Methane Hydrates: The Next Natural Gas Boom?
From The Huffington Post
By Bill Chameides
There’s a whole lot of methane in them thar seaflooor. But is it good as gold or fool’s gold?
Remember when shale gas was the next big thing? The game changer that would revolutionize the energy world, providing Americans with an abundant source of clean, environmentally friendly fuel?
Shale gas, undoubtedly, has turned out to be a big thing. Natural gas production has been steadily climbing since 2006, and natural gas prices are so low that gas is displacing dirty coal as the fuel of choice in our power plants.
But, with concerns over water pollution and air pollution from the process of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) — and global warming impacts (conceivably as bad as or even worse than coal) from natural gas leakages from the extraction and piping of the fuel – the bona fides of shale gas as an environmentally friendly fuel has been pretty well tarnished.
Now a new source of natural gas threatens to take shale’s position as the ultimate energy game changer of our times: methane hydrates.
