Flare-offs From Massive US Fracking Facility Can Now Be Seen From Outer Space But Pollution Unreport

A NPR reporter noticed a new light larger than the lights of New York City in a recent NASA map of the U.S.
. The light (see circle on the map) is from a North Dakota fracking oil wells that are burning off their natural gas because it is cheaper to burn it off than to recapture it. You can view a close up image here. In the next ten years, the facility is expected to become ten times larger than it currently is.

Here is what carbon dioxide pollution looked like before the facility was built in 2008
.

Nasa loves to report on pollution problems in China. However, where are the corresponding images for North Dakota? I can't find them on the NASA website. Here is a map of the oil fields
. After searching the Internet there doesn't seem to be access to information about air pollution from this region or certain around Missoula. It's estimate that the amount of pollution emitted is the same as about 2.5 million cars but given the growth in the region those estimates are moving upwards rapidly.

UMM Thats Edmondton

I think anyway. The orange is just paintshop


And fracking is to get gas not oil so

HOAX thread

reply to post by atopsecret

An NPR reporter noticed a new light larger than the lights of New York City in a recent NASA map of the U.S.

Which NPR reporter?

Originally posted by mikell
UMM Thats Edmondton

I think anyway. The orange is just paintshop

edit on 18-1-2013 by mikell because: (no reason given)

And fracking is to get gas not oil so

HOAX thread

edit on 18-1-2013 by mikell because: (no reason given)

Funny, I thought Edmonton was much further north than that. Regardless, you're wrong, it is the oil flares, and they are fracking to get to the oil. Pics & article on NPR.

It really is a damn shame the fracking is so ignored here. We're fine with telling other countries how to mine, but we can't be bothered with anything cleaner ourselves.

reply to post by Phage


Here, Phage: www.npr.org...

I'm surprised you're not on top of this one, to be honest.

reply to post by Nyiah

On top of what?
The OP should have provided the link.

than recapture is a link to what you're asking about.

They are burning the same thing you or others who DO have natural gas fired stoves have in the open air of your kitchen. If it's that dangerous, millions would be dead. Just my two cents....


Oh, I would agree it's a major waste. booooo on that. The NG could surly be used a bit better than just confirming the well is still running smoothly by the fact there is stuff to burn in the first place. Tell Uncle Sammy to cut the red tape and move on letting them make NG facilities to capture it. This explains how they'd love to do just that and how this is all happening a bit better, perhaps...

So why are all these gas flares burning in the oil fields?

Firstly, that is not what the US looks like from space. That is some sort of composite construct, and it seems downright magical that every light in the US, regardless of the source, is white, while the "fracking" light is flame orange. Fake as f**k. Sorry.

Where is the discussion about livestock CO2 emissions? Where is the big scary map from that?

This is just another fracking hit piece, plain and simple.

Here's a suggestion: How about we take another look at the rainforest clear cutting. Has that stopped? Is that no longer the problem? Don't all those trees use CO2 and make O2? I guess maybe it's more politically fashionable to attack fracking than deforestation these days.

That map is a recent composite map made over many days (as to get a clear, cloudless sky across all of North America) and I don't really see anything different. You presented that map and said some NPR reporter noticed it but there is nothing to compare it to, showing difference in light.

Even then, the filters and post-production done to that map cannot verify that the massive amount of light in that area is due to natural gas burn-off. To the poster that said it might be Edmonton, that is too far south on the map to be that city. Edmonton is further north-north-west.

That blob of light is overlaid right over Lake Sakakawea. Just east of it is Minot AFB and to the South-east is Bismarck, ND. To the north is Regina, Canada.

Hess Energy is probably one of the largest companies exploring and investing in the Bekkan shale fields.

ETA: Larger Map

As Aziz Ansari would say....Whaaat??
If that is light recorded from space
of Natural Gas burn offs someone needs to get a picture
from the ground at night ASAP!
I have to see that! Even from a mountain top
5 miles away. Wait... Especially from a mountain top 5 miles away!

I bet they could turn a turbine or two with those plumes.

Reuters - US Rig Count

Baker Hughes data on Friday showed the gas-directed rig count fell by five this week to 429, the second straight weekly decline. Drilling for natural gas has mostly been in decline for more than a year, with gas rigs down some 54 percent since peaking in 2011 at 936 in October. The gas rig count is hovering just above the 13-1/2-year low of 413 posted in early November. But so far production has not shown any signs of slowing. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that output in 2013 will hit a record high for a third straight year.

They can't make money putting this gas to market so they burn it off. So we are left paying more while they abandon the means of production for our country. Sad but true.

As noted in this link in the original post.

1. There are no government regulations whatsoever preventing the companies from recapturing the natural gas

2. The map is from NASA. The story has a link to a second close-up view which labels the towns and a third map is also linked to which shows that the light is coming exactly from the fracking field. As noted in the NPR story who contacted people at the plant, they acknowledged there is a lot of light. In fact, in the morning workers are known to get confused and drive the wrong way mistaking the light for the rising sun.

3. The amount of global warming pollution is the equivalent of 2.5 million cars as noted in the first link that reviews the amount of pollution caused by the plant and its effects on humans.

When Nixon first created the EPA, the EPA forced Alaskan companies to inject the methane back into the ground. Nowadays, there are no fracking relations. One regulation does go into effect in 2015 but that only prevents companies from not flaring it off. Flare-offs do substantially reduce the amount of pollution.

They only burn the natural gas because they haven't had time to recapture it. It's safer to burn it for the time being rather let it float about contaminating the air. My brother works up in the oil fields in North Dakota. When they hit a natural gas pocket, they light it on fire to attempt to control the gas from "floating about" and causing more damage via explosions. I will get more info from him if I can.
I was 5 seconds from being one of these frackers, the only thing that stopped me was my son and wife..
Sadly it's now me and my son because my wife wanted me to go work up there while I worked 20+ hour days and pay the bills while she had her fun...

Well crap. Anybody want pictures up close, let me know how and where to upload them.. I'm searching the impossible ATS myATS, TOOLS+, etc...
I should know this, been a reader since damn near the beginning...



I think I figured it out.... I should have wrote it down, so in case I have to do this again..





image

Screw it.
Just picture a pipe sticking out of the ground with a candle burning at the top of it..

Originally posted by atopsecret
As noted in this link in the original post.

1. There are no government regulations whatsoever preventing the companies from recapturing the natural gas

How can the government regulate the unknown? If they (the government) are not sure of how much gas is being released, how can they regulate it?

reply to post by atopsecret

I don't know where you get the impression Fracking doesn't have regulations or there isn't red tape creating problems for the operators of the wells ..but obviously you aren't a professional working in Oil/Gas or the Government side of environmental policy and regulation.

There have been several THOUSAND new EPA spawned regulations generated in just the last 24 months.....are you keeping track of them all? I know the lead regs in construction alone ..and very recent ones...have changed the whole face of some aspects of home repair and remodeling....and to the expense of the homeowner. Always the end customer getting it on this stuff.

I posted a link above though which gives a good look from the industry side of what those issues are. They're real enough...and if the options were straight forward, no one in their right mind would be burning off what is currently holding HIGH market value as a commodity itself, not a waste product as it's been in times of lesser LNG market price. Like they point out there though.

Natural Gas isn't Oil. It can't be simply pumped, loaded into a tanker and trucked off to a refinery. The infrastructure is more complex and.....ONE MOUSE on an acre of land that is on the wrong list can shut down a pipe faster than you can say endangered species.

Just my thoughts...

In Pennsylvania you can see the big flames burning from the natural gas fracking wells. Lights up the whole night sky.


Their hydraulic fracking ruptured the ground and the gas is now bubbling out of our lakes and even rivers. You can take a boat down the river and there are massive areas of bubbles coming up. Eventually some KID is going to throw a road flare into that gas bubbling up and the river is going to have a fire coming out of it.

The WORLD is getting polluted from all this gas fracking. A lake in Germany disappeared overnight. Their fracking allowed gas to come up through the ground...and the lakes entire water supply went down the crack they opened up.

America's going to be losing many lakes and ponds in the coming days as well. It's the end of life as you've known it. They HAD to start doing all this fracking because Saudi Arabia stopped accepting the US Dollar for oil. China's getting all of Saudi's Oil now.

And THEY are the SuperPower.......America's dead.