The USA is no longer the largest importer of oil, their president made a public speech linking extreme weather conditions to the burning of fossil fuels and last year a record number of coal plants were shut down [1]. In Australia the carbon tax has been subsumed into our existing economy, reinforcing the idea that the environment is something mildly inconvenient that we should make some small sacrifices towards in order to support.
The carbon tax was never intended to facilitate the renewable energy revolution that the world needs, it was meant to deliver gas driven power stations, purportedly a less bad fossil fuel due to the lower CO2 outputs when burnt [2]. This is the direction that the USA, Australia and many other Western countries are moving, in spite of the potentially catastrophic climate change consequences.
Natural gas, CSG , biogas and shale gas, though derived from different sources are all effectively methane which is a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than the nefarious CO2 [3] . This has important consequences for unconventional gas like CSG and shale gas because the extraction process that releases it from the seams inevitably delivers “fugitive emissions”; gas which are not captured and consequently escape into the atmosphere. Recent findings from the Tara CSG fields in Queensland have found fugitive emissions 3.5 times higher than expected, which means the climate consequences of unconventional gas look to be seriously underestimated [4].
These findings along with other research indicating widespread groundwater pollution and links between human health problems and CSG are being disregarded in the rush to capitalise on the unconventional gas boom [5]. The natural gas we have traditionally extracted is effectively the tip of the iceberg, representing little pockets that have escaped from the much larger gas deposits trapped in coal seams much further underground. In the past it has not been economically feasible to process and extract gas from these deposits but recent technological breakthroughs and the rising costs of oil have made it more viable.
This is the real reason why the USA is no longer the biggest importer of oil, it is increasingly turning to shale gas as a source of power and energy independence. The emergence of unconventional gas is HUGE news. It may mean an end to thinly veiled imperialism where militaristic nations like Australia, the USA and China occupy oil rich nations like the Middle East in order to satiate our unsustainable oil needs. It offers an excuse to defer the critically necessary transition away from a fossil fuel economy as well. The importance of cheap, affordable oil in perpetuating the current growth model of the world economy cannot be underestimated. In fact many of the financial crises have been linked to spikes in the world oil price [6]. Whether you care to recognise climate change or not this was a tangible and physical limitation to the prevailing capitalist world business model.
To bring it back home, Beach Energy have been exploring shale gas deposits out in Coober Pedy and though still in exploration phase some estimates suggest there’s $20 trillion of shale gas lying deep below the ground [7]. The good news is that the extraction and processing costs are extremely expensive; however private investors are heedlessly queuing up to invest with the promise of this untapped and novel fossil fuel.
The technology and infrastructure is still several years away but it shatters the myth that most of society, myself included, are probably guilty in believing: that renewable energy will inevitably and logically follow the drying up of the oil fields. This is a fallacy that we can no longer afford to entertain. Climate justice is not inevitable and the fossil fuels industry will not willingly submit to its scientific, environmental and social imperative.
– Jason Ray
References
[2] http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3159809.htm
[3] ^ Shindell, D. T.; Faluvegi, G.; Koch, D. M.; Schmidt, G. A.; Unger, N.; Bauer, S. E. (2009). “Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions”. Science 326 (5953): 716–8. Bibcode 2009Sci…326..716S. doi:10.1126/science.1174760. PMID 19900930.
[4] http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3633004.htm
[5] http://ntn.org.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NTN-CSG-Report-Sep-2011.pdf
[6] http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=bill-mckibbens-eaarth-10-04-21
[7] http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/trillion-shale-oil-find-surrounding-coober-pedy-can-fuel-australia/story-e6frea83-1226560401043