Top Energy Story Of The Day -- USA Set For Natural Gas Boom -- April 23, 2021

Link to Rigzone (as usual, some numbers rounded):

• natural gas production, US:
  
• 2019: a record 92.1 Bcfd natural gas produced in the US
• 2020: declined to 90.8 Bcfd due to Covid-19 lockdowns
• 2021: on track to fall to 89.7 Bcfd
• 2022: Rystad forecasts a new all-time record -- 93.3 Bcfd
• 2024: will exceed 100 Bcfd
• Haynesville: will off the largest gas output growth going forward
• will add about 10 Bcfd from 2020 to 2035, growing by 86% during that timeframe
• will account for 21% of the country's gas production in 2035
• compares to 13% in 2020
• if we round down to 10% and down to 20%, that's a doubling in contribution
• the Permian: another five Bcfd in growth by 2035;
• the Marcellus and Utica: will also add another five Bcfd:
• And, Rystad also ranks the regions by CO2 per boe produced; best to worse:
• Appalachian region: 7.1 kg of CO2 per boe
• Haynesville: 7.5
• Niobara: 10.6
• Permian: 10.9
• Eagle Ford: 11
• Bakken: 20.7 kg of CO2 per boe

See first comment. I wonder where he is now.

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Forty-Three Years of Earth Day Prognostications

Everyone has their list. Google earth day predictions. 

The Smithsonian provides its version of these prognostications. 

A reader sent me a note regarding Paul Ehrlich. 

My not-ready-for-prime-time reply:

Thinking back on the Y2K scare, it's amazing how many "chicken little" fears we've suffered through the years.

One wonders if "seasonal flu" will ever make a comeback or if Covid-19 killed that one off forever?

And, of course, there was always Zika.

I guess in the 1950's we had the "15-minutes-to-run-home to our bomb shelter in case of  a nuclear attack" scare. I actually remember my parents improvising such a bomb shelter in our basement, and me worrying endlessly about the windows at the top of the foundation/ground level -- wondering if they were adequately sealed.

And then, of course, if they were adequately sealed, the level of radon would only worsen, and I would die of lung cancer before the age of fourteen, perhaps dropping dead while running home for a nuclear-bomb drill. Those drills were held once-a-year to determine who could get home in 15 minutes to die with their family, or remain sheltered-in-place to die with their teacher. Hiding under our desk was all we had; the supply closet was too small to hold fifteen second-graders and a pregnant teacher.

And, most worrisome of all: fluoride in our water supply. That was a scare that lingered through my freshman year in college.

I'm not sure how I survived 60+ years of such fears.

The way Sophia, age six and her friends talk about Covid, it is obvious that this is the 2020 version of fluoride, radon, Zika, and CO2 all rolled into one.

By the way, this is quite hilarious. Almost every day Sophia has a banana smoothie. This new routine started about two weeks ago. We make them at home, and she pretty much makes them herself -- she loves turning on the blender.

And everyday we take a plastic straw out of the drawer. Lately, I've been washing and re-using the plastic straws for an extra day or two -- not that I'm worried about the Pacific Ocean living her in Texas -- I just hate spending a couple of bucks on 5-cents worth of plastic.

Yesterday, Sophia noted the straw I gave her was still wet from the previous day. The jig was up. She wasn't going to use a wet straw. So I opened the drawer to get her a new straw and, as God is my witness, as they say in these parts, Sophia said: "No, it's Earth Day. We can't use a plastic straw." 

Obviously that was something her friends discussed at TutorTime yesterday afternoon.