Natural Gas

Gas Scare Attributed To Firm's Educational Cards

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:16:00 +0000

A natural gas company in Great Falls, Montana, wanted to educate consumers. So it printed 25,000 scratch-and-sniff cards to show how a gas leak would smell. Then the company tossed some of the cards. As they were crushed in a garbage truck, the gas smell filled the town.

Could Tapping Undersea Methane Lead To A New Gas Boom?

Christopher Joyce — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:53:00 +0000

The new boom in natural gas from shale has changed the energy economy of the United States. But there's another giant reservoir of natural gas that lies under the ocean floor that, theoretically, could dwarf the shale boom.

No one had tapped this gas from the seabed until this week, when Japanese engineers pulled some up through a well from under the Pacific. The gas at issue here is called methane hydrate. Methane is natural gas; hydrate means there's water in it.

Profits, Not Politics Pushing Drilling Onto Private Land

Erin OToole — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:30:00 +0000

A new study of the oil and gas industry finds that geology and economics, rather than government regulation, are driving the shift in drilling from public to private lands in the U.S.

Natural Gas Dethrones King Coal As Power Companies Look To Future

Christopher Joyce — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:32:00 +0000

The way Americans get their electricity is changing. Coal is in decline. Natural gas is bursting out of the ground in record amounts. And the use of wind and solar energy is growing fast. All this is happening as power companies are trying to choose which kind of energy to bet on for the next several decades.

Until recently, half of these plants burned coal to make electricity. Now, that's down to about one-third. Since 2010, about 150 coal plants either have been retired or it's been announced they will be retired soon.

What knocked King Coal off its throne? Mostly natural gas.

'It Felt Like An Earthquake': One Still Missing After Kansas City Explosion

Mark Memmott — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:13:00 +0000

"It sounded like thunder, but it felt like an earthquake," Tracey Truitt, a lawyer who was working in a nearby building, tells the Kansas City Star about an explosion Tuesday evening that leveled a restaurant in the city's Country Club Plaza.

At least 16 people were injured and as of early this morning one person remained missing, the Star says.

Our colleagues at KCUR report that "Miss