Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Just How Green is Natural Gas?

Just How Green is Natural Gas?

Not green at all, reports a study, which suggests that the methane released from fracking and drilling makes it worse than coal.
Researchers at Cornell University are raising alarms over the expected increase in use of natural gas from shale deposits. They argue that replacing coal and gasoline with natural gas alternatives could worsen, rather than improve, the impact of greenhouse gases.  The greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas is at least 20 percent higher and "perhaps more than twice as great" over a 20-year period compared to coal, they say in a study published online in the journal Climatic Change. The culprit is the leakage of methane, the main component of natural gas.
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