Dina Goheen's List: Essay #3

• • good possible quote at the bottom summing up the pros and cons

  • renewable may be cheaper for MI?
• "In the later part of 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the Mercury and Air Toxins Rule, one of four proposed regulations that have the potential to dramatically impact electric providers' generation sources, primarily coal-fired plants. As of December 2011, the Cross State Air Pollution Rule is on hold pending further review. The remaining two regulations are in draft form awaiting finalization. 
• I'd expect RE advocates to cheer and RE opponents to sneer. What's important to Michigan's and the nation's energy future, however, is a middle tack that examines the assumptions here about the forward-looking cost of RE vs. coal. If indeed the assumptions withstand scrutiny, then Michigan has a path forward.
• While we cannot afford feel-good investments in clean energy—if in fact the playing field is level with regard to a century of subsidies for fossil fuels—we also cannot afford not to invest in alternatives to coal's known, deadly qualities, from mining to air and water pollution.

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• • about how some abandoned mines in Saginaw are under schools and how they needed to be checked for any stability issues.
• MidMichigan coal mining peaked in 1907, but the natural resource wasn't consistent and scarce.
• "The last coal mine to operate in Michigan, Saginaw Co., was one in Swan Creek called the Swan Creek Mine which closed in 1952," says Trombley.

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• Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” involves injecting massive amounts of  water, chemicals, sand and other material under high pressure into shale  formations to break the rock and release the gas trapped inside
• Critics say fracking fouls drinking water, pollutes the atmosphere with toxic  methane gas and turns rural communities into ugly industrial zones.
• Energy executives say, however, that the technique is safe and efficient and is  creating thousands of jobs. In Congress, lawmakers have introduced bills to  tighten environmental regulation of fracking, and some states have banned the  procedure while they study its impact.
• In a study released earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency  established the first scientific links between fracking and pollution of nearby  drinking water. And critics complain that fracking is exempt from most major  environmental laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act and parts of the Clean  Air Act. Key among their claims: that fracking fouls underground and surface  water with cancer-causing chemicals, pollutes the air near drilling sites and  turns quiet villages like Springville into industrial zones

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• • Definition of Fracking. Pros and cons of fracking.
    

• • a very cool interactive visual imagery of the details on fracking

• • online conversation between citizens and the head of the NY state Dept of Environmental Conservation about fracking

• • effects of fracking on the UK .  graphic explaining how fracking works and other data.

• • Ohio residents feel they were decieved by fracking company.  

• • joint project of groun water protectioii council and interstate oil and gas compact commission.  Gives information incuding what types of chemicals can be used.

• • an informational letter provided on behalf of MSU about leasing oil and gas rights and things to put in the leases to "cover' damages.

• • informaton about the fraking being done/proposed in michigan

• • Crawford County, mi well leak used to provide natural gas.  leaked hydrogen sulfide and other compounds found in natural gas.

• • information on fracking in MIchigan
    
    
    
    
    
• • http://envoy.lcc.edu:2259/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA258457262&v=2.1&u=lom_lansingcc&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w
  •   Save the Bookmark to your browser

• • Amazing site with links to many different view points
    mudslide and earthquake info
    
• • MANY links to different sites with lots of information!!

• • Glossary terms of natural gas

• • positive attribute of natural gas
    links to information from other energy sites at bottom

• • monitoring methods used to meet environmental requirements, etc
    
• A technology to remotely monitor
• conditions at energy-rich Marcellus Shale gas wells to help insure compliance  with environmental requirements has been developed through a research  partnership funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
• Shale gas is natural gas trapped inside formations of shale, fine-grained  sedimentary rocks that can be rich sources of petroleum and natural gas. Shale  gas production, which has increased twelve-fold over the past decade according  to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, is contributing to a rejuvenation  of domestic natural gas supply
• The Marcellus formation is a large shale deposit (estimated to be a third of the  nation’s recoverable resource) located in the subsurface beneath much of Ohio,  West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, and smaller areas of Maryland,  Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

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• • information about and history of gas use in michigan
    
• • Good site!!! Lots of information on the history of gas use and retrieval in mI