Welcome to the Fuel Matters Blog

As the debate over the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing rages on, a new report from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission’s (SRBC) continuous water quality monitoring project does not show evidence of water quality changes as a result of natural gas development.  In an article by Kevin Randolph from the Pennsylvania Business Report, he reports that “in January 2010 the SRBC began measuring and reporting water quality conditions in small streams that could potentially be impacted by the natural gas industry.”  The SRBC water quality monitoring project monitors specific conductivity, turbidity and water temperature, which would reveal any immediate impacts from natural gas drilling activities.  One organization that has a particularly strong interest in this report is the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC).

The United States has surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia for the first time ever in holding the world’s most oil reserves.  Rystad Energy conducted a three year study of 60,000 oilfields and measured existing fields and recoverable reserves.  The recoverable reserves are barrels that are technologically and economically feasible to extract.  The energy industry measures both discoverable and yet undiscoverable areas to measure the long-term health of an oil producing nation’s economy.