Bakken Shale | ModeShift

The Next Era of Hydrocarbon Development: Well Underway and Dirtier Than the First

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 25, 2010June 18, 20140

The most direct path to the nationâ€™s newest big oil and gas fields is U.S. Highway12, two lanes of black top that unfolds from Grays Harbor in Washington State and heads east across the top of the country to Detroit. The 2,500-mile route, parts of which were used by Lewis and Clark to open the American frontier, has quickly become an essential supply line for the energy industry. With astonishing speed and influence, American oil …

North Dakota’s Bakken Shale Oil Boom and Risks To Water

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 15, 2010September 15, 20102

Over at Circle of Blue, where I serve as senior editor, we’ve been working on Choke Point: U.S., a series of original articles about the tightening contest between rising energy demand and diminishing supplies of fresh water. In our latest chapter, we explored the big boom in oil and gas production on the northern Great Plains, where energy companies are tapping the “unconventional” Bakken Shale. Two miles beneath North Dakota, and below parts of Montana …