
Sixth, this
generation needs to focus on all new technology not just wind and
solar, as many in previous generations did back in the 70s – and as many
in Congress continue to do today. Just one example: there's no such
thing as “clean” coal, though I should quickly add that given America
and the world's dependence on coal for electric generation, we do need
to look at coal liquifecation that can be used as an ultra clean
transportation fuel that can be processed and sold with current taxes at
a cost of around $2.00 per gallon.
Seventh (for anyone who
is still counting!) it's time to have an honest conversation about
alternative responses to global warming than what will likely be a
futile attempt to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. What about adapting
to warming? In truth, while many scientists believe man's use of fossil
fuels is at least partly responsible for global warming, many also
believe the amount of warming will be modest and the planet will easily
adapt. Just about everyone agrees that a modest amount of warming won't
harm the planet. In fact, highly respected scientists such as Harvard
astrophysicist Willie Soon believe that added CO2 in the atmosphere may
actually benefit mankind because more CO2 helps plants grow. When was
the last time you read that in the paper?
You've no doubt
heard the argument that even if global warming turns out not to be as
bad as some are saying, we should still cut CO2 emissions – as an
insurance policy – the so-called precautionary principle. While
appealing in its simplicity, there are three major problems with the
precautionary principle. First, none of us live our lives according to
the precautionary principle. Let me give you an example. Around the
world about 1.2 million people die each year in car accidents – about
3,200 deaths a day. At that pace, 120 million people will die this
century in a car wreck somewhere in the world. We could save 120 million
lives by imposing a 5 MPH speed limit worldwide. Show of hands: how
many would be willing to live with a 5 MPH speed limit to save 120
million lives? Most of us won't – we accept trade-offs. We implicitly do
a cost-benefit analysis and conclude that we're not going to do without
our cars, even if doing so would save 120 million lives. So before we
start down this expensive and likely futile cap and trade path, don't
you think we should insist on an honest analysis of alternative
responses to the theory of global warming?
Second, the media
dwells on the potential harm from global warming, but ignores the fact
that the costs borne to address it will also do harm. We have a finite
amount of wealth in the world. We have a long list of problems – hunger,
poverty, malaria, nuclear proliferation, HIV, just to name a few. This
generation should ask: how can we do the most good with our limited
wealth? The opportunity cost of diverting a large part of current wealth
to solve a potential problem 50-100 years from now means we do “less
good” dealing with our current problems.
Third, economists
will tell you that the consequence of a cap and trade tax on energy will
be slower economic growth. Slower growth, compounded over decades,
means that we leave future generations with less wealth to deal with the
consequences of global warming, whatever they may be.
In
truth, humans are remarkably adaptive. People live north of the Arctic
Circle where temperatures are below zero most of the year. Roughly
one-third of mankind today lives in tropical climates where temperatures
routinely exceed 100 degrees. In fact, you can take every one of the
theoretical problems caused by global warming and identify lower-cost
ways to deal with that problem than rationing energy use. For example,
if arctic ice melts and causes the sea level to rise, a wealthier world
will adapt over time by moving away from the beach or building retaining
walls to protect beachfront property. Fine, you say. But how do we save
the polar bear? we'd first point out that polar bears have survived
sometimes dramatic climate changes over thousands of years, most
recently the so called “medieval warm period” (1000-1300 A.D.) in which
large parts of the arctic glaciers disappeared and Greenland was truly
“green”. Contrary to that heart-wrenching image on the cover of Time of
an apparently doomed polar bear floating on a chunk of ice, polar bears
can swim for miles. In addition, more polar bears die each year from
gunshot wounds than from drowning. So instead of rationing carbon
energy, maybe the first thing we should do to protect polar bears is to
stop shooting them!
Let us close by returning to the lessons previous
generations learned from the 1970s energy crisis. We learned that
energy choices favored by politicians but not confirmed by markets are
destined to fail. If history has taught us anything it's that we should
resist the temptation to ask politicians to substitute their judgments
for that of the market, and let markets determine how much energy gets
used, what types of energy get used, where, how and by whom energy gets
used. In truth, no source of energy is perfect, thus only markets can
weigh the pros and cons of each source. Government's role is to set
reasonable standards for environmental performance, and make sure
markets work.