"Probably as dirty as coal -- could be marginally better or substantially worse"
Those are the "error bounds" of shale gas impacts on greenhouse effect and global warming described by an independent environmental scientist from Cornell we met in Binghamton NY. At even the lower parameters this is not good news.
On 9-15-10, attending the EPA meeting on hydraulic fracturing for shale gas, professor of ecology and environmental biology, independent scientist Robert Howarth, Ph.D., told a news conference that natural gas extracted from shale is nearly as dirty as coal or perhaps even dirtier in terms of greenhouse gas footprint. This is because methane (which makes up most of natural gas) is far more potent than CO2 in worsening the greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change. Methane leaks into the atmosphere, per Prof. Howarth and other science estimates, make up between 1.5% to as much as 4% of all natural gas consumed.
(More blow the fold)
continued at Daily Kos....
