Your Community Partner
ZIA NATURAL GAS
COMPANY
May 2016
NATURAL GAS NEWS
Vol 13, Issue 5
Did you thank a Fracker this earth day?
S
o you love Mother Earth or you just like having more money in your budget? If so, oil and
gas fracking should have you jumping for joy.
Let us start off with some basic math to help explain how and why you might be spending less on
energy these days. Due to fracking, prices of West
Texas Intermediate crude oil have plummeted from
highs of more than $145 per barrel in 2008 to less
than $27 per barrel in mid-February 2016. Natural
gas prices have fallen substantially as well, even as
demand has increased. Natural gas provided approximately 21 percent of the United States’ electricity supply in 2008, while it delivered just over 32
percent of the electricity used in the United States
in 2015. During the same period, natural gas prices
fell from a high of more than $12 per million Btu in
June 2008 to less than $2 per million Btu in February 2016. Falling oil and gas prices and increased
employment in the energy sector are almost solely
responsible for the economic recovery the nation
has experienced since 2007.
The fracking boom has resulted in a better environment as well. As pointed out in a forthcoming book, Let’s Run the Numbers, “A one-gigawatt
solar farm with a 23% (capacity factor) is actually
a 770-megawatt gas plant enhanced by 230 megawatts of sunshine.” In other words, every wind and
solar farm being built today is really a natural gas
Help Us All Stay Safe!
M
ost serious pipeline incidents are preventable. According to government and industry statistics, improper or unauthorized digging near a pipeline is the most common cause
of serious pipeline problems. Calling 8-1-1 before
digging on your property or near a pipeline right–ofway protects you, your family, and our communities. We carefully build, test, and maintain our lines
and monitor them around the clock. Marker signs
are placed to identify the general location of pipelines and provide emergency contact information.
Stringent safety standards are in place to ensure
plant. Globally, the amount of carbon dioxide reduced by solar power’s expansion in the United
States equaled less than four hours of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2013.
A recent study by Oren Cass, senior fellow at the
Manhattan Institute, finds while U.S. gross domestic product grew 7.3 percent since 2007, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions fell 9.7 percent during the
same period, almost entirely due to the increase
in the use of natural gas to generate electricity.
Burning natural gas for electricity releases just 50
percent of the carbon dioxide as burning coal, and
the switch from coal to natural gas would not have
occurred absent the boom in cheap natural gas,
which is due almost entirely to fracking. According
to Cass, for every ton of carbon dioxide cut by solar
power’s substitution for coal, the switch to natural
gas has removed 13 tons of carbon dioxide.
Additionally, if you care about the nation’s land
and wildlife, then natural gas power plants beat
wind farms and solar farms by a mile. Solar and
wind facilities are killing and displacing thousands
of birds and other species annually and require
tens of thousands (in some cases, hundreds of
thousands) of acres of land to produce a paltry
amount of energy. By comparison, a modern natural gas plant uses just a few acres of land, and wildlife thrives in the vicinity of the wells and pipelines.
that America’s natural gas pipeline systems remain
one of the safest modes of energy transport in the
world. We are dedicated to improving and maintaining the highest safety record possible, and with
your eyes, ears, and noses, we are confident we
can achieve that goal. So always be on the lookout
for suspicious activity or digging on or near a pipeline, listen for hissing or roaring sounds close to
pipeline markers, and if you think you smell rotten
eggs or that sulfur odor, give us a call so we can
investigate immediately.
Natural Gas News May 2016
Page 2
Community Calendar
May 1 – Ruidoso - ENMU Community Choir’s Scotland in Springtime concert 3pm at First Christian
Church 1211 Hull Rd tickets just $5.
May 6-7 – Capitan - 70th Annual Smokey Bear’s Day 9am-5pm Friday and 7:30am-8:00pm Saturday. Live music, fun, friends, food, arts & crafts, car show, chainsaw carving, a parade, street
dance and so much more! Free Family Fun!
May 7 – Raton - Cinco de Mayo Celebration at Ripley Park from 10am-6pm. Games, dancers,
music, and lots fun all day!
May 7 – Hobbs - A Night of Metal featuring bands from SE New Mexico. Held at Center for the Arts
122 W. Broadway form 6:00-8:30pm. 5 bands appropriate for all ages tickets just $5.
May 7 – Capitan - Plant Sale at the Capitan Public Library from 8am-2pm. Bedding plants, succulents, house plants, seeds, outdoor plants, shrubs, Mother’s Day Gifts, baked goods, yard art,
and even Bags of Books for just $5!
May 14 – Cimarron - 5th Annual Mavericks for the Troops Dance Auction Silent Auction starts
at 7pm music by the Drifters starts at 8pm at St. James Hotel Admission $20 with fabulous door
prizes!
May 15 – Las Cruces - Arts in the Garden 11am-4pm come visit 5 gardens and see 18 artists.
For more info visit Artists of Picacho Hills on Facebook or www.artistsofpicachohills.com or email
[email protected].
May 28-30 – Las Cruces - Red White and Brew Wine and Beer festival from noon till 6pm daily at
NMSU Intramural Fields. Live Music, food, and fun! Tickets $15 in advance and $20 at the gate.
Zia Natural Gas Company area offices:
Lincoln County
100 Short Drive
Ruidoso Downs, NM 88346
575-378-4277
1-800-520-4277
(575) 378-4138 Fax
Mailing Address
PO Box 888
Ruidoso Downs, NM 88346
Maxwell-Cimarron-Springer
316 Maxwell Ave.
Maxwell, NM 87728
575-375-2277
1-800-520-4277
(575) 375-2753 Fax
Mailing Address
PO Box 357
Maxwell, NM 87728
Hobbs/Jal
510 E. Bender
Hobbs, NM 88240
575-392-4277
1-800-470-9900
(575) 392-8504 Fax
Mailing Address
PO Box 2220
Hobbs, NM 88241
Dona Ana County
3700 W. Picacho Ave.
Las Cruces, NM 88007
575-526-4427
1-800-453-5546
(575) 523-4945 Fax
Mailing Address
3700 W. Picacho Ave.
Las Cruces, NM 88007
June 3 – Carrizozo Music presents Willy and Friends, members of the NM Philharmonic playing
viola, double bass, and piano trios 7pm at Trinity United Methodist Church.
Reminder: We use this section for our local communities. The messages must be non-partisan,
non-religious and non-profit. Please send the information to [email protected] before
the 10th of the month to make the following month edition. Thank you.
The U.S. used less energy last year,
with less waste!
E
very year, the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (part of the Department
of Energy) releases a report showing how much and what types of
energy were consumed in the U.S.
in the past year. In recent years
there have mainly been small increases in energy use each year,
but in 2015, that trend reversed and
Americans actually used less energy than in the previous year. Not
only did the country consume less
energy in 2015, but it wasted 1%
less. “Rejected energy” dropped
from 59.4 quadrillion BTU in 2014
down to 59.1 quads
in 2015, which the
lab said is tied to the
increase in efficiency
of the electricity production sector
Compared to 2014,
Americans
used
0.8 quadrillion BTU
(quads) less energy
in 2015. A BTU or
British Thermal Unit,
is a unit of measurement for energy and 3,600 BTU is equivalent to
about 1 kilowatt-hour. Natural gas
use increased by 3% to 28.3 quads
while coal use decreased by 12%
to 15.7 quads – a shift almost entirely attributable to the power sector, “which continues to use more
natural gas, in favor of coal,” Simon
said. “In fact, much of the overall
decrease in energy consumption
can be traced to the shift from coal
to gas, because modern gas-fired
plants may use up to 46% less energy to produce the same amount
of electricity.”
New Mexico’s Natural
Choice...
Zia Natural Gas Company
Same name,
Same great Company for
over 20 years now
Did You Know?
» Natural gas development
creates jobs. Did you know that
more than 600,000 Americans
are directly employed by natural
gas development? (Source: IHS
Global Insight, 2010)
Natural Gas
News
is an official publication of
Zia Natural Gas Company
Published monthly
Aaron Dunn
Business Development Manager
[email protected]