Natural gas cheap, for now

Just read the following article about gas drillers turning the gas taps off because NG prices have dropped to unprofitable levels for some drillers. Several previous posters have alluded to the potential short term nature of these low gas prices. Looks like the NG price roller coaster is within sight.

http://www.buffalonews.com/wire-feeds/s ... 729515.ece

Now I can't wait for all the states like Pa. to start crying because of lost revenue that they thought they were going to get so already put it in their budgets or worse yet already spent.

yup, NG historically tracks oil prices, and, in the past, has even exceeded the price of heating oil. This cheap natural gas isn't going to last, utilities and large industrial users are switching to it to comply with environmental regs and soon we will begin exporting it in large quantities.

Converting existing coal fired power plants over should create some more demand...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/us/cl ... ehind.html

On the bright side a coal plant can be torn down & a new cleaner one built in it's place in a few decades after the NG becomes too expensive. What's going to happen when our Nuke Plants become too old?

Berlin wrote:yup, NG historically tracks oil prices, and, in the past, has even exceeded the price of heating oil. This cheap natural gas isn't going to last, utilities and large industrial users are switching to it to comply with environmental regs and soon we will begin exporting it in large quantities.

exactly right. and natural gas investment companies that pay for the drilling and related costs are not going to stay in it long if the well head price is not much higher than the cost to produce. they move to drill for oil.

samhill wrote:On the bright side a coal plant can be torn down & a new cleaner one built in it's place in a few decades after the NG becomes too expensive. What's going to happen when our Nuke Plants become too old?

Tear down the old ones and build new ones. Only thing holding back new reactors right now is cost. All the companies are looking for government subsidy to build new plants.

There are 2 types of plants in the works. One is ready to build, same type being built in China right now. The other is the Small Modular Reactor which is 10-15 years off from production.

Once the existing plant is decommisioned, you tear it down and clean it up just like any other coal or industrial plant. And the standards for nuclear are much more strict than other plants.

We've already decommisioned one plant at our site. You wouldn't know there was ever a plant there. Looks like a parking lot or grassy field.

Can that area ever be used again? I was at the Waltz Mills site off of 70 after their meltdown of one reactor & that whole area is like a no mans land. I don't know if everything was buried on site or not but it had to be expensive.

We have several warehouses built on the site now.

It's safer than the old steel mill sites down the river!! Some of the stuff I've seen burried in the old steel mill sites is scary. All the ground in that area has to be contaminated with heavy metals and carcinogens. The Nuke site must be cleaned up enough that anything remaining falls within regular background readings (same as it was before the plant was there)

I've been to Waltz Mill also. Go there a few times a year. They do have contaminated storage areas there. Some places are off limits. But it is an active nuclear facility. If they ever wanted to shut the place down, it would be held to the same standards and all the radioactive material would be cleaned up and taken to another active storage facility.

OK I knew Waltz Mills was still active, the problem I see is with the storage of the stuff. I know what you mean about the mill sites, we used to commonly just drain the oil out of transformers to lighten them up & by that I mean just run it out onto the ground, normal practice years ago. That's why U.S.S. just signed over a lot of sites to the county which in turn didn't really do much but scrap clean-up & ignore the rest. Been in both power plant sites in the Beaver area working for Dick Corp., guess I don't mind things I can see as much as what I can't.