Understanding Peak Oil And Its Relationship To Fracking

Air Date:
Heard On The Larry Meiller Show

We hear the terms “peak oil” and “fracking” frequently in the news. Larry Meiller finds out what each means and why they are important concepts to understand.

Featured in this Show

  • Cheap Gas Might Come At A High Cost, Energy Experts Say

    Right after the weather and football, gas prices often pop up as a favorite topic of conversation these days.

    Seeing prices at the pump drop below $2 a gallon made a lot of people happy, but experts say that low prices at the pump don’t necessarily reflect the actual cost of the fuel, and as a country and planet, people may “pay” more for cheap gas than they realize.

    As the director of education for both the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and the Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI), John Greenler takes a long-range view on fuel. Greenler said that no matter where gas prices are on a given day or during the course of a year, there is a wide range of long-term concerns.

    “Price is certainly one of them. It’s a very reasonable concern. But, behind those prices and the corresponding consumption, there’s a whole other array of concerns that you could categorize as being side effects of our petroleum, fossil fuel consumption,” Greenler said.

    Those concerns include climate change, especially with 2014 being the hottest year on record.

    But, Greenler said that they don’t end there.

    “They are other concerns as well that are political, or ecological,” he said. “It’s a long list of ways that we pay for our consumption beyond just the cash that we shell out at the pump.”

    Among those current energy issues that touch the political, ecological and more, fracking is one of the most contentious.

    According to Alan Carroll, a professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it’s tied closely to those cheap gas prices.

    Carroll, who is also associated with the Wisconsin Energy Institute, said that in simple mechanical terms, fracking is a process that enables extraction of “oil and gas out of rocks that don’t normally promote the flow of oil and gas very well.” It involves using the high-pressure water to “effectively shatter” the rock underground, and then to insert sand into those fissures to keep them open.

    Looking at oil production in the last five or six years, Carroll said that “the fracking technology has been applied and has been responsible for some very large increases both in the production of that commodity and also in the known, proved reserves.” He added that the reserves have increased about 90 percent in the last decade.

    It is ironic, Carroll noted, that Wisconsin has no oil or gas reserves, but the state does have large quantities of the type of sand that is required for fracking. That resource puts Wisconsin in the middle of the debate over fossil fuels and the potential dangers of fracking, which include small earthquakes in fracking locations.

    Low gas prices can also have an impact on human behavior, and it’s not a good one for the environment. Carroll noted that with the recent drop in prices, truck and SUV sales have increased.

    “One the one hand, it’s great that people can buy the things they want. But it’s not helping with the efficiency problem,” Carroll said.

    “It’s a double-edged sword. Moody’s has put out a report that this drop in fuel prices is equivalent to about a 1.2 percent salary raise for your average U.S. citizen. That really does good things for our economy short-term, but in the long-term, we recognize … that it’s going to come back to bite us,” Greenler said.

    What’s paid at the pump is the most obvious cost of putting gas in the tank, but Greenler warned that there is a lot more to it. He said that the infrastructure of pipelines, refineries and roads are out of sight for the consumer, but shouldn’t be out of mind.

    One of the policy challenges is how to take into account both the everyday needs and wants of individuals and families and what serves the greater good, especially when the effect might be years in the future. For example, Greenler pointed out, those who stand to get the most relief from low gas prices are those who are the least economically advantaged.

    “There’s what we pay at the pump, which we feel directly. But there’s a wide array of other costs that we really need to consider,” Greenler said.

    To strike balance that is achievable and sustainable, Greenler said he thinks a holistic approach is key.

    “I think there is a real challenge here in terms of what kind of policy is going to be best for us. Are we going to be supporting low fuel costs … yet at the same time not promote all of the environmental and economic concerns that cheap oil comes with,” Greenler said.

Episode Credits

  • Larry Meiller Host
  • Judith Siers-Poisson Producer
  • Alan Carroll Guest
  • John Greenler Guest