Sixty Lame Minutes (James Howard Kunstler)

[Tace]

James Howard Kunstler -- World News Trust

Nov. 15, 2010 -- So, last night CBS hauled Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, on board their flagship Sunday infotainment vehicle, 60 Minutes, to blow a mighty wind up America's ass (as they say in professional PR circles). America is lately addicted to lying to itself, and 60 Minutes has become the "go-to" patsy for funneling disinformation into an already hopelessly confused, wishful, delusional, U.S. public.

McClendon told the credulous Judy Woodruff and the huge viewing audience that America "has two Saudi Arabia's of gas." Now, you know immediately that at least half the viewers misconstrued this statement to mean that we have two Saudi Arabia's of gasoline. Translation: don't worry none about driving anywhere you like, or having to get some tiny little pansy-ass hybrid whatchamacallit car to do it in, and especially don't pay no attention to them "green" sumbitches on the sidelines trying to sell you some kind of peak oil story.... It also prepared the public to support whatever Mr. McClendon's company wants to do, because he says his company will free America from its slavery to OPEC. By the way, CBS never clarified these parts of the story by the end of the show.

First of all, they are talking about methane gas, not liquid gasoline or oil. There are large deposits of methane gas locked into shale deposits roughly following the Appalachian mountain chain from New York State through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, into Ohio, but also hot spots out west. It's hard to get at. You have to basically blow up the shale rock deep underground with high pressure water that is loaded up with chemicals and sand particles to keep the rock fragments separated once they are blown apart. Chesapeake Energy specializes in this rock fracturing (or "fracking") method for drilling. You can get gas out of the ground this way. The question is how much, over what time period, at what cost.

At the present time, with America anxious about any kind of future energy, shale gas sounds like a dream-come-true. Mostly what the public saw on 60 Minutes last night was a sell-job for Chesapeake Energy to boost its stock price. Here are some facts:

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http://worldnewstrust.com/sixty-lame-minutes-james-howard-kunstler.html

[Gman]

1. I actually thought it was a very good piece on 60 Minutes

with a lot of good info, the kind they don't want you to know. And it bared Halliburton's ass at every turn.

I saw the piece completely differently.

[Paranoid Pessimist]

2. No mention was made of the movie Gasland by Josh Fox (unless I missed it)

It showed several instances of tapwater being flammable (flaming fawcetts) after a fracking operation nearby.

Will we accept these companies' assurances that no harm will come to the groundwater if they go gas fracking in the neighborhood?

But just for fun let's take them at their word that they can deliver natural gas in quantities double that of Saudi oil. Is there a plan to rapidly transform the automobile infrastructure so that the highways can abound with clean burning natural gas vehicles? A cost estimate?

They work good. Before my retirement I drove natural gas city vehicles, which was possible because there were filling sites nearby where the vehicles could be gas up.

Jim Kunstler calls our way of life "the happy motoring lifestyle" and has said that Americans would buy into anything that could help them believe it can keep on going on. Perhaps we shall see if they're willing to sacrifice having water for drinking and washing coming through their pipes. Heck of a trade off.

[jwirr]

4. Natural gas and methane are not the same thing.

[mudplanet]

5. Bullshit

Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0-20% higher hydrocarbons<1> (primarily ethane). It is found associated with other fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.

Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane's bond angles are 109.5 degrees. Burning methane in the presence of oxygen produces carbon dioxide and water. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel. However, because it is a gas at normal temperature and pressure, methane is difficult to transport from its source. In its natural gas form, it is generally transported in bulk by pipeline or LNG carriers; few countries transport it by truck.

[Gman]

7. Oh, they blew up a jug of water on 60 minutes

it had natural gas in it. They showed it.

[jwirr]

3. Very good article on fracking.

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. They even dangled the Horatio Alger storyline that you too can become

a Shaleionaire. Showing those good old boys saying it was Gods doing that they are now rich.