[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/EW-05-01-13-Clean-Fuel-Natural-Gas.mp3|titles=EW 05-01-13 Clean Fuel (Natural Gas)]
The discovery of abundant natural gas in shale formations has been hailed as a potential game changer for greenhouse gas mitigation. For the same amount of energy, carbon dioxide emissions from burning natural gas are only half of those produced by coal.
The potential for high-volume production of natural gas using hydrofracking and other modern techniques is seen as a way to move away from coal-fired power plants and to replace gasoline and diesel for transportation. From a carbon dioxide perspective, natural gas really is a cleaner alternative.
More recently, however, natural gas is starting to be described as a “bridge fuel to nowhere” because of the impact of methane leakage.
Natural gas is essentially methane and extracting it results in a certain amount of leakage into the atmosphere. Hydrofracking has a particularly high leakage rate. Just how high is not well known because the gas industry is not very forthcoming with field data.
A number of studies in recent years have looked into the effects of methane leakage from natural gas extraction. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. As a result, replacing coal with natural gas may reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but might actually accelerate global warming.
There may be ways to dramatically reduce methane leakage, but the potential problems of leakage have to be acknowledged and made a priority. Otherwise, relying on natural gas as an interim solution to climate change might only make things worse.
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References
“Coal to gas: the influence of methane leakage” by Tom M.L. Wigley in Climate Change (2011) 108:601-608
“Methane leaks erode green credentials of natural gas” by Jeff Tollefson in Nature , 3 January, 2013
Photo, taken on December 26, 2007, courtesy of Sage Ross via Flickr.
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