This question reminds me of that scene in Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" where there's a set of scale with on one hand a habitable planet and on the other hand money. Money has no worth when we can't live.
of course not and everyone knows it but is to scared to stop the gravy train. but US tax payers will be the ones cleaning up the mess and the rich people who made all the money will be retired with their billions.
I grew up in Canada's Texas(Alberta) and we knew about the problems with abandoned wells way back in the 1980's. Yet still 40 years later nothing has been done about it. Companies sell the old wells to other ghost companies and then those ghost companies declare bankruptcy and the well is then abandoned and the big company that drilled it and made millions keeps on going making more and more... There needs to be laws set in place that companies can not just sell off their wells so they are not responsible for dealing with cleanup later. You drill the well and Reep the rewards and you need to clean it up later. same problem with gas stations left abandoned. Fantastic video. Keep these coming!
Yup! Our home is the worst example besides Texas of what NOT to do... Our estimate aloneto clean up the non oil sands related sites was like $60B was it not?
The problem is, those companies billionaire owners also sponsor all of politics, so nothing will change, and people are stupid enough to vote for them.
@@3184Patrick This problem you are stating is an US problem only. Big liberal and progressive policies in Canada, make sure Companies are held accountable. Canada is not in the pocket of big business(unlike US)
Tax payer money made Elon Musk the billionaire he is. Now he wants to fire those some tax payers and make their lives more difficult. Trickle Up economics of power and money.
It's insane that most states don't require oil and gas companies to properly plug up the wells after use. Laws need to be passed, immediately, to do this, especially while they're making record profits as soon, they won't, as oil and gas demand already peaked a couple of years ago and are starting to decline now, and will rapidly decline soon, to near-zero with more solar, wind and EV's.
I'd add the threat of nationalizing the companies if they can't get their act together. The taxpayers pay for the cleanup anyway if the companies don't, but with nationalizing them, at least the state can offset the costs with the oil revenues.
Greed followed by oil/petrochem lobbyists mudding the water if not outright battling against policies as you hinted towards. Aslong these company have a say, aslong they are being held up by consumers chances are they will have their way. Doesn't mean one should not go against them, but one has to be aware it is an uphill battle and may take decades in places like Texas. Most likely only after the last oil fields run dry, owners selling company shares and then the companies going bankrupt. Which should tell you something about the overall system.
Umm, not gonna happen! Who do you think pays these politicians re-election campaigns? Plus there are so many lobbyists going back and forth into government and writing bills they will never do something that’s not in their best interests. It’s a 💩 show, and we’re left holding the bag
As a petroleum engineer who worked in the industry, I know how to properly plug wells for abandonment. It baffles me that operators are still allowed to drill without paying into an escrow account specifically for plugging and abandonment (P&A) costs. Many wells today are at the end of their economic lives, yet producers delay proper abandonment to avoid costs, prioritizing reinvestment, executive bonuses, or personal profits. This neglect leads to environmental degradation, leaking casings, unmaintained wellheads, and surface damage. When these companies fold, taxpayers are left to clean up their mess, which is unacceptable. The industry can and must do better by holding operators accountable to restore the land to its original condition. Stronger regulations requiring escrow funds and penalties for noncompliance are necessary. If companies can’t afford to meet their responsibilities, they shouldn’t be drilling in the first place. Greed and politics shouldn’t override environmental and societal obligations.
You are all a bunch of damn crooks, nothing baffling about it. Essentially 150 years of fossil fuel and we have ruined the world. Worst deal in the history of mankind. Greedy street apes that we are, it was probably inevitable. Oh! lest we all forget, President Carter had solar panels on the White House 45 years ago...Reagan took them off. We made our choice, we had our chance.
If you are in the “industry” then you would know that is a modern requirement and a lot of the wells leaking are and were drilled in or before the 1950s.
lol because American news is mostly corporate propaganda. The biggest U.S. news network is literally Australian. Why do you think since 2010 the U.S. News and Anglo Saxon media has been beating the war drums on China? Because it keeps them paid. The U.S. military budget has increased to nearly $1 trillion.
Because oil and gas producers grossly understate their site restoration and abandonment liabilities on their balance sheets. If the true magnitude of these liabilities were disclosed, investors would flee the industry.
Because everything in the US was designed to keep the peasants in the illusion that they live in a democratic nation, when in reality they live in a corporate oligarchic plutocracy that design a system to keep slavery going... I just wish that at least some of the American people start to educate themselves about the sad reality they have to face now...!
Two things I like about this video: 1. The mention of oil companies going bankrupt 2. The fact that even with all the subsidies to oil, renewables are still more profitable
Nation states need oil, no matter what - at least until it's replaced with some other equally portable technology or energy source. Think defense or war-making.
Colorado solar fields kill the last wild animals and will become mile after mile of broken glass and environmental devastation in exchange for AC, AI, EVs and BitCoin mines in Texas. Thanks "renewables."
@Sq7Arno It isn't just the US. The US has 3.7 million abandoned weols, but other countries definitely have their abandoned wells as well. Russia claims to have like 26,000 (2021). I've no clue if they seriously plugged them by now. I don't think so. They also have leaking pipes. Not just by war, but also just neglect. I have no clue what the situation is in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria to just name a few countries I just checked on by Google Translating "abandoned well plugged [countryname]" and then search it. The US is solving it quite well, better than Mexico in that regard, because even with less wells they stay leaking for some time until they're sealed and the abandoned well is declared/made a monument. Nigeria is also quite creative with their severely leaking abandoned well. They've a project somewhere where they're turning abandoned oil wells in like a 3 stage heat exchanger. Don't ask me how that works or if I explained it correctly. Those leaking abandoned wells around the globe require some automation, scientific research and dedicated investigative journalism to find out how bad the problem is globally, because the world has like 200 countries and they all look differently to the abandoned well problem. It's a problem too big for me as individual and I'm also preoccupied with other things.
Why the heck would the state be expected to pay for cleanup? Let the damn oil companies go bankrupt if they left all of that mess and paid all of the profits to their shareholders.
@@TheWebstaff While there are oil lobbies, there's no real need for one..... because if the energy industry goes down, US is toast, Any nation state for the matter.
Wouldn't hurt profits one darn bit, interest on the money held back would likely mean higher profits. What it would hurt is return on investment. Which is why it doesn't happen, because the maximum growth in the wealth of some capitalist is more important to our government than profits for working people.
12:45 lmao. I used to work with oil guys - Hawk reminds me of some of them. They’re obviously conflicted about the full extent of climate action needed, but some of them take pride in doing a good job and minimizing local environmental damage. That’s part of why we need a just transition - give them an investment in the future by working on remediation, geothermal, etc. and they’ll put their whole backs into it.
When he said "we're not anti-oil, we're anti-half-ass" my heart kind of broke for him. Digging up a resource that took millions of years to form, just to burn it at low efficiency even though it is poisoning our air and heating up the planet, is in and of itself an EXTREMELY half-assed way of doing things. I really wish we'd had more focus on developing geothermal resources and ground source heat pumps to provide a pathway out of oil and gas for all the folks like Hawk.
@@DWPlanetA So many people are upset, but most of us feel powerless. The City of Long Beach makes a big deal about getting money form oil taxes, but says nothing about the increase in health issues. Additionally, the City of Signal Hill was turned into its own city when oil was found there - it's entirely surrounded by the City of Long Beach. Regulation seems non-existent there. California passed some environmental law and Signal Hill Petroleum immediately tried to get a 25 year extension slipped in before the CA law went into effect (I'm sure google can explain better than me). All-in-all it's a mess. I don't think the general public here is as accepting of oil and gas as the people you met with in Texas.
I switched to offgrid solar charging two EV's in 2014, and I saved enough money to pay for my new Rivian in cash. Why buy energy when you can produce your own? Payback on my original investment was less then 5 years.
It’s another example of externality in economics. Oil companies get the benefit while passing the cost of cleaning up to the society at large. But it is not unique to oil and gas industries. Nuclear power plants have the same type of externality. Who is responsible for the cleanup after a nuclear disaster? Who is responsible for the waste nuclear fuel? People say that the new generation of nuclear plant design is safe, imagine if they are required to buy insurance for nuclear disasters, they will not be cheap. Nuclear power is a low carbon footprint option, but the situation with negative environmental externalities are the same. DW is one of my favorite news channels for its neutral views and coverage of topics that concern public interests.
And in the end... All cars and trucks have internal combustion engines that are extremely inefficient!, around 70% of the energy from burning fossil fuels is wasted in exhaust and heat, while only around 30 - 40% goes to driving the wheels!
@@aryaman05 The US is currently producing more oil than it ever has before, and selling more of it abroad than ever before. We won't need any help from Russia any time soon.
@@iOsasu14 You're the one who didn't watch the video. The graph at 6:40 clearly shows US fossil fuel consumption almost exactly matches fossil fuel use. This is pretty much a practical definiton of energy independence. Imports almost exactly match exports and are less than 20% of total production. Moreover, most of the imports are from Canada and are mostly because US companies buy Canadian heavy crude at less than half the price of West Texas and sell the West Texas at a higher price to refineries that can use it. US refineries were set up decades ago to use heavier crude from Venezuela and have now switched to heavy crude from Canada. FWIW, the US exports oil and gas to Canada. That is because pipe lines tend to run north-south rather than east-west. So most of the import/export from Canada is for purely economic convenience and probably benefits US consumers by keeping costs low. Geopolitically, the US and Canada energy, manufacturing and defence infrastructure are so highly integrated and coordinated that the border is practically non-existent. For all practical purposes, the US as well as North America has energy independence.
Government will never make the change because they are payrolled by oil and gas donations. Its up to us individuals. Personally, i built my house with zero natural gas hookups, all my appliance are electric and a heatpump for heating. I have changed all my lawn and garden equipment to electric and me and my wife drive electric cars. and our Electricity is from hydro dams not petroleum. If everyone made those small changes we could lower the need for oil and gas down to a trickle for making plastics etc.
It's pretty interesting seeing how much the oil industry brings in for some states and it kind of explains voting patterns too when you look at which industries are at the top for each state.
Ever heard of scraping the bottom of the barrel? Oil started out spurting way up in the air, then it got pumped out and now the wells get fracked meaning sand, water and other ingredients are forced into the well at very high pressure to fracture (frack) the well, to get the last of its oil. It's thicker but can still be refined into fuel, etc. While we're using the last of this stuff we need to transition to renewables/hydrogen.
You can use renewable electricity to split water to make green hydrogen. But it's usually more efficient and cheaper to directly use the electricity without the expensive detour through hydrogen. EVs and heat pumps, not engines and boilers. The idea of a hydrogen boom is enticing for companies that want to sell atoms not electrons, but a lot of the new uses for hydrogen are dubious.
I guess the water that fossil fuel companies contaminate is not the one they drink. And the atmosphere is everybody's sewer anyway. That's how that makes economic sense.
Here is something I didn't hear in the video: There is an old saying: “Everything shines by dimming”. That can be applied to U.S. oil production. Yes, U.S. oil production (crude oil + condensate) set an annual production record in 2023 at 12.927 million barrels/day (mb/d). But there is more to the story. Almost all of the increase in U.S. oil production since 2008 has been tight (fracked) oil production from 5 shale plays: Permian Basin (TX/NM), Eagle Ford (TX), Bakken (ND), Niobrara (CO/WY) and Anadarko (OK). Those 5 plays now produce about 70% of U.S. oil production with the Permian Basin alone producing ~45%. The rest of the U.S. oil production increase since 2008 came from the deep water Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The deep water GOM represents about 15% of U.S. oil production and it is now a mature producing region. U.S. oil production rose rapidly through 2023 but it has stalled since then. As an example, GOM oil production has been running about 200,000 b/d below the highest monthly value in 2023 (Sept). The latest monthly value (June 2024) was off 192,000 b/d. North Dakota Bakken oil production was off ~99,000 b/d in August 2024 relative to the highest value in 2023 (Sept). Oklahoma’s oil production, mainly Anadarko, was down 66,000 b/d in May 2024 relative to May 2023, the highest producing month in 2023. Colorado/Wyoming oil production (mostly Niobrara) was down 44,000 b/d in May 2024 relative to December 2023, the highest producing month for 2023. The ultimate oil recovery for the 5 shale plays listed above will be approximately 50 billion barrels. For the period 2008-2023, total oil production for the 5 plays was approximately 25 billion barrels. Here is a statement by prominent petroleum geologist Art Berman from a recent report he wrote concerning the Bakken shale play: The implications of this Bakken study and recent evaluations of the Permian and Eagle Ford plays are clear-this is the beginning of the end for the tight oil plays. Here is a statement from an oil industry insider, stated several years ago, concerning the future of U.S. tight oil production: "Shale [tight oil production] will likely tip over in five years, and US production will be down 20 to 30% quickly. When it does-this feels like watching the steam roller scene in Austin Powers. Oil prices in the late 2020s will be something to behold.” An industry executive responding to a poll by the Dallas Fed; What you won’t hear from the media in the U.S. is that most of the production from new tight oil wells occurs in the first two years of production. To maintain or increase production, wells have to be added at a rapid pace or production declines. At some point, the “sweet spots” within a play get saturated with wells and production declines. That has occurred in Bakken, Eagle Ford, Anadarko and Niobrara and early 2024 data from Texas indicates it’s happening in the Texas portion of the Permian Basin (preliminary data for February/March 2024 were off about 190,000 b/d relative to August 2023, the highest producing month in 2023. I’m not including January 2024 because cold weather reduced production for that month). What oil companies have been doing is sacrificing future U.S. oil production to maximum present oil production. That can only go on so long. It would not be surprising if U.S. oil production declines 5.0 mb/d or more by 2033, relative to 2023, about 5.5%/year. To put that in perspective, United Kingdom (U.K.) oil production has dropped 75.5% since 1999, at a rate of 5.4%/year. In the 1990s, the U.K. was one of the world’s major oil producers but they ran out of fields in the North Sea and production has thus declined. Conventional U.S. oil production reached a maximum in 1970 at 9.637 mb/d while Alaskan production peaked in 1988 at 2.017 mb/d. Production from conventional U.S. oil is now about 1.6 mb/d and that from Alaska is about 0.4 mb/d. The shale plays and deep water GOM were the last highly fruitful places to go in the U.S. for oil so I expect future U.S. oil production to parallel the decline of the U.K. I expect that some people will say we are going electric so it doesn’t matter what happens to U.S. oil production. In the last 10 years the number of EVs on the roads of America. increased by around 2.5 million vehicles. In spite of that, U.S. total liquid hydrocarbons consumption (oil + other organic stuff) increased by almost 900,000 b/d. There are around 283 million registered vehicles in the U.S. and a high percentage of the vehicle owners are never going electric. That is the harsh reality.
@@continentalmasters5432 Most of Canada's oil production increase in recent years has come from the Athabasca oil sands. To a large extent, they have increased production close to what the federal government has projected as what the maximum will be. If you are interested, I wrote a detailed report on world oil production a year or two ago. If you do a search of "The Status of Global Oil Production", you can find details on Canada and the rest of the world.
You are a rarity amongst posters. Someone who bothers to ... 1. Parse your paragraphs. 2. Substantiate your claims with hard data insertions. 3.Put together a youtube post with a coherent thought flow. 4. Write a piece that is thought provoking 5.Write flawlessly. 6. Leads towards outcomes. My hat out to you.
Good topic for discussion but I didn't hear as many questions. Why does it cost so much to fix these wells? What does it take to properly abandon a well? What does it take to convert the refineries we have to produce the gas we use? If we are producing more oil than ever, oil companies are making record profits, and employment in the oil industry is declining, who's buying the oil? Why are we subsidizing an industry that should doing fine without tax payer money? If fracking has proven to be detrimental to humans and the environment, why continue to allow the method? Let's ask the people who control these things the hard questions.
I'm in Texas. Large acre labowners with 100 year old family habded down land own mineral rights. Many landowners now do not get the money from the wells on their land. When those ranches/farms get split up and sold the mineral rights are kept. Wind rights can be kept also with wind generation royalties retained by prior landowners. When the wells die, the pumpjacks are removed, and the old pipe and tanks by well are left behind and the landowner that never got any payments owns the problem. My spouse and family are those people.
I hate the idea we in Europe are driving combustion engine cars on Texan fracking, being part of the problem. In the meantime all that untapped solar energy radiating down on us, if only we looked up. BTW, Do all Texans drive castles on wheels that require steps to get out of?
Hey Joseph, thank you for watching us 😎 And subscribe so you don’t miss what's coming up-we release new videos every Friday! Let us know what you think ✨
Did the math. It cost $30K to $1M to plug a well. There’s over 3,000,000 orphaned or unplugged wells. It would cost $90B at 30,000 a well… my calculator screen isn’t big enough for the cost if it cost even 500k to plug…
I am extremely proud of my time in the Utica and Marcellus shale in Ohio, PA and WV. We operated with 0 routine flaring, emissions motioning, water quality testing with in a half mile form the the well. The state placed severance taxes. It funded the schools my kids go to, fire fighting equipment, and companies around popped up. When done responsibly it is great/
Horizontally drilled shale oil wells are very productive, BUT FOR A VERY SHORT TIME. These wells have a very rapid production decline, dropping to next to nothing in 2 years and very little to nothing after 5 years. This requires producers of this oil to continuously drill new wells to replace the wells that go dry. This is very expensive to keep 10 drilling rigs running constantly. Which is why tshale oil produces expensive gasoline. Producing more oil than ever before, but still the price will not come down. The old conventional salt dome oil fields would produce oil every day for 50 years or more.
orphan, leaking wells are not going to change. This has been a problem all over the country. I am wondering why it costs so much to permanently cap a well? Maybe some smart upstart could come out with a less expensive way to do this and make a make a handsome profit. Since this problem isn't going away and we can't stop it, then we will pass this legacy onto our future grandchildren, etc. But, I wish Hawk Dunlop and others the best of luck changing this as this hasn't stopped the abandonment in the past.
Thank you, very much appreciated! ❤ In the end next generations has to pay triple +++ for it, in order to clean up the mess. If they have time and money left, cause they're busy with Climate Change...
12:00 Being “anti-half-ass” (i.e. properly plugging and abandoning wells) is expensive and requires government enforcement, especially in rural areas where resource extraction companies dominate most cash flows and can lobby the few people educated, observant, and influential enough to look the other way.
11:00. "I mean, that's like trillions of dollars. "Yeah. You can bankrupt an oil company." @ $500K to $1M per leaking well and some 737,000 inactive wells in the state of Texas this isn't very hard to imagine.
Wouldn’t it be possible to simply collect what is coming out of the abandoned wells? Like connecting the abandoned wells to reservoirs and periodically empty them. I feel like that would cost way less and that it shouldn’t take too long before finding a use to the collected ‘waist’.
You said "oil companies want the oil price to high so they they can offer competitive salaries, invest in new infrastructure" and the really scary bit "and theoretically plug old wells". So it's all just BS. Jobs in this sector are declining, the refinery was built in 1977 and it's obvious how much respect oil companies have for environmental laws and the health of citizens.
Literally every car appeared in this video were gasoline thirsty machines. And yet these people shamelessly criticize the oil companies while they were depending on oil everyday. Then at the end of the video of course the agenda requires a strong push for renewable.
Dear DW, let’s be clear, that chart you kept showing 20 million barrels of “oil” per day is Not all crude oil, which is where gasoline and diesel come from. That 20 mbpd includes NGLs, ethane, butane, and other hydrocarbons that can’t be refined into motor fuels. I can’t believe how many people are fooled by that chart.
Facts! MSM is still trying to maximize clicks with “news” about the orange guy. All cable news companies have forgotten what real reporting looks like.
They certainly went along in Brazil. Royal Dutch Shell Co wholly owned Shell Brasil subsidiary owns Raizen which as a distributor commercializes and refines sugar cane ethanol. Any sold brand new ICE vehicle won't move off the dealer's lot unless is designated Flex Fuel ( can run either on gasoline or ethanol ). Now Ethanol production is not environmental clean as it is claimed to be. Harvesting sugar cane impoverish soils, and it is done at a cost to deflorestation in large scale. But as far as emission goes, it is far more cleaner than gasoline.
Nuclear industry: *stores its own waste* Critics: THAT'S ABSURD! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH THAT? At this point, I guess leaving toxic waste unchecked and leaking in the environment has more public acceptance 🤦🏾♂️
Maybe you can go back to TX and confirm that only one oil field -- the West Texas/Permian oil field -- is left that is increasing production in America. What happened to all the rest that were producing in 2015? Bakken? Marcellus? Haynesville? Nicobara?
Almost no videos about oil and gas discuss how much of our economy is based on the hydrocarbons of these carbon sinks that has nothing to do with energy. All of our plastics, which touches almost everything at least indirectly, will go on long after we start using these materials for energy sources. That we have been deceived about the low cost of these hydrocarbons is going to devastate our future residents in ways we have to imagine. It will be impossible to capture the carbon from the pollution of burning these materials in ways that compete with the perfect carbon sequestration that Mother Nature has done for millennia! These are the messages that are missing from almost every channel and video about the subject!
I think that energy Independence for the US is the exact infrastructure needed for processing and managing energy in the country to be independent of other foreign countries for their energy. Anyways, I really enjoyed the video it was very informative about the oil that was drilled in the US It doesn't benefit the people in the US.
They would've done itba long ago if any of them smelled settlement money. Almost dried wells are sold to shell companies , which then claim bankrupcy. This was edited into the narrative, which you ignored to take into account.
Awesome journalism! It shows how fossil fuels are dirty on every step from extraction to use, even after. Renewables may be polluting in some way, but it's nothing compared to oil!
Fairly decent and balanced reporting; I’ll give it a C+. It’s not all doom and gloom in my state. In order to get to the Permian Basin in most directions, you have to pass massive wind farms that should have been shown. On the downside, we can’t have change in Texas until it becomes a purple state. Fracking bought all state and local level politicians 15-20 years ago. Also, you really need to address the two main problems with fracking that no one likes to hear: the earthquakes (you barely mentioned this!) and the number of health problems and miscarriages that have skyrocketed for people who live around fracking sites.
Texas is well suited for either type of energy production, fossil fuels or renewables because they have so much wind and sunshine. They're golden. But renewables won't take off until we invent long term storage of commercially viable green energy. Solve that problem and you'll be the next multi billionaire or better.
Show people THIS next time they bitch about used windmills or solar panels stacked up in a warehouse... THIS is the real problem. Alberta alone where I live has an estimated $60-80B backlog of dead wells that need fixing too! Clearly the industry is not sustainable in any aspect!
In addition to this problem, I am under the impression that the majority of this oil has to be sold off and shipped out of the country because we can't use it. Anyone who whines and complains about the high price of petro and everything else doesn't understand that prices are not going to come down, end of story! I'm not against capitalism but the rising cost of things goes up all the time, worse when opportunist profit off of a global catastrophe in a capitalist society. Inflation is a farce ment to give the impression that companies need to raise prices to make ends meet.
how come u didn't address why they are not building new wells like the horizontal one, n also u mentioned university of Texas being involved... but how? where's the money going, are they shorting the stock? what's the future outside of capping the wells cus clearly that's something they seem to be waiting for the govt to fix B4 building really new advanced drills/wells n do u see this industry booming or not, I gotmore questions than answers out of this video but I appreciate the leg work you did
![Stromae, Pomme - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1F3OGIFnW1k/mqdefault.jpg)
Is the US oil boom worth the environmental and societal costs? What do you think?
This question reminds me of that scene in Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" where there's a set of scale with on one hand a habitable planet and on the other hand money.
Money has no worth when we can't live.
Hell yeah! Drill baby drill!
Totally worth it
same ol story
of course not and everyone knows it but is to scared to stop the gravy train. but US tax payers will be the ones cleaning up the mess and the rich people who made all the money will be retired with their billions.
I grew up in Canada's Texas(Alberta) and we knew about the problems with abandoned wells way back in the 1980's. Yet still 40 years later nothing has been done about it. Companies sell the old wells to other ghost companies and then those ghost companies declare bankruptcy and the well is then abandoned and the big company that drilled it and made millions keeps on going making more and more... There needs to be laws set in place that companies can not just sell off their wells so they are not responsible for dealing with cleanup later. You drill the well and Reep the rewards and you need to clean it up later. same problem with gas stations left abandoned. Fantastic video. Keep these coming!
Yup! Our home is the worst example besides Texas of what NOT to do... Our estimate aloneto clean up the non oil sands related sites was like $60B was it not?
@@stickynorth could have been. I'm sure the cost of cleanup out ways all profits by a huge amount.
The problem is, those companies billionaire owners also sponsor all of politics, so nothing will change, and people are stupid enough to vote for them.
@@3184Patrick This problem you are stating is an US problem only. Big liberal and progressive policies in Canada, make sure Companies are held accountable. Canada is not in the pocket of big business(unlike US)
@@3184Patrick Liberals in Canada and progressives lay huge emphasis on Environment and they have strict eco friendly regulations in place
Privatize profits. Socialize losses. American "capitalism."
Billionaire socialism .
Tax payer money made Elon Musk the billionaire he is. Now he wants to fire those some tax payers and make their lives more difficult. Trickle Up economics of power and money.
Drill baby DRILL!
It’s called oligarchy
USA is a wealthy country, stop complaining.
It's insane that most states don't require oil and gas companies to properly plug up the wells after use. Laws need to be passed, immediately, to do this, especially while they're making record profits as soon, they won't, as oil and gas demand already peaked a couple of years ago and are starting to decline now, and will rapidly decline soon, to near-zero with more solar, wind and EV's.
I'd add the threat of nationalizing the companies if they can't get their act together. The taxpayers pay for the cleanup anyway if the companies don't, but with nationalizing them, at least the state can offset the costs with the oil revenues.
Greed followed by oil/petrochem lobbyists mudding the water if not outright battling against policies as you hinted towards. Aslong these company have a say, aslong they are being held up by consumers chances are they will have their way. Doesn't mean one should not go against them, but one has to be aware it is an uphill battle and may take decades in places like Texas. Most likely only after the last oil fields run dry, owners selling company shares and then the companies going bankrupt. Which should tell you something about the overall system.
Victory for China green energy. Because solar, wind turbines and batteries can be recycled
Umm, not gonna happen! Who do you think pays these politicians re-election campaigns? Plus there are so many lobbyists going back and forth into government and writing bills they will never do something that’s not in their best interests. It’s a 💩 show, and we’re left holding the bag
@@Timothy.365You are correct sir. As long as the politicians are in the corporations pockets they will be protected.
As a petroleum engineer who worked in the industry, I know how to properly plug wells for abandonment. It baffles me that operators are still allowed to drill without paying into an escrow account specifically for plugging and abandonment (P&A) costs. Many wells today are at the end of their economic lives, yet producers delay proper abandonment to avoid costs, prioritizing reinvestment, executive bonuses, or personal profits. This neglect leads to environmental degradation, leaking casings, unmaintained wellheads, and surface damage.
When these companies fold, taxpayers are left to clean up their mess, which is unacceptable. The industry can and must do better by holding operators accountable to restore the land to its original condition. Stronger regulations requiring escrow funds and penalties for noncompliance are necessary. If companies can’t afford to meet their responsibilities, they shouldn’t be drilling in the first place. Greed and politics shouldn’t override environmental and societal obligations.
Thank you for the feedback ✨
You are all a bunch of damn crooks, nothing baffling about it. Essentially 150 years of fossil fuel and we have ruined the world. Worst deal in the history of mankind. Greedy street apes that we are, it was probably inevitable. Oh! lest we all forget, President Carter had solar panels on the White House 45 years ago...Reagan took them off. We made our choice, we had our chance.
Using this in my environmental science course this week! Great piece.
How can it be a secret? Lawyers must be suing.
If you are in the “industry” then you would know that is a modern requirement and a lot of the wells leaking are and were drilled in or before the 1950s.
Socialise the costs, privatise the profits. A well worn script.
s/worn/used/
This is real journalism.
Thank you! If you're interested in what we do, subscribe! We release videos every Friday ✨
After WwII the US laid down ground rules for German journalism, it worked! We need to follow our own advice.
Why is this not a mainstream news story in the US?!? Thanks for keeping us informed.
Hey there! Great question! Share this video to help spread awareness about the topic, and subscribe to our channel if you liked it ✨
lol because American news is mostly corporate propaganda. The biggest U.S. news network is literally Australian. Why do you think since 2010 the U.S. News and Anglo Saxon media has been beating the war drums on China? Because it keeps them paid. The U.S. military budget has increased to nearly $1 trillion.
Because oil and gas producers grossly understate their site restoration and abandonment liabilities on their balance sheets. If the true magnitude of these liabilities were disclosed, investors would flee the industry.
Because everything in the US was designed to keep the peasants in the illusion that they live in a democratic nation, when in reality they live in a corporate oligarchic plutocracy that design a system to keep slavery going... I just wish that at least some of the American people start to educate themselves about the sad reality they have to face now...!
Because your privatey owned media companies don't care about issues like that. The German Tax payer happily helps educate the us-american public.
Two things I like about this video:
1. The mention of oil companies going bankrupt
2. The fact that even with all the subsidies to oil, renewables are still more profitable
Hey there! Thank you for feedback! Subscribe to our channel-we post new videos every Friday and we’d love to hear what you think about them ✨
Nation states need oil, no matter what - at least until it's replaced with some other equally portable technology or energy source.
Think defense or war-making.
Colorado solar fields kill the last wild animals and will become mile after mile of broken glass and environmental devastation in exchange for AC, AI, EVs and BitCoin mines in Texas. Thanks "renewables."
Renewables are NOT more profitable. The video claims they're growing faster
If renewables are more profitable then why is oil production booming?
The US oil industry has been taking that country for a ride, the wrong kind, for decades.
@Sq7Arno It isn't just the US. The US has 3.7 million abandoned weols, but other countries definitely have their abandoned wells as well. Russia claims to have like 26,000 (2021). I've no clue if they seriously plugged them by now. I don't think so. They also have leaking pipes. Not just by war, but also just neglect. I have no clue what the situation is in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria to just name a few countries I just checked on by Google Translating "abandoned well plugged [countryname]" and then search it. The US is solving it quite well, better than Mexico in that regard, because even with less wells they stay leaking for some time until they're sealed and the abandoned well is declared/made a monument. Nigeria is also quite creative with their severely leaking abandoned well. They've a project somewhere where they're turning abandoned oil wells in like a 3 stage heat exchanger. Don't ask me how that works or if I explained it correctly.
Those leaking abandoned wells around the globe require some automation, scientific research and dedicated investigative journalism to find out how bad the problem is globally, because the world has like 200 countries and they all look differently to the abandoned well problem. It's a problem too big for me as individual and I'm also preoccupied with other things.
Why the heck would the state be expected to pay for cleanup? Let the damn oil companies go bankrupt if they left all of that mess and paid all of the profits to their shareholders.
Unfortunately oil companies pay polititians to look to the other side. 😢
@@Dave_VM
Think before making such comment, it's the state that needs the oil companies.
@@aryaman05that's exactly what a lobbiest would say.
Whats the pay like these days to shill for big oil?
@@TheWebstaff
While there are oil lobbies, there's no real need for one..... because if the energy industry goes down, US is toast, Any nation state for the matter.
Oil companies should have to put money in Escrow to pay to cap wells. Of course that would hurt profits.
Wouldn't hurt profits one darn bit, interest on the money held back would likely mean higher profits.
What it would hurt is return on investment. Which is why it doesn't happen, because the maximum growth in the wealth of some capitalist is more important to our government than profits for working people.
Good point. Which would elevate barriers to entry.
12:45 lmao. I used to work with oil guys - Hawk reminds me of some of them. They’re obviously conflicted about the full extent of climate action needed, but some of them take pride in doing a good job and minimizing local environmental damage. That’s part of why we need a just transition - give them an investment in the future by working on remediation, geothermal, etc. and they’ll put their whole backs into it.
When he said "we're not anti-oil, we're anti-half-ass" my heart kind of broke for him. Digging up a resource that took millions of years to form, just to burn it at low efficiency even though it is poisoning our air and heating up the planet, is in and of itself an EXTREMELY half-assed way of doing things.
I really wish we'd had more focus on developing geothermal resources and ground source heat pumps to provide a pathway out of oil and gas for all the folks like Hawk.
Lots of oil and gas in Texas, but I moved to Southern California and there are so many pump jacks in the middle of neighborhoods. It’s crazy!
And what do the locals say about it?
@@DWPlanetA So many people are upset, but most of us feel powerless. The City of Long Beach makes a big deal about getting money form oil taxes, but says nothing about the increase in health issues.
Additionally, the City of Signal Hill was turned into its own city when oil was found there - it's entirely surrounded by the City of Long Beach. Regulation seems non-existent there. California passed some environmental law and Signal Hill Petroleum immediately tried to get a 25 year extension slipped in before the CA law went into effect (I'm sure google can explain better than me).
All-in-all it's a mess. I don't think the general public here is as accepting of oil and gas as the people you met with in Texas.
I switched to offgrid solar charging two EV's in 2014, and I saved enough money to pay for my new Rivian in cash. Why buy energy when you can produce your own? Payback on my original investment was less then 5 years.
It’s another example of externality in economics.
Oil companies get the benefit while passing the cost of cleaning up to the society at large.
But it is not unique to oil and gas industries. Nuclear power plants have the same type of externality.
Who is responsible for the cleanup after a nuclear disaster? Who is responsible for the waste nuclear fuel?
People say that the new generation of nuclear plant design is safe, imagine if they are required to buy insurance for nuclear disasters, they will not be cheap.
Nuclear power is a low carbon footprint option, but the situation with negative environmental externalities are the same.
DW is one of my favorite news channels for its neutral views and coverage of topics that concern public interests.
Hit the space bar every now and then, will you ?
And in the end... All cars and trucks have internal combustion engines that are extremely inefficient!, around 70% of the energy from burning fossil fuels is wasted in exhaust and heat, while only around 30 - 40% goes to driving the wheels!
It seems to me we should stop giving oil companies new licenses to drill untill they fix all of their old, leaky, and abandoned wells.
And end up where EU is now, buy Russian oil through 3rd countries, to fulfill its energy needs ?
@@aryaman05 The US is currently producing more oil than it ever has before, and selling more of it abroad than ever before. We won't need any help from Russia any time soon.
@@aryaman05 you obviously didn't even watch the video, because if you did you would know that the US currently is importing most of its oil
@aryaman05 No. Other countries around the globe have similar issues.
@@iOsasu14 You're the one who didn't watch the video. The graph at 6:40 clearly shows US fossil fuel consumption almost exactly matches fossil fuel use. This is pretty much a practical definiton of energy independence.
Imports almost exactly match exports and are less than 20% of total production. Moreover, most of the imports are from Canada and are mostly because US companies buy Canadian heavy crude at less than half the price of West Texas and sell the West Texas at a higher price to refineries that can use it. US refineries were set up decades ago to use heavier crude from Venezuela and have now switched to heavy crude from Canada. FWIW, the US exports oil and gas to Canada. That is because pipe lines tend to run north-south rather than east-west. So most of the import/export from Canada is for purely economic convenience and probably benefits US consumers by keeping costs low.
Geopolitically, the US and Canada energy, manufacturing and defence infrastructure are so highly integrated and coordinated that the border is practically non-existent. For all practical purposes, the US as well as North America has energy independence.
Well done and very interesting. US also gives big oil tens of billions of dollars in tax subsidies every year.
We need to get away from liquid gold asap.
Government will never make the change because they are payrolled by oil and gas donations. Its up to us individuals.
Personally, i built my house with zero natural gas hookups, all my appliance are electric and a heatpump for heating. I have changed all my lawn and garden equipment to electric and me and my wife drive electric cars. and our Electricity is from hydro dams not petroleum.
If everyone made those small changes we could lower the need for oil and gas down to a trickle for making plastics etc.
😀That doesn't sound right, asking someone to give up gold !
It's pretty interesting seeing how much the oil industry brings in for some states and it kind of explains voting patterns too when you look at which industries are at the top for each state.
Thank God sensible educated farmers and graziers-among others-in Australia are resisting fracking.
Thanks for this video ! It's really interesting to hear another side of the story of the US oil industry
Hi Alex! Thank you for the feedback. Subscribe to our channel-we release new videos every Friday and would love to hear your thoughts ✨
Ever heard of scraping the bottom of the barrel? Oil started out spurting way up in the air, then it got pumped out and now the wells get fracked meaning sand, water and other ingredients are forced into the well at very high pressure to fracture (frack) the well, to get the last of its oil. It's thicker but can still be refined into fuel, etc. While we're using the last of this stuff we need to transition to renewables/hydrogen.
Yes, she didn't mention anything about their really low shelf life
You can use renewable electricity to split water to make green hydrogen. But it's usually more efficient and cheaper to directly use the electricity without the expensive detour through hydrogen. EVs and heat pumps, not engines and boilers.
The idea of a hydrogen boom is enticing for companies that want to sell atoms not electrons, but a lot of the new uses for hydrogen are dubious.
TEXAN here,......when will TEXANS care about these ?
Danke DW....
ALL it does is make the oil companies wealthier.
I guess the water that fossil fuel companies contaminate is not the one they drink. And the atmosphere is everybody's sewer anyway. That's how that makes economic sense.
Here is something I didn't hear in the video:
There is an old saying: “Everything shines by dimming”. That can be applied to U.S. oil production. Yes, U.S. oil production (crude oil + condensate) set an annual production record in 2023 at 12.927 million barrels/day (mb/d). But there is more to the story.
Almost all of the increase in U.S. oil production since 2008 has been tight (fracked) oil production from 5 shale plays: Permian Basin (TX/NM), Eagle Ford (TX), Bakken (ND), Niobrara (CO/WY) and Anadarko (OK).
Those 5 plays now produce about 70% of U.S. oil production with the Permian Basin alone producing ~45%. The rest of the U.S. oil production increase since 2008 came from the deep water Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The deep water GOM represents about 15% of U.S. oil production and it is now a mature producing region.
U.S. oil production rose rapidly through 2023 but it has stalled since then. As an example, GOM oil production has been running about 200,000 b/d below the highest monthly value in 2023 (Sept). The latest monthly value (June 2024) was off 192,000 b/d.
North Dakota Bakken oil production was off ~99,000 b/d in August 2024 relative to the highest value in 2023 (Sept). Oklahoma’s oil production, mainly Anadarko, was down 66,000 b/d in May 2024 relative to May 2023, the highest producing month in 2023. Colorado/Wyoming oil production (mostly Niobrara) was down 44,000 b/d in May 2024 relative to December 2023, the highest producing month for 2023.
The ultimate oil recovery for the 5 shale plays listed above will be approximately 50 billion barrels. For the period 2008-2023, total oil production for the 5 plays was approximately 25 billion barrels.
Here is a statement by prominent petroleum geologist Art Berman from a recent report he wrote concerning the Bakken shale play:
The implications of this Bakken study and recent evaluations of the Permian and Eagle Ford plays are clear-this is the beginning of the end for the tight oil plays.
Here is a statement from an oil industry insider, stated several years ago, concerning the future of U.S. tight oil production:
"Shale [tight oil production] will likely tip over in five years, and US production will be down 20 to 30% quickly. When it does-this feels like watching the steam roller scene in Austin Powers. Oil prices in the late 2020s will be something to behold.”
An industry executive responding to a poll by the Dallas Fed;
What you won’t hear from the media in the U.S. is that most of the production from new tight oil wells occurs in the first two years of production. To maintain or increase production, wells have to be added at a rapid pace or production declines. At some point, the “sweet spots” within a play get saturated with wells and production declines. That has occurred in Bakken, Eagle Ford, Anadarko and Niobrara and early 2024 data from Texas indicates it’s happening in the Texas portion of the Permian Basin (preliminary data for February/March 2024 were off about 190,000 b/d relative to August 2023, the highest producing month in 2023. I’m not including January 2024 because cold weather reduced production for that month).
What oil companies have been doing is sacrificing future U.S. oil production to maximum present oil production. That can only go on so long.
It would not be surprising if U.S. oil production declines 5.0 mb/d or more by 2033, relative to 2023, about 5.5%/year. To put that in perspective, United Kingdom (U.K.) oil production has dropped 75.5% since 1999, at a rate of 5.4%/year. In the 1990s, the U.K. was one of the world’s major oil producers but they ran out of fields in the North Sea and production has thus declined.
Conventional U.S. oil production reached a maximum in 1970 at 9.637 mb/d while Alaskan production peaked in 1988 at 2.017 mb/d. Production from conventional U.S. oil is now about 1.6 mb/d and that from Alaska is about 0.4 mb/d. The shale plays and deep water GOM were the last highly fruitful places to go in the U.S. for oil so I expect future U.S. oil production to parallel the decline of the U.K.
I expect that some people will say we are going electric so it doesn’t matter what happens to U.S. oil production. In the last 10 years the number of EVs on the roads of America. increased by around 2.5 million vehicles. In spite of that, U.S. total liquid hydrocarbons consumption (oil + other organic stuff) increased by almost 900,000 b/d. There are around 283 million registered vehicles in the U.S. and a high percentage of the vehicle owners are never going electric. That is the harsh reality.
That was a wonderful write up. Thanks for the info. Do you think Canada would step up their production should production drop in the US ?
@@continentalmasters5432 No.
@@continentalmasters5432 Most of Canada's oil production increase in recent years has come from the Athabasca oil sands. To a large extent, they have increased production close to what the federal government has projected as what the maximum will be. If you are interested, I wrote a detailed report on world oil production a year or two ago. If you do a search of "The Status of Global Oil Production", you can find details on Canada and the rest of the world.
You are a rarity amongst posters.
Someone who bothers to ...
1. Parse your paragraphs.
2. Substantiate your claims with hard data insertions.
3.Put together a youtube post with a coherent thought flow.
4. Write a piece that is thought provoking
5.Write flawlessly.
6. Leads towards outcomes.
My hat out to you.
@@showcaseSampa Thanks.
Good topic for discussion but I didn't hear as many questions. Why does it cost so much to fix these wells? What does it take to properly abandon a well? What does it take to convert the refineries we have to produce the gas we use? If we are producing more oil than ever, oil companies are making record profits, and employment in the oil industry is declining, who's buying the oil? Why are we subsidizing an industry that should doing fine without tax payer money? If fracking has proven to be detrimental to humans and the environment, why continue to allow the method? Let's ask the people who control these things the hard questions.
Why all the best and true videos about the US are always from outside the US?
I'm in Texas. Large acre labowners with 100 year old family habded down land own mineral rights. Many landowners now do not get the money from the wells on their land. When those ranches/farms get split up and sold the mineral rights are kept. Wind rights can be kept also with wind generation royalties retained by prior landowners. When the wells die, the pumpjacks are removed, and the old pipe and tanks by well are left behind and the landowner that never got any payments owns the problem. My spouse and family are those people.
I hate the idea we in Europe are driving combustion engine cars on Texan fracking, being part of the problem. In the meantime all that untapped solar energy radiating down on us, if only we looked up. BTW, Do all Texans drive castles on wheels that require steps to get out of?
Oil field workers and cattlemen do.
Most others drive normal cars.
Kudos DW !
Well done as always.
From: Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
Hey there! Thank you for the feedback. Subscribe to our channel-we release new videos every Friday and would love to hear your thoughts ✨
You’re back!! I was so worried when no video came out last week. My favourite youtube channel!
Don’t worry, we’re here and we have more to come! 😎
Very informative!
Came here straight after watching Landman!
Fun fact Texas produces the most oil but they also produce the most wind energy of all US states.
This is great. Thank you. More please.
Hi Richard! We glad you liked it. Subscribe to our channel-we release new videos every Friday and would love to hear your thoughts ✨
Thanks for reporting on this ongoing journey.
Hey Joseph, thank you for watching us 😎 And subscribe so you don’t miss what's coming up-we release new videos every Friday! Let us know what you think ✨
Thanks. Keep up the good work. Just a concerned old man in Florida.
Informative documentary🙏
Glad you liked it! Subscribe to our channel-we release new videos every Friday and would love to hear your thoughts ✨
Outstanding report; wonderful dialog with colorful citizens and workers.
Thank you Tom for your feedback. If you like videos like this one, subscribe to our channel, we post new videos every Friday ✨
Excellent eye opener on the long term damage from the thousands of improperly plugged oil and gas wells.
All profits to the companies. Zero positive impact for any human.
Did the math. It cost $30K to $1M to plug a well. There’s over 3,000,000 orphaned or unplugged wells. It would cost $90B at 30,000 a well… my calculator screen isn’t big enough for the cost if it cost even 500k to plug…
I am extremely proud of my time in the Utica and Marcellus shale in Ohio, PA and WV. We operated with 0 routine flaring, emissions motioning, water quality testing with in a half mile form the the well. The state placed severance taxes. It funded the schools my kids go to, fire fighting equipment, and companies around popped up. When done responsibly it is great/
Very informative. Please produce more
thank you for sharing the truth.
Thank you: that's fascinating and insightful.
Hi Michael! We glad you liked it. Dubscribe to our channel, we post new videos every Friday ✨
Horizontally drilled shale oil wells are very productive, BUT FOR A VERY SHORT TIME. These wells have a very rapid production decline, dropping to next to nothing in 2 years and very little to nothing after 5 years. This requires producers of this oil to continuously drill new wells to replace the wells that go dry. This is very expensive to keep 10 drilling rigs running constantly. Which is why tshale oil produces expensive gasoline. Producing more oil than ever before, but still the price will not come down.
The old conventional salt dome oil fields would produce oil every day for 50 years or more.
Excellent video - it deserves much more promotion, especially in oil-producing states.😊
Hey Julian! Thank you for your feedback! We’d be happy if you share our video with your friends and subscribe to our channel ✨
Great video.
orphan, leaking wells are not going to change. This has been a problem all over the country. I am wondering why it costs so much to permanently cap a well? Maybe some smart upstart could come out with a less expensive way to do this and make a make a handsome profit.
Since this problem isn't going away and we can't stop it, then we will pass this legacy onto our future grandchildren, etc. But, I wish Hawk Dunlop and others the best of luck changing this as this hasn't stopped the abandonment in the past.
Awesome video 🎉
We glad you liked it! Subscribe to us, we post new videos every Friday ✨
Great video! Thank you!!
Glad you liked it! Subscribe to our channel, we would love to hear your feedback ✨
Thank you, very much appreciated! ❤ In the end next generations has to pay triple +++ for it, in order to clean up the mess. If they have time and money left, cause they're busy with Climate Change...
There are thousands of old unused gas wells from Texas to Pennsylvania still leaking gas.
Fracked wells are much more dangerous to our water supply and plugging them needs tighter control.
12:00 Being “anti-half-ass” (i.e. properly plugging and abandoning wells) is expensive and requires government enforcement, especially in rural areas where resource extraction companies dominate most cash flows and can lobby the few people educated, observant, and influential enough to look the other way.
11:00. "I mean, that's like trillions of dollars. "Yeah. You can bankrupt an oil company." @ $500K to $1M per leaking well and some 737,000 inactive wells in the state of Texas this isn't very hard to imagine.
Wouldn’t it be possible to simply collect what is coming out of the abandoned wells? Like connecting the abandoned wells to reservoirs and periodically empty them. I feel like that would cost way less and that it shouldn’t take too long before finding a use to the collected ‘waist’.
It's always the bottom line, if it's not profitable, it won't be done. If companies can get away with abandoning the wells, they will do it.
You said "oil companies want the oil price to high so they they can offer competitive salaries, invest in new infrastructure" and the really scary bit "and theoretically plug old wells".
So it's all just BS. Jobs in this sector are declining, the refinery was built in 1977 and it's obvious how much respect oil companies have for environmental laws and the health of citizens.
good video thxxx
Thank you for the feedback. Subscribe to our channel-we release new videos every Friday and would love to hear your thoughts ✨
Literally every car appeared in this video were gasoline thirsty machines. And yet these people shamelessly criticize the oil companies while they were depending on oil everyday. Then at the end of the video of course the agenda requires a strong push for renewable.
I noticed that too. Including the investigative reporter.
So I guess that means abandoned wells aren’t a problem. Because they arrived in gas vehicles.
Can't drilling companies pay a deposit that will cover capping and clean-up in the future?
Dear DW, let’s be clear, that chart you kept showing 20 million barrels of “oil” per day is Not all crude oil, which is where gasoline and diesel come from. That 20 mbpd includes NGLs, ethane, butane, and other hydrocarbons that can’t be refined into motor fuels. I can’t believe how many people are fooled by that chart.
Even the IEA link in your description uses the 20mbpd number. The US is producing 13 mbpd of crude oil, not near enough to meet our demand.
"Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time' Sammy Davis Junior
Nothing is perfect, yes renewables have environmental harms but the benefits they offer far outweigh the costs.
Sad how CNN, FOX, or any other legacy media outlet does not have the stones to post something like this.
Facts! MSM is still trying to maximize clicks with “news” about the orange guy. All cable news companies have forgotten what real reporting looks like.
Sugar ethanol and a refinery that can process lower grade oils. Energy independence in 5 years. Never happen because oil companies don't want it to.
They certainly went along in Brazil.
Royal Dutch Shell Co wholly owned Shell Brasil subsidiary owns Raizen which as a distributor commercializes and refines sugar cane ethanol.
Any sold brand new ICE vehicle won't move off the dealer's lot unless is designated Flex Fuel ( can run either on gasoline or ethanol ).
Now Ethanol production is not environmental clean as it is claimed to be. Harvesting sugar cane impoverish soils, and it is done at a cost to deflorestation in large scale.
But as far as emission goes, it is far more cleaner than gasoline.
Privatise the profits, Socialise the losses
Socialized costs are yet one more way fossil fuel is subsidized. These costs need to be borne by the fossil fuel industry, not the taxpayer.
I didn't know about this issue
"Unseasonably hot" is the new normal in Texas.
it will all crumble down hopefully. bring on renewables!!
Nuclear industry: *stores its own waste*
Critics: THAT'S ABSURD! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH THAT?
At this point, I guess leaving toxic waste unchecked and leaking in the environment has more public acceptance 🤦🏾♂️
Both industries are corrupt.
Maybe you can go back to TX and confirm that only one oil field -- the West Texas/Permian oil field -- is left that is increasing production in America. What happened to all the rest that were producing in 2015? Bakken? Marcellus? Haynesville? Nicobara?
Almost no videos about oil and gas discuss how much of our economy is based on the hydrocarbons of these carbon sinks that has nothing to do with energy. All of our plastics, which touches almost everything at least indirectly, will go on long after we start using these materials for energy sources. That we have been deceived about the low cost of these hydrocarbons is going to devastate our future residents in ways we have to imagine. It will be impossible to capture the carbon from the pollution of burning these materials in ways that compete with the perfect carbon sequestration that Mother Nature has done for millennia! These are the messages that are missing from almost every channel and video about the subject!
I think that energy Independence for the US is the exact infrastructure needed for processing and managing energy in the country to be independent of other foreign countries for their energy. Anyways, I really enjoyed the video it was very informative about the oil that was drilled in the US It doesn't benefit the people in the US.
Hi Peyton! Thank you for the feedback. Subscribe to our channel-we release new videos every Friday and would love to hear your thoughts ✨
I hope some good lawyers take them to court fast!
They would've done itba long ago if any of them smelled settlement money.
Almost dried wells are sold to shell companies , which then claim bankrupcy.
This was edited into the narrative, which you ignored to take into account.
Awesome journalism! It shows how fossil fuels are dirty on every step from extraction to use, even after. Renewables may be polluting in some way, but it's nothing compared to oil!
Fairly decent and balanced reporting; I’ll give it a C+. It’s not all doom and gloom in my state. In order to get to the Permian Basin in most directions, you have to pass massive wind farms that should have been shown. On the downside, we can’t have change in Texas until it becomes a purple state. Fracking bought all state and local level politicians 15-20 years ago. Also, you really need to address the two main problems with fracking that no one likes to hear: the earthquakes (you barely mentioned this!) and the number of health problems and miscarriages that have skyrocketed for people who live around fracking sites.
I give you comprehension the same grade.
So, basically, more oil means more money. But just for the CEOs.
Why doesn’t DW covers energy operations in autocrat states (Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran) and se what comes out of it?
The best part of the story was the quote" "It's like wiping your butt with a hula-hoop".
Nuts
Sweet, bubbling crude.
Texas is well suited for either type of energy production, fossil fuels or renewables because they have so much wind and sunshine. They're golden. But renewables won't take off until we invent long term storage of commercially viable green energy. Solve that problem and you'll be the next multi billionaire or better.
Interesting report. Usual DW excellence.
Show people THIS next time they bitch about used windmills or solar panels stacked up in a warehouse... THIS is the real problem. Alberta alone where I live has an estimated $60-80B backlog of dead wells that need fixing too! Clearly the industry is not sustainable in any aspect!
Pikachu surprised face.
The name for these pumpjacks roughly translates as 'yes nodder' from Dutch.
You took the money from the well.
The land owner is responsible as well
😂 @ "..it's like wiping your ass with a hula hoop.."
There are so many unplugged leaking wells from yesterday year and not too long ago. not attended to.
Don’t worry, Donnie will “drill baby drill”, so these proud Texans can get their cheaper eggs. 😂
In addition to this problem, I am under the impression that the majority of this oil has to be sold off and shipped out of the country because we can't use it. Anyone who whines and complains about the high price of petro and everything else doesn't understand that prices are not going to come down, end of story! I'm not against capitalism but the rising cost of things goes up all the time, worse when opportunist profit off of a global catastrophe in a capitalist society. Inflation is a farce ment to give the impression that companies need to raise prices to make ends meet.
Black Gold 😢Rush
Liked it
how come u didn't address why they are not building new wells like the horizontal one, n also u mentioned university of Texas being involved... but how? where's the money going, are they shorting the stock? what's the future outside of capping the wells cus clearly that's something they seem to be waiting for the govt to fix B4 building really new advanced drills/wells n do u see this industry booming or not, I gotmore questions than answers out of this video but I appreciate the leg work you did