Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2011 12:18:29 -0400
From: Tom Glendinning
Subject: Subject: drilling and energy efficiency
Drilling in Chatham, if it occurs, will be at a depth of 3000 to 4000 feet. Our wells are 400 feet or less average. There should be no mixing of the two sources, fuel and water. The video on Joy’s post is meant to alarm and frighten, but no details are given on what caused the fire water. Further, fracking lines are sealed in cement, closing off the deposit from migrating upward in the drill channel. That being said, I am sure that there are instances of mixing or migration of gas and oil somewhere in the US. Coal and oil deposits were much shallower in the Midwest, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia. In some of those locations, there could have been mixing. Most of the drilling was done before the fracking technology was employed.
A correction in the statement that energy efficiency standards are now lowered: They standards are not lowered. The cost of a LEED application and certificate are cancelled by the commissioner’s decision. The energy efficiency standards are upheld because they make sense. Paying an organization for membership and a wall plaque does not guarantee efficiency, as was found to be the case with our recent buildings. Specifications given to an architect will determine the energy saving design.
Tom Glendinning