Fracking 2.0 Was a Financial Disaster, Will Fracking 3.0 Be Different?
By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog
And the solution to fracking's profits problem — according to the likes of ExxonMobil — is Microsoft. Apparently cloud technology has been the missing ingredient in the Permian.
Are Investors Finally Waking up to North America’s Fracked Gas Crisis?
By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog
Enabled by rising debt, shale companies have been achieving record fracked oil and gas production, while promising investors a big future payoff. But over a decade into the “fracking miracle,” investors are showing signs they're worried that payoff will never come — and as a result, loans are drying up.
Fracking in 2018: Another Year of Pretending to Make Money
By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog
2018 was the year the oil and gas industry promised that its darling, the shale fracking revolution, would stop focusing on endless production and instead turn a profit for its investors. But as the year winds to a close, it's clear that hasn't happened.
Yet Another Benefit of Renewable Energy: It Uses Practically No Water Compared to Fossil Fuels
By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently highlighted a little-discussed benefit of using renewables like wind and solar to produce electricity: Unlike most power sources, they require “almost no water.”
Peak Shale: Is the US Fracking Industry Already in Decline?
By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog
As DeSmog's series on the finances of fracking has documented, there is no doubt fracking can lead to production of large volumes of light oil, but it comes at the cost of approximately a quarter trillion dollars more than the industry has made since 2007.
The Fracking Industry’s Water Nightmare
By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog
There is no way for the shale industry to deal with the financial issues it faces — including its water crisis — without changing the existing rules.
The Fracking Industry Is Cannibalizing Its Own Production, Increasing Spill Risks
By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog
So, while the industry likes to claim that fracking poses little risk to the environment, the issue of frac hits appears to raise a whole new set of environmental risks.
Oil Industry Plans to Keep Workers Safe—by Firing Them and Having Robots Do Their Jobs
By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog
The oil and gas industry is finally acknowledging how dangerous employment can be for its workers after years of touting the sector as a beacon of worker safety. This sudden honesty about the dangers of working in the oil patch coincides with the industry’s new solution to greatly improve the safety of those workers — which is to fire them and replace them with robots.