EnergyFactor By ExxonMobil | Pespectives has a new home

Natural Gas

The Gasland II flameout

Posted: July 30, 2013 by Ken Cohen

We live at a time when documentaries can have far-reaching influence on the public dialogue. The best ones explore issues with integrity and intellectual honesty. Nowhere is this more important than with regard to energy policy – where facts and science should guide our discussions.

EPA officials probably wouldn’t admit it, but the agency’s action last Thursday would seem to confirm industry’s contention that state and local authorities are better equipped to handle the regulation and monitoring of hydraulic fracturing than the federal government.


The nationally syndicated public radio program The Engines of Our Ingenuity is a great show, which is why I was particularly pleased that it recently addressed a topic much in the news these days but one not always well understood by the public: hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking).

Administration officials have stated a commitment to streamlining permitting for big infrastructure projects. But at the same time some of our nation’s most important projects have been stuck in a regulatory holding pattern. As these projects have languished, so have the jobs, economic activity and tax-revenues that would be unleashed if Washington were true to its word.


We all know that production of oil and natural gas has soared in the United States over the last few years. But there’s one place where production actually has dropped: on federal lands. A new government report reveals that production from federal lands – including coastal waters – reached a ten-year low in 2012.

On Friday, ExxonMobil announced a $500,000 grant to underwrite a technology job-training program in the greater Houston area that will help develop the workers to staff a rapidly expanding petrochemical industry. This comes just a few months after prospects for a “major workforce shortage” were discussed at the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers annual meeting.



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