As I wrote recently, the gloomy prospects for a surge in domestic oil production are unlikely to change, no matter the outcome of November’s presidential election. However, the country’s natural gas and hydraulic fracturing industries could face very different trajectories based on November’s election results, especially should Biden become the 46th President of the United States.
Much of Biden’s campaign platform centers on a return to the policies of the Obama-Biden administration. On energy, however, candidate Biden has moved sharply to the left.
In 2012, President Barack Obama told a crowd in Cincinnati, Ohio, that “natural gas actually burns cleaner than some other fossil fuels,” which was why his administration encouraged natural gas production. He went on to praise collaboration between the natural gas industry and federal regulators, noting that there are “a lot of folks who are engaging in hydraulic fracturing who are doing it safely.”
Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” as it’s commonly called, has been used safely for over 70 years, and technological innovations implemented in the past decade have significantly improved its effectiveness. Fracking is responsible for the “Shale Revolution” that transformed local economies in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania, shot domestic production to record highs, and turned America into a net energy exporter.
Less than a decade later, candidate Biden still says he doesn’t want to ban “fracking” outright, only end its use on federal lands. While the use of fracking to release oil and gas trapped in tight shale rock formations is predominately done on state and private lands, it is increasingly used in federal areas. Nearly all – 95 percent – of natural gas production involves the use of fracking, so a Biden ban would tightly limit exploration and production growth.
Considering Biden’s goal of making the country a net-zero emitter of carbon dioxide by 2050, the reduced carbon content of natural gas, and the efforts of utility companies over the past decade to switch to gas-fired power generation, cutting off America’s domestic supply of affordable and abundant natural gas is self-defeating.
Estimates by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicate the United States has 438 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves and some 2,828 trillion cubic feet of potential gas reserves. The nonpartisan EIA estimates the country has enough natural gas to last nearly 100 years
Advances in recovery technologies have made fracking safer and more efficient than ever. Improved accessibility is reflected in 2019 domestic production of over 36 billion cubic feet of natural gas, a near 70 percent increase from a decade earlier, the year Joe Biden became vice president.
Natural gas is an increasing presence in our everyday lives. Not only is it increasingly the fuel of choice for generating electricity, it’s also used in the manufacturing of hand sanitizer and personal protective equipment, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Thirty-six percent of U.S. domestic natural gas production is used to generate electricity, 33 percent in industrial manufacturing, and 16 percent for residential cooking and heating.
Abundance, accessibility and utility are already a trifecta of our natural gas resource’s valuable characteristics – but it’s also the cleanest fossil fuel available to us.
An EIA report found the overall carbon intensity of the U.S. economy declined by 4.9 percent in 2019 thanks to the increased use of natural gas in power generation as a replacement for coal.
Banning fracking on federal leases would not only strike a blow against efforts to curb carbon emissions and address climate change but would also carry economic consequences.
An analysis by the American Petroleum Institute showed that a federal leasing ban could jeopardize up to 7.5 million jobs or nearly 5 percent of the total workforce. Add to this an estimated $618 increase in annual energy bills for American families and rising food costs since modern agriculture relies on natural gas for fertilizer and processing.
Biden has said little about how his administration would offset these unintended consequences of a fracking ban in federal areas. The media has mostly let him off the hook, but voters are right to continue to press for clear answers.
It’s unrealistic to expect renewable energy to replace our reliance on fossil fuels entirely. Indeed, natural gas is a more efficient and cleaner option in many instances – in industrial manufacturing, for example.
Natural gas has its place in America’s energy mix. But to ensure that place, it must remain an abundant and affordable domestic resource.
Natural gas wasn’t always $2.90 per MMBtu It wasn’t long ago that prices were closing in on $14 per MMBtu. What happened? In a word, fracking.
