America's new energy resources - Global Energy

The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity and the Battle for America’s Future. By Michael Levi.

ALL revolutions need their storytellers. So it is surprising that America’s energy revolution of the past few years has not had a serious scribe before now. Shale gas, billowing out of the bedrock in ever-increasing quantities, is becoming the most important factor in the drive to lessen America’s dependence on imported fuel.

In “The Power Surge” Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations takes an excellent first stab at making sense of America’s new energy resources.

Mr Levi begins his book with a story about a man called Tar Baby, who works at a shale well in rural Ohio. Mr Baby, and thousands like him, are scouring America’s shale beds. They are helped by new and somewhat contentious technology that releases vast caches of natural gas in deeply buried rock called “fracking”. 

This process uses water, sand and chemicals under pressure, together with horizontal drilling through the shale beds, to release vast quantities of gas and oil from impermeable rocks that are deep underground.

The book’s main strength is the clarity with which the author explains the development of shale exploitation and assesses the implications of the shale boom. 

Fracking remains controversial among environmentalists, who say the process may contaminate groundwater or cause earthquakes. Concerns over possible long-term effects have led to a ban on the technology in New York and some other states. But there is scant evidence that the process is dangerous.

Mr Levi’s thesis has an unusual twist. Rather than accepting that shale enthusiasts and environmentalists will never see eye to eye, he reckons both sides should work together. He suggests that environmentalists should help improve the way gas is extracted rather than attempt to block it. 

As for the gas brigade, he proposes that they work with the greens in a broad alliance that presses for environmental legislation to boost gas demand at the expense of coal (which is far dirtier). Mr Levi argues that only wide coalitions will be able to press for legislation that encourages the development of different sorts of energy at the same time.

The book has a stab at outlining the potential impact of shale gas. But it is still not clear what the global impact of shale gas will be, how energy markets might change or what geopolitical implications will emerge if America becomes self-sufficient in energy.

 Mr Levi frets that America’s detachment from global energy markets risks putting globalisation into reverse. But that looks unlikely, particularly if America starts to export gas in significant quantities. The most significant export, however, could be the transfer of American know-how to exploiters of the world’s abundant shale beds. If the world takes to fracking as frantically as America there is a global energy revolution in the making
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