Three quick calculations regarding the rush to convert to natural gas.

• The proven reserves of natural gas in the United States are 953 trillion cubic feet. The U.S. annual consumption is 26.037 trillion cubic feet or 826,000 cubic feet/second. Therefore, the reserves will last 36 years, seven months. Anyone younger than 40 years old today will live to see it run out.

• The Marcelles shales underlie 17.7 million acres of Pennsylvania and are estimated to hold 28 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Thus, the average acre holds 1.58 million cubic feet or 1.9 seconds of national consumption. We apparently are willing to risk fracking pollution of the world’s best farmland for the rest of human time in exchange for 1.9 seconds of energy per acre. Anyone younger than 40 today may wish to hoard some food or use less energy.

• The Augusta Water District discharges 4,000,000 gallons of treated water into the Kennebec River daily at temperatures varying from 50 degrees F in winter to 73 degrees in summer. Used as a geothermal heat source extracting 7 degrees, this water could heat 529 homes based on the governor’s energy office estimate of 540 gallons heating oil burned annually per average home. Households could expect to cut their heating bills in half; greater cuts if off-peak electric billing (easily done with “smart meters”) becomes available.

Many state office buildings, including the State House, are just a short distance from the Water District treatment plant and all that available heat.

The Kennebec River would be lowered about 0.012 degrees closer to its natural winter temperature as the discharge would add less heat to the river than it does now.

Anyone younger than 40 today will not live to see this heat source run out.

Phillip Davis, West Gardiner

Copy the Story Link