Publisher
Heat Treat Today
Heat Treat Today publishes four print magazines a year, and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in Heat Treat Today‘s Medical and Energy Heat Treating magazine, December 2020.
Home heating oil is going for $1.49 per gallon. 525.4 gallons was just pumped into the two, 275-gallon fuel oil tanks in the basement of my 1900’s-era farmhouse. Eleven months ago, when I last filled those tanks, fuel oil was selling for $2.35 per gallon. $1.49 is the lowest price I’ve paid in the 10 years I’ve lived in this drafty old house, and it represents a 36% drop in price.
Let’s put the blame on fracking for the price drop. We can’t really blame COVID – although we can and should blame COVID for nearly everything else that went wrong in 2020, but not the drop in fuel oil prices specifically, and energy prices in general.
My acquaintance and friend, Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson, retired adjunct faculty member, economist, and fellow for economics and social policy with the Institute for Faith and Freedom (www.faithandfreedom.com) at Grove City College (www.gcc.edu), my alma mater, in western Pennsylvania, recently published a short and thought-provoking article about fracking. You can read Dr. Hendrickson’s entire blog post by clicking here (if you’re reading this in digital format – which apparently only roughly 30% of you are), or if you’re reading this in the “old-fashioned” print edition (roughly 70% of you!), I’ll summarize a few of the more salient points below, or you can jump on your computer and Bing or Google “mark hendrickson faith freedom why fracking is a big issue.” It will pop up as one of the first search results. More on this article in just one moment. But first …
Since this issue covers heat treatments in the energy and medical industries, please notice the article in this issue that deals with heat treating a fracking pump valve seat. The article is an edited version of one of four Heat Treat Radio interviews conducted with Integrated Heat Treating Solutions CEO, Joe Powell. If you’re involved in the oil and gas industry or any other energy related industry, this fracking article will be of interest to you. Joe explains how his company more than doubles the life of a mission-critical valve seat in a down-hole fracking pump by introducing some very, very unique heat treating and quenching processes. (Spoiler: the secret is in the quenching!) Read and enjoy – or if you’d prefer to listen, click here.
Now, back to Dr. Mark Hendrickson’s blog post on fracking, Why Fracking is a Big Issue. Dr. Hendrickson points out “the strange tendency of many people who have benefited from economic advances to denounce and vilify the source of their prosperity, a sort of ‘bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you’ phenomenon.” The “denouncing and vilifying” of fracking is one good example of this strange psychosis.
Hendrickson continues, “The enormous boost that cheap natural gas gives to the American economy is reason enough to continue with fracking, but there are also important geopolitical, health, and environmental benefits to natural gas.” Geopolitically, fracking has made the US energy independent. In terms of human health and safety, natural gas is “far safer for workers to extract than coal, and burning it causes much less pollution than coal.”
Much more could be said; much more is said in Hendrickson’s short article. I recommend his article to you.
I like paying $1.49 per gallon for my fuel oil, but I’m not in favor of that price if there is an obvious harm being done to a specific person. Dealing with legitimate environmental, health, and safety issues verifiably caused by fracking is reasonable and good; completely eliminating fracking seems extreme. Long live $1.49 (or less) fuel oil prices for all!
