What is your opinion on Shale Gas?

I think that Sales Gas Reserves regarding Shale Gas are vastly overstated and I do not think that there is sufficient Production History with which to estimate total reserve impact in the fossil fuel industry. The cost of Shale Gas extraction appears to currently exceed Sales Gas Value. This is unsustainable. The reasons why companies exploit Gas Reserves under uneconomic conditions is a whole different subject. Currently most Shale Gas Projects require a Gas price of about $7.00-$7.50 per Mcf (Thousand Cubic Feet) and Gas is selling for less than $4.00. I am unconvinced that below $10 per Mcf that Shale Gas is an economic proposition. At $10 per Mcf though, that still places an energy equivalent cost of $60 per barrel of oil equivalent, which is much cheaper than the current pricing of $85 for Oil.

There is great potential, because natural gas has about 45% less carbon emissions than coal. Because of the vast amounts available in shale, the cost of natural gas power is dropping into the realm of coal power, and when we put a price on carbon emissions, natural gas will be significantly cheaper than coal. Thus the answer to your question is that yes, natural gas will basically be a stepping stone from coal to renewable energy. It's a way for us to continue producing baseload power from fossil fuels while still reducing CO2 emissions as we transition to renewable sources which can provide baseload power (see the link below).

There are concerns about impacts to groundwater from the fracking process, as mentioned in the article. It's something that we need to be careful to avoid, and it needs more stringent regulations because this groundwater contamination has already happened in a number of places. But I think it's something we'll be able to work around with appropriate regulatory oversight.