Recently, the World Resources Institute, a global environmental think tank whose mission is “to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations,” released a report authored by James Bradbury titled, Clearing the Air: Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Natural Gas Systems (2013). The 60-page report available here discusses the following:
Natural gas production in the United States has increased rapidly in recent years, growing by 23 percent from 2007 to 2012. This development has significantly changed projections of the future energy mix in the U.S. Advances combining horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have enabled producers to access vast supplies of natural gas deposits in shale rock formations. This shale gas phenomenon has helped to reduce energy prices, directly and indirectly supporting growth for many sectors of the U.S. economy, including manufacturing.
This paper seeks to clarify what is known about methane emissions from the natural gas sector, what progress has been made to reduce those emissions, and what more can be done. Box S-1 lists the paper’s key findings. Box S-2 describes the scope of this study.
Shale gas development has triggered divisive debates over the near- and long-term environmental implications of developing and using these resources, including concerns over air quality, water resources, and community impacts. One point of controversy concerns the climate change implications of shale gas development, in part due to uncertainty about emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) that is the primary component of natural gas. Fugitive methane emissions reduce the net climate benefits of using lower-carbon natural gas as a substitute for coal and oil for electricity generation and transportation, respectively.
Yesterday, the Clean Air Act Task Force (CATF),
pro-environmental "nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing atmospheric pollution through research, advocacy, and private sector collaboration," issued a report titled, Good News from the Dump: Methane Emissions from Solid Waste: Current Conditions and Future Prospects (2012). According to the press release for the 96-page report available here,
In a new study of current
levels and future trends of global methane emissions from municipal solid waste,
Clean Air Task Force has put annual methane emissions at around 10 million metric
tonnes, significantly lower than the commonly reported value of 35 million
metric tonnes found by other sources that rely on the methodologies of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007.
The study looks at the primary means of solid waste
disposal, including landfills, composting, thermal processing (including incineration
for energy production), anaerobic digestion (primarily sewage sludge from livestock
operations with minimal methane recovery), integrated waste recycling and recovery,
and aerobic composting of organic content. In addition, trends in the growth of
each of these techniques, with consequent methane emissions, are projected out
to the year 2030.
Yesterday the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a report, titled Dissolved Methane in New York Groundwater, 1999—2011, Open-File Report 2012-1162. In the brief six page report available here, and authored in conjunction with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the survey was designed to monitor naturally occurring instances of methane in drinking water in "low-permeability bedrock such as the Marcellus and Utica Shales." The justification for this report stems from,
newly developed techniques involving horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing [which] have made it possible to extract previously inaccessible natural gas . . . The use of hydraulic fracturing to release natural gas from these shale formations has raised concerns with water-well owners and water-resource managers across the Marcellus and Utica Shale region (West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and parts of several other adjoining States). In order to manage water resources in areas of gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing in New York, the natural occurrence of methane in the State’s aquifers needs to be documented.
The information contained in this report was compiled from information available from the
USGS's National Water Information System (NWIS). In particular the link for information on Groundwater should be helpful.
Related Resources
New York, Hydraulic Fracturing (Hydrofracking), Pace L. Libr. LibGuides (Sept. 5, 2012), http://libraryguides.law.pace.edu/aecontent.php?pid=227170&sid=2082504.
