NEWS OF THE WEEK
GAS SURPLUS SPARKS DISPUTE ACC
RESOURCES: Senate hears differing views on how to develop, protect natural gas supplies VOLVING U.S. NATURAL GAS policies fueled by
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the nation’s new bounty from advanced hydraulic fracturing technologies drove a heated threehour-long Senate hearing last week. Witness after witness at the Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing heralded the recent flood of natural gas from fracking as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” and discussed policy options to encourage development of this resource. Driving the committee’s interest is an ongoing Department of Energy examination of proposals for some 20 terminals to liquefy natural gas, allowing export to global buyers. Jack N. Gerard, head of the American Petroleum Institute, urged minimal government restraints, saying natural gas production from fracking supports some 1.7 million U.S. jobs, with more planned for the future. Dow Chemical CEO Andrew N. Liveris also stressed jobs and income from the new surge of gas production.
PETER CUTTS PHOTOGRAPHY
Gerard
Liveris
But he urged caution on exports and worried about harming a “manufacturing renaissance” in the U.S. springing from the cheap and abundant gas. A Dow study says more than 100 new U.S. chemical industry projects and $95 billion in new investments are attributable to the gas. Dow itself is investing $4 billion in new U.S. facilities, Liveris said. Natural gas exports have driven a wedge between different industry segments. Liveris called for a careful examination of how much gas should be available for export. He fears the price of U.S. gas might skyrocket and match global prices if much of the fuel is sent abroad, curbing the energy-cost advantages U.S. chemical firms and other manufacturers now enjoy in the global market. Liveris and some other chemical company executives have taken issue with industry groups that want to ramp up liquefied natural gas exports, including the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry trade association of which Dow is a member. ACC recently noted the difference of opinion between some of its member firms and announced on Feb. 6 a new senior-level committee to discuss natural gas exports and determine whether consensus can be reached. Conflicts coming from the gas bonanza were also stressed by Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) at the Senate hearing, who said it was “time for a fresh look” at current natural gas policies and time to update them to match new conditions.—JEFF JOHNSON
MOOD DRUG ALTERS FISH BEHAVIOR
COURTESY OF BENT CHRISTENSEN (BOTH)
When schools of perch are exposed to low levels of the antianxiety drug oxazepam, they become antisocial.
supply can alter a fish’s behavior as well as its ability to reproduce. This new investigation is one of the first to study the environmental impact of a benzodiazepine, says Jerker Fick, a member of the research team. It’s also one of the first to demonstrate behavioral changes ENVIRONMENT: Low levels of in aquatic creatures from concentrations of pharmaantianxiety drug make perch ceuticals close to those found in nature, Fick adds. eat more, socialize less To carry out the experiment, the researchers collected wild European perch—fish that are normally timid and stick together in schools—from a pristine lake in HEN A PERSON TAKES a pharmaceutical, Sweden. They exposed one group of perch to 1.8 µg/L of the entire dose doesn’t get absorbed by the a benzodiazepine, oxazepam, for seven days. Accordbody: A good-sized portion of the drug gets ing to the researchers, this level of drug resulted in the excreted along with its metabolites. It can then swirl fish having a muscle tissue concentration of oxazepam down drains, evade filters in wastewater treatment fasimilar to that found in perch living in a river fed by cilities, and merge with the water supply. Swedish wastewater treatment facilities. According to a new report, They then monitored all the experimena member of the commonly tal fish with video surveillance. The used antianxiety drug family researchers found that perch that called benzodiazepines sigswam in water laced with oxazepam nificantly affects the behavbecame more active and less interior of fish exposed to it even at low levels ested in spending time with one another. Cl (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1226850). The perch also ate at a significantly faster rate. These behavioral changes could have negaThese results are interesting, says Bryan W. tive consequences for the ecosystem, say the Brooks , an environmental scientist at Baylor N researchers from Sweden’s Umeå University University, “but it remains necessary to relate NH who published the report. such laboratory observations of pharmaceutiHO O Previous studies have demonstrated that cal effects on fish to ecological consequences in Oxazepam pharmaceuticals typically found in the water the field.”—LAUREN WOLF
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FEBRUARY 18, 2013
