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How much methane leaks during the entire lifecycle of unconventional gas has emerged as akey question in the fracking debate. Natural gas is mostly methane (CH4). And methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than (CO2), which is released when any hydrocarbon, like natural gas, is burned.
Even without a high-leakage rate for shale gas, we know that “Absent a Serious Price for Global Warming Pollution, Natural Gas Is A Bridge To Nowhere.”
Bombshell Study: High Methane Emissions Measured Over Gas Field
Seeded on Thu Feb 9, 2012 6:59 AM EST
Article Source: Think Progress
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- Public Discussion (16)
Late last year, some of the leading (center-right) economists in the country — Nicholas Z. Muller, Robert Mendelsohn, and William Nordhaus — concluded in a top economic journal that the total damages from natural gas generation exceed its value-added at a low-ball carbon price of $27 per ton! At a price of $65 a ton of carbon, the total damages from natural gas are more than double its value-added!
For the record, stabilizing at 550 ppm atmospheric concentrations of CO2, which would likely still be catastrophic for humanity, would require a price of $330 a metric ton of carbon in 2030, the International Energy Agency (IEA) noted back in 2008. So even leak-free, new gas generation isn’t a good investment if avoiding catastrophic warming is your goal.
- 4 votes
#1 - Thu Feb 9, 2012 7:02 AM EST
Good article McSpocky...I just posted one on this in the Wind River area of Montana...The residents now have to have bottled water brought to them for drinking and they are advised when taking a shower to leave a window open because of the menthane gas...
- 4 votes
#3 - Thu Feb 9, 2012 2:09 PM ESTIs anyone listening to the bad news and environmental degradation caused by fracking? Is the money so big from the oil and gas lobby that politicos are willing to sell their constituents a bill of goods for that one big score?
- 5 votes
The answer to your question Jeff is YES regarding the companies and politicos.
- 4 votes
Thank you, Kavika. There are more and more places learning that fracking is a bad idea. If they were sensible, they would use the money instead to help develop green energy.
- 4 votes
I'm glad to see some studies start to come out McSpocky, ones that are not prepared by the industry but independent of.
The next trick is to make this widely known and understood. Start with imagine living in a fart.
- 4 votes
#4 - Thu Feb 9, 2012 6:02 PM ESTWait for the strawman rebuttal about cows and other ruminants. Of course this fallacy totally ignores 2 important facts:
- Ruminants have been around in large numbers for 54 million years. Therefore, they are part of teh carbon cycle balance that has been established over the last 54 million years.
- The source of their carbon emissions is the CO2 in the atmosphere that is sequestered by plants. So the net change of carbon in the biosphere is 0 and therefore, the effect on the carbon cycle balance is 0.
So basically they are not a part of the changes that have been occurring over the last 150 years.
- 3 votes
#5 - Fri Feb 10, 2012 12:56 PM ESTAnd don't forget that shale gas contains a relatively high concentration of radon gas that is part of this plume of escaped gas. The disintegration series for radon is radioactive isotopes of polonium to lead to bismuth to polonium to lead to bismuth to polonium to a stable isotope of lead. Since we are starting with a monoatomic gas, each of these subsequent isotopes is monoatomic and easily carried on the wind and lodge in the lungs and other body parts. And each is associated with toxicity and health issues.
- 3 votes
Kavika,
A small correction, its in Wyoming not Montana. I am sure Montana has its share of trouble too.
Keep up the good work! Together we will help raise awareness . We are fighting the good fight!
Any news on Josh Fox after he was arrested for trying to film that congressional meeting on fracking and the EPA report? Funny how stuff like that doesn't make the news!
- 3 votes
#7 - Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:59 PM ESTAny news on Josh Fox after he was arrested for trying to film that congressional meeting on fracking and the EPA report? Funny how stuff like that doesn't make the news!
I found this...
I have been charged with “unlawful entry” and my court date is February 15.
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/02/01/416951/gasland-director-josh-foxs-statement-on-his-fracking-hearing-arrest/
Good link, btw, mf-3735877. It has info not covered in the one above.
- 4 votes
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