What will an energy independent world look like?

The governments of Greece, Cyprus and Israel recently signed an energy accord that further strengthens their ties in respect to joint plans to exploit the natural gas resources of the region, while Turkey strives to become the ultimate destination for the onshore transfer of the commodity. 

Greek Energy Minister Yannis Maniatis, his Cypriot counterpart Giorgos Lakkotrypis and Israeli Silvan Shalom signed a memorandum that stipulates the three states' joint cooperation in energy infrastructure and transportation, with a special focus on offshore gas projects, such as the Aphrodite in Cyprus and the Leviathan and Tamar in Israel. In the meantime, negotiations are under way to resolve the frozen Cyprus issue between the Greek and Turkish sides, and reports suggest that all interested sides have put natural gas on the table.

 Hydraulic fracturing has become a contentious environmental and health issue with Tunisia and France banning the practice and a moratorium in place in Quebec (Canada), and some of the states of the US.

Australia

Up until the mid-2000s, hydraulic fracturing was generally limited to conventional oil and gas wells in the Cooper Basin. This was limited to one, two or sometimes zero ongoing fracturing operations.^{[citation needed]} The vast majority of coal seam gas wells have not been hydraulically fractured as the wells presently being drilled are in coal seams that have good natural permeability.^{[citation needed]} The NSW Government has banned BTEX chemicals as additives.^[1]

China

China completed its first horizontal shale gas well in 2011. A global shale gas study by the US Energy Information Administration said China's technically recoverable shale gas reserves were almost 50% higher than those of the number two nation, the United States.[7]

<sup>The Pandora's box of energy independence has been opened. To a growth and energy starving world it will not be closed. You see what is still on going in the Gulf of Mexico, you saw Chernobyl, you know a small part of the horrible damage Fukishima is doing around the world, These are a tiny part of the damage we are doing with our technology.

China is already one of the most polluted countries in the world. China is home to our medical and computer waste dump.The areas housing them are dead zones and entrance not allowed. In addition China at last check was building one coal fired power plant per month. This is all undder so called control. You see what we have done to the earth while under control, imagine the caustic conditions when everyone does what they want. Hell it can be argued that, that is what underhandedly goes on now.</sup>


*US to be top oil producer by 2017, report says, America will be self-sufficient by 2030, study finds: The consequences are ‘‘potentially far reaching’’ for global energy markets and trade, the report said. Birol noted, for example, that Middle Eastern oil once bound for the United States would probably be rerouted to China. US-mined coal, facing declining demand in its home market, is already heading to Europe and China instead.

There are several components of the sudden shift in the world’s energy supply, but the prime mover is a resurgence of US oil and gas production, particularly the unlocking of new reserves of oil and gas found in shale rock. The widespread adoption of techniques such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling has made those reserves much more accessible, and, in the case of natural gas, resulted in a vast glut that has sent prices plunging. The report predicted that the United States would overtake Russia as the leading producer of natural gas in 2015.

I do not like Fracking or horizontal drilling but imagine the United States as the worlds leading gas And oil exporter? A headline on an old newspaper reads: Oil Shale Development Imminent,". That edition of the defunct Grand Junction News, was published at the dawn of the 20th century.

More than a hundred years later, instability is roiling world oil markets, and Americans are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas. And oil shale fever is again rising in the geologic region known as the Piceance Basin, part of the Green River Formation that stretches across the rugged plains of northwestern Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Utah.

There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock -- essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract.

The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado -- about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil. The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.

As it has before, shale oil holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil. Shell Oil is engaged in a multi year test of a new technology for extracting the oil. Previous efforts that were uneconomical and environmentally destructive entailed mining the rock, crushing it and heating it above ground to release the oil.

From what I have seen already we are destroying peoples food and water sources making them dependent on who? and grossly destabilizing the ground. Everywhere fracking goes on earthquakes are showing up regardless of the fact that there was no earthquakes in the past and it is no ones fault of course, it is natural my rear.

To me for the people to think there is any plus at all at our becoming energy independent they would want to see the price at the pump go down. 

That you know will never happen because it is not in the interest of oil companies. As they do now, whenever something good or bad happens that may or may not even affect the industry they raise prices. The world as a whole have become mice living and running on a clogged and polluted wheel never to get off till we die.

James Joiner
Gardner Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com