More Than Gas, Coal and Oil
Scientists estimate that the methane trapped in the frozen deposits has an energy potential equal to more than twice that of all other fossil fuels combined.
     The U.S. Geological Survey has put the value of gas hydrates in the United States at 320,000 trillion cubic feet of gas, some 200 times conventional natural gas resources and reserves in the country.
     “If only 1 percent of the methane hydrate resource could be made recoverable, the United States could more than double its domestic natural gas resource base,” the bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said in a statement.
     But Doyle added that research must also be done on the threat that hydrates pose as they decompose into gas and water when they enter the atmosphere, possibly contributing to greenhouse gas accumulations.
     Scientists writing in the journal Science last November said they had evidence to support the theory that the release of frozen methane from the ocean 55 million years ago was responsible for an abrupt warming of the Earth that had a devastating effect on deep-sea life. 

Releasing a Greenhouse Gas
The scientists concluded that the escape of methane hydrates caused ocean temperatures to soar by 7 to 14 degrees over a 1,000-year period, a factor contributing to the rapid evolution of more advanced species on land but causing the die-off of 55 percent of some deep-sea species.
     Gerald Holder of the University of Pittsburgh school of engineering, an expert on methane hydrates, testified before a House Science panel last May that the resource could “have important consequences for the future of the world’s energy supply.” He said that because methane produces less carbon dioxide than other fossil fuel, proper production could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 20 percent on a global basis.
     But he added that the hydrates may provide some stability to the sea floor and their removal could result in destabilizing the sea floor under drilling rigs.
     The Energy Department’s Robert Kripowicz told the same Energy and Environment subcommittee that the potential for extracting commercially viable quantities of methane hydrate is “speculative at best,” but stressed that the Clinton administration supports the legislation as a means to better understand that potential. 

Vast Reserves Found
French scientists studied hydrates as early as 1890, but it wasn’t until 1981 that the underwater drilling vessel Glomar Challenger was able to retrieve a 3-foot-long hydrate core off the coast of Guatemala.
     He said large deposits have been identified and studied in Alaska, the West Coast from California to Washington, the East Coast, including the Blake Ridge off the Carolinas and in the Gulf of Mexico.
    The legislation directs the secretary of energy to consult with the secretaries of commerce, defense and interior and the director of the National Science Foundation on methane hydrate research and development.
     It allows the energy secretary to award grants and enter into agreements with colleges and business, and requires the secretary to report to Congress within two years on the impact of global climate change from methane hydrate extraction and consumption.
     The Senate last November approved similar legislation, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and the House bill now goes back to the Senate for final approval.