News

It has been 10 years since the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies reversed the United States’ position from that of energy scarcity to energy abundance. This has changed the economy for the long haul and in the process thrust the term “fracking” into the mainstream American lexicon.

During this time, “keep it in the ground” anti-fracking activists have desperately tried to diminish fracking’s many benefits by exploiting its clickbait-inducing moniker. They have claimed incessantly that the process causes just about every environmental and health calamity imaginable. Most recently, shale opponents have even tried to link fracking to depression, obesity and sexually transmitted diseases.

But amid muddied waters created by these unfounded and oftentimes ridiculous assertions, a sober evaluation of a decade’s worth of scientific data clearly reveals that fracking’s benefits have far outweighed its risks. And those risks have been routinely exaggerated or flat out made up by shale opponents.

Jeff McMahon | Forbes | June 26, 2017

The benefits of fracking far outweigh its costs not only economically, but environmentally, a Stanford University geophysicist said Friday.

After teaching geophysics at Stanford for 30 years Mark Zoback took the helm of Stanford's new Natural Gas Initiative three years ago, he said, because of gas's environmental benefits.

"We did it because there were so many important and obvious environmental benefits to the utilization of natural gas," Zoback said. "So it’s somewhat ironic to be asked to argue for the notion that these benefits outweigh the environmental costs, when it’s the environmental benefits that got me into this business in the first place."

Zoback's remarks opened the annual debate at Stanford's Silicon Valley Energy Summit, and were swiftly challenged by representatives of the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Matthew DiLallo | The Motley Fool | April 14, 2019

The Permian Basin is a gift that keeps on giving. Oil producers have pumped out an astounding 30 billion barrels from the region since its discovery in 1921. However, an estimated 46 billion barrels of recoverable oil remain on the Delaware Basin side alone. The region has decades of growth ahead.

Morgan Lee | AP | April 3, 2019

SANTA FE - Legislation to increase teacher salaries, extend instructional time at public schools and boost spending on low-income students was signed into law Wednesday by New Mexico’s Democratic governor.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed three bills that are tied to nearly a half-billion dollar increase in annual state general fund spending on public education.

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO – A new analysis of data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Information Administration highlights a remarkable decline in methane emissions intensity from oil and natural gas production in the New Mexico-Texas Permian Basin. The analysis by Energy in Depth shows that methane emissions intensity declined by 57% from 2011 to 2017, even as oil and natural gas production in the basin increased by a combined 125% over the same period.

KallanishEnergy | April 4, 2019

The Bureau of Land Management raised $15.39 million in its quarterly oil and natural gas lease sale held March 28, in New Mexico and Oklahoma, Kallanish Energy reports.

The federal agency offered leases on 45 parcels covering 13,888 acres. The highest bid per acre was $40,411 sold to XTO Holdings LLC for 80 acres in Eddy County, New Mexico. Those same 80 acres produced the highest bid per parcel: $3.23 million.