"Q: From a climate change perspective, scientists say more data needed to understand methane leakage to see if gas is indeed a net benefit to the climate. The latest study, funded largely by the industry said the leakage rates are low. Do you feel like, even if the rates were high, it’s a solvable problem? A: The University of Texas study studied only the wells that were being highly supervised. So it studied wells that were experimenting with new technologies that are not industry-wide and not required for the industry to see if they could reduce methane rates, and indeed the rates were lower. But what that says is if you’re going to reduce methane, you need to have supervision of every well. Q: But if leaks are a solvable problem, isn’t gas better for the climate than coal? A: It depends. If that is widely adapted and it is enforced, and then you can say, “It’s less damaging to the climate.” But it still leaves a lot of other problems that make the industry pretty untenable." stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2013/10/03/robert-f-kennedy-jr-calls-natural-gas-a-catastrophe/
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 21:01:17 +0000