Most people don't think of New York when oil is mentioned, when actually the first recorded discovery of oil in North America was made right here in Allegany county. In 1627 a French missionary was led to the oil spring by local Seneca Indians. The spring is located in what is now Cuba, New York. The Senecas prized the oil for medicinal proposes. The oil spring in Cuba was not the only discovery of oil in New York before the 1881 boom. In 1832 farmers digging for coal in the town of Freedom noted oil seepage into the pit. A well drilled in 1857 near the Seneca Oil Spring, two years before Drake's well didn't produce any significant oil. A well drilled in Rushford in 1860 produces little oil yet substantial natural gas. In 1865 "Job Moses No. 1" located in Limestone becomes New York's first successful oil well at 7 barrels per day. A big strike at Rock City (S.W. of Olean) in 1877 marked the start of New York's first major oil field. The "Triangle No. 1" near Allentown drilled in 1879 causes the town of Petrolia to spring up.
But while old wells might be forgotten, they never go away. After decades, this plugged well started to leak.
"Grass didn't grow," Burns said. "The pine trees kept dying. And there was another tree that sat there, and it died."
Leaks from defunct oil and gas wells are a problem for more than just plant life. The chemicals that leach up from deep underground, including benzene and arsenic, can harm human health and leach into water reservoirs. And any remaining natural gas that works its way into the atmosphere contributes to global warming. Natural gas is almost entirely composed of methane, a greenhouse gas that's far more potent than carbon dioxide.
Millions of oil and gas wells have been drilled in the U.S. since the oil industry was launched in the 1800s. A small number of those might conceivably be repurposed for something else — making geothermal power, for instance. But the vast majority will someday need to be plugged.
Doing that properly is neither easy nor cheap. And if plugging isn't done properly, it might not last — as Burns discovered.
Historic oil refinery in Warren, PA that continues to produce both high-quality lubricants and motor fuel with supplies both locally source and imported from the western states.
There is a popular Internet meme that goes along these lines:
“I am poor. So when I hear my car making a noise,
rather then taking it to the repair shop, I just turn up the radio.”
This kind of reminds me of the hype over fracking for oil and gas. It was a good distraction for a while — and indeed the United States got a big boost in it’s oil production for a while — it seems like as fast as the oil glut came it is now going away. A booming global economy has expanded the world’s thirst for this economy, and with Middle East production on a decline, it seems like it’s only a matter of time that we remember the serious energy crisis our world faces in the future. ⛽
There are politicians all over that like to believe we live in a sea of oil, and that suburbia will last forever. Indeed, a good portion of the green minded people think that once we switch over to electric plug-in cars powered by distant solar cells, motoring can go on care free, with no concerns about the resources being consumed or emissions being produced away from the tailpipe. But at some point, no matter how long you stick year head into the ground, our long term habit of expanding the population and feeling richer by burning more oil each year, will come to bite us. 🐲
Nobody knows when the global oil crisis will truly bite us. High oil prices once again may spur conservation and innovation like new fracking techniques 🛢 but the truth is the oil fueled party can’t go on forever. I like my big jacked up truck, but I’m not stupid — I know the world of ever growing demand for oil is going to be confronted by reality at some point. And the next result isn’t going to be pretty. Climate change, expensive energy, massive reductions in consumption are going to be the future. While there may be some benefit to some, the next effect will be serious impacts to millions who are forced to make dramatic changes in how they live and go through life.
