Every year, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), publishes its Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) in which U.S. energy supply is forecast through 2040. The EIA’s yearly AEO has enormous influence with policymakers, the media, and through...
In a November 15 press release, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) announced that there might be a lot more oil in Texas than previously estimated: The Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin portion of Texas’ Permian Basin province...
After 18 months, the U.S. Presidential election is just a week away and, with one notable exception, we at PCI have remained largely silent on it. That’s not because we deem it unimportant or are worried about upsetting readers...
Earlier this week, findings of an important new study were published in JAMA Internal Medicine showing that risk of asthma attacks was more likely for people in Pennsylvania who lived closer to shale gas (“fracked”) wells. According to a...
A recent vacation afforded me the opportunity to read The Oracle of Oil, Mason Inman’s excellent new biography of Marion King Hubbert. I strongly recommend it. But, rather than writing a standard book review (which might cover much of...
A new Harvard University study finds that world methane emissions have recently spiked, and that the US appears to be the site of most of the increase. Natural gas fracking is the apparent culprit. This finding should be (though...
The Bakken Play, located in North Dakota and Montana, is the birthplace of tight (shale) oil and in many ways the poster child of the so-called “shale revolution.” Between 2010 and 2014, oil production in North Dakota grew nearly...
In 2011, the EIA published a report that stated the Monterey Shale in California had 15.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil, or two-thirds of the then estimated recoverable tight oil in the US. The EIA subsequently downgraded its estimate...
Much of the cost-benefit debate over fracking has come down to the perception of just how much domestic oil and gas it can produce and at what cost. To answer this question, policymakers, the media, and the general public...
Yesterday The Nation published a must-read article on how the drop in oil prices is shaking the foundation of the so-called “shale revolution” and how renewable energy is poised to take off. Right now, our fossil-fueled energy path has us on...