Aerie Report, November 17, 2011

Monday evening we had a period of rain that the weather service thought sever enough to issue warnings. We were lucky enough to avoid the hail, lightning and thunder but did get some torrential down pours. Tuesday morning when I emptied the rain gauge it held 1.7 inches of water, most of it from Monday evening/night. With colder weather on the way, I decided to bring the plastic gauge inside where I washed it and stored it until spring. Of course, we got a little more rain Wednesday afternoon and evening.

I'm glad I brought the gauge inside, though. See, the temperatures, which hadn't dipped below 40 degrees lately, suddenly plummeted to 28 degrees last night. Would it have frozen any water in the gauge? Unknown, but there was ice on the deck. Looks like today we will not see the upward side of 35 degrees and the overcast skies are promising some snow flurry action latter this afternoon and early evening. Weather.com is saying there will be no accumulation, however, and I'm hoping they are correct.

Meanwhile, I've built another fire in the fireplace and the house will soon be toasty warm without having to jack the thermostats up.

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The birds and squirrels are pleased that I've resumed putting the feeders out. We've been getting the regular horde of chickadees, mourning doves, and tufted titmice with a few goldfinches and juncos thrown in for good measure.

The squirrel numbers have grown slowly from the solitary visitor to five at one time. These are just the scouts, however. I'm sure that as winter sets in we'll be seeing 10 or 12 tree rats looking for a handout as they #Occupy the feeders.

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Last night's Audubon Society dinner was not well attended but the speaker, an expert on mountain lions, was quite good. Kerry Gyekis is a former Tioga County Planning Director who began investigating cougar sightings as a hobby but now pursues the big cats as a second career. His story was featured in the area's leading free magazine Mountain Home back in November 2007. He's been trained out west and knows signs of cougars when he sees them. He's also been all over the northeast investigating reports of cat sightings and, while admitting there have been and are some legit reports, says 99.9% of them are of critters which have escaped from captivity. That final 0.1% are immature males kicked out of their momma's care and out searching for a home and mate. But mostly a mate. (Females are more homebodies and don't travel too far from their birth places.) These poor lost souls made a wrong turn in their travels and headed east only to discover that there just aren't any girls around.

Gyekis' presence brought his replacement, the current Tioga County Planning Director, Jim Weaver, to our little party. Jim spoke briefly of Pennsylvania DNCR's plan to develop a huge area just to the west and southwest of here as a High Conservation Value Forest, or HCVF for short. While not strictly a "wilderness" designation, a HCVF does provide protection for critical habitat for flora and fauna alike. Areas of Potter, Tioga, Clinton, and Lycoming counties are being considered for inclusion. Much of the land is already state forest, parks or game lands.

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Speaking with Kerry before dinner I discovered his son was flying in Iraq out of Al Asad Air Base when my son was over there providing ground security in 2004-2005. It's a very small world sometimes.

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I buttonholed Jim after the meeting to talk about wells being drilled or permitted to be drilled. He said that now that Shell has bought out EAST, they've been going at it hammer and tong. There are a dozen or so rigs in the area and Shell expects to double that soon. Where EAST had a 7-10 year plan, Shell has compressed things to 5 years. With many of the leases set to expire in two years time, and the retention of their rights dependent upon Shell's at least beginning to drill ("spading" it's called) the more rapid approach is understandable. (In "spading" they go down but not necessarily out. They can come back later and begin to horizontally expand their reach.)

Today, Jim sent me a link to the process being used to designate the HCVF and also a map of current and proposed wells nearest the Aerie. Vis-a-vis the latter, we are outside the blue line I take to be the reach of Shell's current wells, by t-h-i-s much and therefore should expect no $$$ from the gas beneath us. That could change however as there's at least one permitted site nearer to our location. Heh. If it happens it happens. We'll know more around the year 2014 when our current gas/mineral lease expires.

Fossil Fuels Fueling the Economy

As I may have mentioned from time to time, our corner of PA is smack dab in the middle of a gas boom of a good kind. Numerous wells have been drilled, are being drilled, or will shortly be drilled. The result is a scramble for workers of all sorts from roughnecks to truck drivers to...well...just about everything to support the drilling/pipeline industry. Motels, restaurants, mechanics to care for trucks of all types, stone quarries, excavators,...you name it, they are either building, expanding, or hiring. Anyone needing, but still without, a job just isn't trying very hard. On any trip to Lowe's or WalMart you can see license plates from all over the country.

Shale Gas Brings Energy Independence, Drilling Supports 140,000 Jobs in Pa.

HERMITAGE, Pa. -- In just five years the United States has gone from importing natural gas to meet its industrial needs to sitting on the edge of being a net exporter, geologist James M. Funk told the 26th annual meeting of Penn-Northwest Development Corp. Tuesday.
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"The United States now has a 100-year supply of natural gas and that's growing," Funk related. With Funk was Matt Pitzarella, who said afterward that Funk's projection is "incredibly conservative." Pitzarella, director of corporate communications and public affairs for Range, thinks a 200-year supply to meet all of this country's needs (and for the United States to export its surplus) is more realistic.

The quantities of gas exported, combined with less reliance on foreign oil, could substantially affect the United States balance of trade, Pitzarella stated, thereby reducing our imports as well as what the United States owes abroad.

"Today industrial users are paying half what they did five years ago," he said, "and demand is 40% higher."
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Since the shale has been unlocked, Funk said, Pennsylvania benefited in 2010 by having $11.2 billion in economic activity it otherwise would not have enjoyed. And state tax coffers held $1.1 billion related to Marcellus activity.

Drilling supports 140,000 jobs in the commonwealth directly and indirectly, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, which also credits the energy companies with hiring 27,000 employees last year whose average wage exceeded $76,000.
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A spinoff industry is water purification, Funk said, with technicians needed to purify the water used in extracting the gas and drivers and trucks needed to haul the water to purification sites.

The issue of how safe fracking is -- the method used to extract the natural gas -- and the danger to the environment was raised.

Pennsylvania's regulations of natural gas drilling are a model for the United States, Pitzarella said, noting that Ohio Gov. John Kasich is looking closely at those of the Keystone State.

Of the materials forced deep below the ground to release the gas consists of into the shale, "99.92% is water and sand," Pitzarella said. The other three substances consist of an anti-microbial agent -- "the same stuff in hand soap but much diluted" -- a scaling inhibitor to keep the pipe from clogging -- "the same that water utilities use that deliver water to your home" -- and extremely dilute hydrochloric acid. The acid cleans the well bores.

"All the chemicals we use are biodegradable," Pitzarella said.

Ours is not the only place experiencing a boom in natural gas/oil production. The North Dakota boom has been well documented (here, here, and here), but even as off shore drilling continues to be put on the slow track, there's plenty going on in the states adjacent to the Gulf.

BHP Billiton to Spend $4.5B On US Shale This Year

BHP Billiton plans to invest roughly US $4.5 billion developing the shale oil and gas assets it bought in the U.S. this financial year as it ramps up production, the head of the mining company's petroleum division said Monday.

BHP expects capital spending to jump to almost US $6 billion in the 2015 fiscal year and roughly US $6.5 billion by 2020 as the company ramps up the number of rigs on its four project areas, Michael Yeager said in a conference call from Melbourne.

BHP spent almost US $17 billion this year buying Petrohawk Energy Corp. along with its assets in Texas and Louisiana and Chesapeake's Fayetteville shale assets in Arkansas.

Meanwhile, New York State is sitting on its hands doing little but holding hearing after hearing and thinking of new taxes to impose to relieve their fiscal problems.

And, you know, let’s not build the Keystone XL pipeline or do any oil drilling along our shores. Wouldn’t do a thing to help the economy anyway.

Besides, Americans are a lazy people. The President says so.