False Promise

Richard Heinberg's Snake Oil takes on the boom in fracking for oil and gas and makes the case that it is not sustainable.  He includes a history of fracking technology and examines the production data. Heinberg explains the concept of a resource pyramid and the significance of "energy returned on energy invested" (EROEI).  He gives a long response to an article in The Atlantic on the prospects for methane hydrates as a new source of hydrocarbons to be developed.  It's a question of technology versus geology.

James Howard Kunstler relates a story about giving a talk on energy at Google headquarters.  In the end, there were no questions, only statements to the effect of (as Kunstler puts it), "Dude, we've got technology." Kunstler bemoans the fact that even well educated people confuse energy and technology.  There's a deep-seated belief that the right technological fix will save us.  It shows up with the increasing interest in geoengineering to solve global warming.

Ultimately, chasing after every last bit of hydrocarbon diminishes our ability to fund the necessary transition away from that dependence on fossil fuels.  EROEI is declining which means the energy sector draws away investment and human resources from other parts of the economy. Heinberg boils down the complexity of our energy-economy-climate situation to two equally true statements:

Hydrocarbons are so abundant that, if we burn a substantial portion of them, we risk a climate catastrophe beyond imagining.

There aren't enough economically accessible, high-quality hydrocarbons to maintain world economic growth for much longer.

Update (October 5):  A report by Environment America, Fracking by the Numbers, details the overall environmental impact of the drilling.

Update (April 11, 2014):  A study in Ohio links fracking to earthquakes.

Update (June 8, 2014):  Four ways in which fracking is bad news.

Update (August 2, 2014):  Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald discuss their book, The Real Cost of Fracking: How America's Gas Shale Boom Is Threatening Our Families, Pets, and Food.

Update (February 14, 2015):  A report from the National Academies of Science examines geoengineering technologies in two broad categories--carbon dioxide removal and albedo modification.  The latter is easier to do, but could also make things worse.