The Monterey Shale, covering more than 1,700 miles and an estimated 15.4 billion barrels of oil under central California and the city of Los Angeles, is ready to get fracking moving.
California is already a leader in energy. You can count the ways it is leading the nation: solar energy, its limit on greenhouse gas emissions, and a cap-and trade system it launched this year.
And now it’s been revealed California is home to one of the largest shale reserves in the world. Yet the state has been reluctant to tap it. What it boils down to is not geology – because as you well may know, the oil is there – but the politics of the matter.
But since last month, the Golden State’s lawmakers are singing a different tune, indicating they’re ready to push progress back to a state of prosperity not seen since its gold rush of the mid to late eighteen hundreds.
A bill that would have put a ban to fracking was thrown out, despite objections from environmentalists. It looks like all the anti-fracking campaigns are taking a backseat on the political stage in 2013.
Take just one look around the country, and you’ll see all the economic success the shale boom has created. And if you’re holding what is likely 60 percent of the nation’s shale oil reserves in your hands, as California is, you’ve got to take a swing at it.
That’s how big the Monterey Shale is. The Eagle Ford, the Bakken – they can all just take a seat when California starts fracking. To put it in perspective, the Monterey formation is twice the size of the Bakken and Eagle Ford combined.
We can sit here and argue all day about what’s right and what’s wrong. To frack or not to frack, but it’s just a moot point. California is going to frack for oil and gas. And it’s going to be sooner rather than later.
The Golden State
That’s big news for California, which has seen its unemployment rate rise and its economy plunder. Several companies are already gearing up for the big boom ahead – drilling test wells, lobbying for support, pushing their own PR campaigns, and buying up mineral rights.
If you look to the east in North Dakota and its Bakken shale, producers can do no wrong. They’ve experienced massive gains. And if you consider that the Monterey is a giant compared to the Bakken, then you’ll know California’s potential for growth is exponential.
The important thing now is to figure out which of those companies in California stands to make the most profit.
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The state is beckoning for action, no matter the concern over fracking. There are billions of dollars in tax revenue on the line and countless jobs that will be created.
As it stands now, California’s unemployment rate is at 9.8 percent, and roughly one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients are California residents.
If the Monterey can produce even one iota of what the Bakken did for North Dakota, then it’s time to get a fracking move on. North Dakota now has the nation’s lowest unemployment rate at 3.2 percent.
In the first two years alone, the Monterey is expected to create 500,000 jobs.
If the Golden State wants to live up to its name, it knows exactly what needs to be done.
Keith Kohl knows just where I’m coming from, and he’s the guy who is finding ways for us to benefit from all the hype out in California. What you do is up to you; you can take action and reap the rewards or sit around while others are making a profit.
It’s going to be a goldmine. With California state politics shifting gears, it’s time for a reawakening.
It’s inevitable; California will have its gold rush once more.
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