I'm hearing a lot of talk lately about natural gas being a great bridge fuel while we figure out what to do next, facing peak oil and what not. Well, according to a Cornell University study released and published in the May issue of Climatic Change Letters, getting natural gas out of the ground could do more to aggravate global warming than mining coal. While natural gas has been described as clean-burning and producing less carbon dioxide than coal, hydrofracking produces dangerous methane which is a much more potent greenhouse gas. Horizontal gas drilling can account for up to twice the methane emissions than conventional gas drilling.
Robert Howarth, Tony Ingraffea, and Renee Santoro analyzed data from published sources, industry reports, and Powerpoint presentations from the EPA. The study is the first peer-reviewed paper on methane emissions from shale gas, and one of the few exploring the greenhouse gas footprints of unconventional gas drilling.
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