31 Mar 2012, 6:58 am
I notive both of you are asking very specific questions I'm not specifically defending Soyndra, only the concept that govenrmernt intervention can, and has, been crucial in some important US economic advancements .... Often the investment in a developing sector deosn't pay off for many years. Shale gas is a perfect example:
Shale gas was first extracted as a resource in Fredonia, NY in 1825[12], in shallow, low-pressure fractures. Work on industrial-scale shale gas production did not begin until the 1970s, when declining production potential from conventional gas deposits in the United States spurred the federal government to invest in R&D and demonstration projects[13] that ultimately led to directional and horizontal drilling, microseismic imaging, and massive hydraulic fracturing. Up until the public and private R&D and demonstration projects of the 1970s and 1980s, drilling in shale was not considered to be commercially viable.
Early federal government investments in shale gas began with the Eastern Gas Shales Project in 1976 and the annual FERC-approved research budget of the Gas Research Institute. The Department of Energy later partnered with private gas companies to complete the first successful air-drilled multi-fracture horizontal well in shale in 1986. The federal government further incentivized drilling in shale via the Section 29 tax credit for unconventional gas from 1980-2000. Microseismic imaging, a crucial input to both hydraulic fracturing in shale and offshore oil drilling, originated from coalbeds research at Sandia National Laboratories. In 1991 the Department of Energy subsidized Texas gas company Mitchell Energy's first horizontal drill in the Barnett Shale in north Texas.[14]
Mitchell Energy utilized all these component technologies and techniques to achieve the first economical shale fracture in 1998 using an innovative process called slick-water fracturing[15][16]. Since then, natural gas from shale has been the fastest growing contributor to total primary energy (TPE) in the United States, and has led many other countries to pursue shale deposits. According to the IEA, the economical extraction of shale gas more than doubles the projected production potential of natural gas, from 125 years to over 250 years[
Shale gas was first extracted as a resource in Fredonia, NY in 1825[12], in shallow, low-pressure fractures. Work on industrial-scale shale gas production did not begin until the 1970s, when declining production potential from conventional gas deposits in the United States spurred the federal government to invest in R&D and demonstration projects[13] that ultimately led to directional and horizontal drilling, microseismic imaging, and massive hydraulic fracturing. Up until the public and private R&D and demonstration projects of the 1970s and 1980s, drilling in shale was not considered to be commercially viable.
Early federal government investments in shale gas began with the Eastern Gas Shales Project in 1976 and the annual FERC-approved research budget of the Gas Research Institute. The Department of Energy later partnered with private gas companies to complete the first successful air-drilled multi-fracture horizontal well in shale in 1986. The federal government further incentivized drilling in shale via the Section 29 tax credit for unconventional gas from 1980-2000. Microseismic imaging, a crucial input to both hydraulic fracturing in shale and offshore oil drilling, originated from coalbeds research at Sandia National Laboratories. In 1991 the Department of Energy subsidized Texas gas company Mitchell Energy's first horizontal drill in the Barnett Shale in north Texas.[14]
Mitchell Energy utilized all these component technologies and techniques to achieve the first economical shale fracture in 1998 using an innovative process called slick-water fracturing[15][16]. Since then, natural gas from shale has been the fastest growing contributor to total primary energy (TPE) in the United States, and has led many other countries to pursue shale deposits. According to the IEA, the economical extraction of shale gas more than doubles the projected production potential of natural gas, from 125 years to over 250 years[
