Good to the last Drop & Natural Gas: The Ugly Step-child of Energy #5

Well, it would seem that some things that people think that we have ironclad information about are not so ironclad. For instance, if the oil industry/regulation experts keep adding to the number of barrels of reserve oil that the US has in its possession that they really don’t know how much oil is lurking under our feet? I mean, I am all for new technologies that have the potential to net us more “energy” and hopefully for cheaper, but isn’t their estimations and second-guessing a little absurd? Leonard Maugeri makes sense when he talks about easy oil, that which takes little to no effort to obtain. He says it is running out, but when it was first found it could in no way be considered easy. Our current “difficult oil” will become easy oil when we develop the technologies to make it easier to procure. Oddly though it doesn’t make me as happy to find we really aren’t running out of oil. Less pressure about the lack of oil means less drive to move to alternative fuel sources so long as oil is easy to get. More oil sounds like a huge paradox in emotion. Onwards instead to Natural Gas, and its extraction from shale, everyday land owners are finding themselves newly rich when natural gas rich shale is discovered on their land. Previously the natural gas would be impossible and impractical to remove from the shale, but horizontal-drilling, merely drilling sideways instead of up-and-down, and hydraulic fracturing, which is forcing water and chemicals into the vein to force the natural gas out through the added pressure. The process is thought to be safe, but, given the nature of people, human error and shortcuts can always cause issues. Natural Gas may be marketable and profitable, but should it be used as a fuel source? It can be argued as cleaner and safer than petroleum, but can America live with the issues that come from its extraction process or its use?

 [Image Credit: IMAGE © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/ ANDREW PENNER]

Early Fort Myers—Where Everybody Knows Your Name to Modern Fort Myers—Backwater Beginnings Beget Bold Present #4

Fort Myers was a great place to grow-up, and from Untold Stories: Fort Myers Part 1&2 it seems like it has always been that way. The videos start where the history of Fort Myers should start—its beginning. It is odd to think that a simple fort that was semi-influential during the Seminole Wars would grow to a lush area with a state college and a university. It was for all measures abandoned, however, until the war of northern aggression when it was re-staffed as a union fort. The first citizens would found the city not too long after. During this time it wasn’t the county seat of Lee County; it was apparently a part of Monroe County which was based in Key West. A bureaucratic dispute over the rebuilding of an arson destroyed school caused the few citizens to incorporate into their own county. As locations tend to do, Fort Myers grew steadily from their gaining items such as railways, a major stop along the path from Tampa to Miami, and two airports. Notable People began to take an interest in the location as well, such as Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Though things were brighter, attitudes were still in need of adjustments. Fort Myers itself has the dishonor of being one of the last cities to end racial segregation in the United States. This dark era did in fact end, and with came a large boom in culture. Art and Theatre had large venues for exhibition with generous grants from patrons and appropriations from governmental funds. All totaled, Fort Myers has blossomed into an amazing metropolis. It will be interesting to watch how it grows from here.

[Image Credit: Eloise Pennington, Local Trainer and Graphics Specialist. 2004]