CP Maintains fracked natural gas- dooms climate

(Michael, Director@ChesapeakeClimateActionNetwork, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/readers-react-to-the-editorial-boards-green-new-deal/2019/02/28/9f72a302-3b77-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html , 2-28)

The Feb. 24 editorial “Want a Green New Deal? Here’s a better one.” made good points about the power of market forces to help solve the climate crisis. But it endorsed the wide use of a particular fossil fuel — fracked natural gas — that scientists say could help doom the planet. The editorial said natural gas is “far less damaging” than coal. But the editorial linked to a Union of Concerned Scientists memo that includes a rebuttal of this argument. Greenhouse-gas benefits, it turns out, depend on the life-cycle leakage rate of the methane being drilled and compressed and piped to market. Those leakage rates in the United States can be as high as a catastrophic 9 percent of the total gas exploited, according to UCS. Indeed, using publicly available data from sources ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Energy Department to local utility Dominion Energy shows that fracked gas is as bad — if not worse — for the climate as coal. Or, as one Cornell University scientist has famously said, fracked gas is not a “bridge fuel” to a clean energy future. It’s a “gangplank” to a climate calamity.