Where the fracking problem came from
The Yukon government has brought forth the idea that gas fracking would provide for our current and future energy needs. This is false.
It’s hard to make sense of these extreme and shortsighted developments without at least a brief look into the oil and gas industry. It's a global scene with no insulated sphere of interest or operation, no matter how hard the government tried to keep information and involved identities from the public. The unfortunate reality is that the strength and capacity of the industry is fading, but they are able to maintain their position and power through manipulation of data, financial speculation and global military power.
The Yukon recently set a 5 year moratorium on allowing oil and gas exploration in the Whitehorse Trough. We need to actively spend the next five years learning, and then educating and influencing our government, family and friends about the real truth about shale gas deposits.
Shale gas deposits are generally overestimated. Where they have been exploited, like the Texas Barnett shale, gas runs out within only 5, 6 or 7 years.
Over the past five years, the production levels of large oil and gas deposits worldwide have entered a free fall mode. The significance for shale gas retrieval of this decline is that the economic viability of the entire fossil fuel system is now staked on shale.
In over 40 years no new 'giant oil or gas field' has been found, except for the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan which was discovered 33 years ago!
Giant oil fields may be expected to maintain reasonable and efficient production levels for a period of 15 to 40 years.
The fossil fuel industry has its back to the wall, faced with the reality of climate change, and it’s net energy production has evaporated.
The deposits for extraction that once were cheap and did not require excessive and growing amounts of energy to be used during extraction, are history.
There is a growing sense of desperation in Big Oil as they try to maintain contracts with governments in order to rake in record subsidies, regardless of the impact of their industry on the health and wealth of nations.
Over the past three years, Big Oil has systematically bought out the money-losing 'frack' gas sector to maintain the perception of viability. This in turn, has encouraged hedge fund profiteering and contributed to financial instability globally.
The inflated numbers regarding the potential of reserves, their finances and net production figures of 'frack gas' (which is heavily subsidized) are at the fore front of the fossil fuel illusion.
Mainstream media frequently represents the production peak or stagnation of oil output as a quasi philosophical question which is not real. The framing of the discussion in this way allows people to ignore our need to switch our energy sources from non-renewable to renewable.
Energy planning and grid development are part of a truly complex evolutionary system change and cannot be forced over night. What the critics of renewables overlook is their politically created backlog of a now even over mature potential that in some countries is part of a successful catchup phase.
What really matters for the big economic picture when producing energy is to achieve more than ten barrels of energy for each one barrel invested. The renewable energy sector has it and and improves it. The fossil fuel sector lost net energy efficiency years ago and there is no justification for operational expansion.
Does it make sense to use more and more energy to actually produce less and less energy? That is exactly what the current North American energy system continues to promote, as sources of fossil fuels become harder and harder to extract and process.
As parts of our world choose to rely on energy sources like unconventional shale gas extraction (ie. fracking), and the mining of the Albertan tar sands, we are burning up huge amounts of conventional resources to do that. The use and promotion of these extreme processes clouds our judgement and presents a real danger to our environment, our health, our long-term economic capacity, our food security and our energy needs.
The end of fossil fuel domination is coming. It may not be tomorrow, but we will need to shift our energy demands and usage soon. We would do well for ourselves to develop the infrastructure, the culture and the industrial capacity required to embrace renewable energy resources.
In Yukon, public interest in renewable energy has grown significantly during this recent Oil and Gas Deposition process.
The potential of industrial scale renewables need to be taken seriously.
We need to move far beyond the hobby level development of renewable sources or the good-will gestures that all our political representatives seem to limit themselves to.
It is exemplified by ineffectual, misleading and outdated concepts like net metering, base load obsession and denial of green energy legislation proposals.
If we continue using and making long term plans based upon fossil fuels, we will not only poison our water, soil and air but also diminish our future energy security and affordability, as well as economic well being.
What about preserving some of this one time gift from nature as petrochemical manufacturing base for future generations?
A reality check is urgent as the coming weeks and months will likely see more 'crazy energy' proposals by government and Big Oil.
