WHAT IS NATURAL GAS?

Source: Wikipedia

METHANE COMBUSTION

HOW IS NATURAL GAS CREATED?

WHERE IS NG LOCATED?

HOW IS NG OBTAINED, STORED AND USED?

HOW DOES NG COMPARE TO OTHER FUELS?

Source: Natural Resources Canada

WHAT’S THE CATCH?

- Although the following is true:

- Carbon emissions remain in the atmosphere for centuries, where methane

does not; and

- Carbon emissions are much smaller for natural gas than many other sources.

- Methane traps much more heat in the atmosphere (84-100 times more)

- This means:

- Any molecule of methane released today is 100 times more heat trapping

than carbon dioxide

- Even though methane may only account for 14% of emissions worldwide, and

carbon dioxide molecules outnumber methane 5 to 1,

- This smaller amount is still 19 times a greater problem for climate change

over a 5 year period and 4 times greater over a 10 year period.

Sources: onegreenplanet.org, Environmental Defense Fund, US EPA

“BY EMITTING JUST A LITTLE BIT A METHANE,

MANKIND IS GREATLY ACCELERATING THE RATE

OF CLIMATIC CHANGE.”-Steve Hamburg

Chief Scientist, Environmental Defense

Fund

WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?

HOW IS METHANE ALLOWED TO ESCAPE?

- Before it can be added to a pipeline, some companies vent the methane

directly into the air

- Leaking pipes, valves, compressors and tanks allow for escaping

methane

- During hydraulic fracturing (fracking), small amounts of methane are

allowed to escape into the atmosphere.

Source: npr.org

WHAT IS FRACKING?

- Allows for the removal of natural gas from a layer of rock (usually shale)

- Pressurized mix of sand, chemicals, and water are injected into a

wellbore to create cracks

- These cracks allow for the gas to flow

- When the hydraulic pressure is removed, the sand remains to hold the

fractures open, allowing gas to flow through them.

Source: wikipedia.org

LOWER 48 SHALE GAS DEPOSITS

PROS OF FRACKING

- Limits dependence on foreign oil

- Allow for job growth and exportation of NG as a commodity

- Done correctly, can be an alternative to burning more carbon-rich fuels

- Can be a “bridge fuel” to even cleaner energy forms

- Allows alternative usage of land for small landowners/farmers

CONS OF FRACKING

- It can be expensive

- During well completion, there are fugitive methane emissions

- The mixture used to break apart rock could reach (and poison) the

groundwater, although proponents say it’s so far beneath the water table

that’s not likely.

- We don’t know what’s in the chemicals used in fracturing–some are

classified as “trade secrets”.

- No comprehensive short- or long-term studies have been done on health

environmental impact.

- The fracking mixtures uses many millions of gallons of fresh water

- Other chemicals are emitted into the air in the fracking process, the health

risks of which we don’t yet know.

Sources:

1. Methane and the greenhouse gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations. A letter.

Climactic Change106:679-790 (2011)

Robert W. Howarth, Renee Santoro, Anthony Ingraffea

2. The Environmental Costs and Benefits of Fracking

Annual Review of Environment and Resources

Vol. 39: 327-362 (Volume publication date October 2014)

First published online as a Review in Advance on August 11, 2014

DOI: 10.1146/annurev-environ-031113-144051

Robert B. Jackson,1,2 Avner Vengosh,2 J. William Carey,3 Richard J. Davies,4 Thomas H. Darrah,5 Francis O'Sullivan,6 and Gabr

CONCLUSION

- Need for unbiased studies

- Better regulation

- Greater transparency