Researcher rebuts colleagues on fracking leak claims

Replacing coal with natural gas reduces the creation of greenhouse gases that cause global warming, a Cornell University researcher has concluded, rebutting the findings of colleagues at the university. Bloomberg reports Lawrence Cathles, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has released a paper that says even if high rates of natural gas are leaking out after hydraulic fracturing and during transport, gas will still provide a net benefit over time. “The only thing that really counts is the amount of carbon dioxide you put in the atmosphere,” Cathles says. Because gas releases less carbon dioxide than coal or oil when combusted, “the story is quite clear that we would be very well advised to substitute natural gas.” The impact of natural gas on climate change has attracted attention as the spurt in production from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has pushed down prices and prompted power producers to shift from coal to gas. Utilities generated as much power from natural gas as coal in April, the first time natural gas equaled coal generation since the government started keeping such records, in 1973, the Energy Information Agency says. Cathles’ Cornell colleagues Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea published an article last year that says the leaking of methane from fracking—in which water, chemicals and sand are pumped into the ground to break apart rock and free gas—means the use of natural gas could actually cause more global warming than coal. Read the full story here.