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I've seen the damage that fracking does. I see shale gas as a bubble to.  But, I think that in the short term it's lowered gas prices enough that it's having a huge impact in the market for new wind farms in the US. The fear that I have is that countries that rely upon shale gas to delay the development of renewables are going to end up in a situation where shale gas is either depleted, or finally gets shut down due to the environmental damage it does.  And the contraction of the gas supply drives up electric prices, but there is a reticence to develop new projects because of the market history.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Mon Jan 30th, 2012 at 06:27:20 PM EST
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And bear in mind that shale gas does not have the "bell curve" production dynamics of petroleum ~ if a shale gas play plays out, it can as easily be a sudden drop in output as a slow decline.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Wed Feb 1st, 2012 at 04:21:12 PM EST
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I don't know if you'll read this since I'm responding so late.  

But....  my expectation is that the shale gas industry is ramping up the US for an oh shit moment that could have been avoided if gas prices had been kept high in order to faciliate investment in wind.

When the price of gas goes up, new wind farms will too.  But, there's going to be a lot of economic hardship that could have been avoided by doing this right the first time around.


And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Mon Feb 6th, 2012 at 10:11:49 AM EST
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