My article this week, not surprisingly, is a new study suggesting that the greenhouse gas footprint of unconventional natural gas development is far worse than coal is already undergoing a furious deconstruction. Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University, states that somewhere from 3.6 percent to 7.9 percent of methane, the chief component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas, is leaking into the atmosphere at various points along the shale gas production life cycle.This would make unconventional natural gas production worse than coal for the climate. Robert Howarth and his co-authors were able to push the climate impact, per unit of energy, of unconventional natural gas industry well beyond that of the perennial environmental and climate demon, coal:
Comparison of greenhouse gas emissions from shale gas with low and high estimates of fugitive methane emissions; conventional natural gas with low and high estimates of fugitive methane emissions; surface-mined coal and deep-mined coal; and diesel oil, all over a 20-year time horizon.
Much of the methane emissions associated with natural gas development are, or at least should be, relatively easy to prevent and capture. And if that fugitive gas is captured, natural gas remains a far, far cleaner-burning option than coal or oil.
Heather Lorenz
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