Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumFracking Is The Only Way To Achieve Obama Climate Change Goals, Says Senior Admin Scientist
By Robin McKie, The Observer
Saturday, February 16, 2013 10:19 EST
America will only achieve the ambitious climate change goals outlined by President Barack Obama last week by encouraging wide-scale fracking for natural gas over the next few years. That is the advice of one of the nations senior scientists, Professor William Press, a member of the presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Fracking known officially as hydraulic fracturing involves pumping high-pressure water through underground rocks to release natural gas trapped deep underground. It is believed that there are vast reserves of these subterranean gas fields across the US.
Thousands of wells have already been drilled in Texas, leading to a substantial rise in the use of natural gas in the US and a major decline in the burning of coal, a far more serious cause of carbon pollution. However, fracking is also controversial. Environmentalists say it can lead to the contamination of underground water reservoirs and the pollution of the surface with chemicals used to help to release subterranean gas stores. They also point out that burning natural gas releases carbon dioxide.
However Press, who is president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , said last week that natural gas obtained through fracking had potential to help mitigate climate change. Coal is burnt to provide the US with almost half its electricity. This is done in huge central power plants and the process is very dirty. By contrast, the burning of natural gas is clean and can be done in smaller, local, more efficient power station, said Press.
MORE...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/16/fracking-is-the-only-way-to-achieve-obama-climate-change-goals-says-senior-administration-scientist/
Champion Jack
(5,378 posts)Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)NickB79
(19,276 posts)The researchers, who hold joint appointments with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado in Boulder, first sparked concern in February 2012 with a study1 suggesting that up to 4% of the methane produced at a field near Denver was escaping into the atmosphere. If methane a potent greenhouse gas is leaking from fields across the country at similar rates, it could be offsetting much of the climate benefit of the ongoing shift from coal- to gas-fired plants for electricity generation.
Industry officials and some scientists contested the claim, but at an American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco, California, last month, the research team reported new Colorado data that support the earlier work, as well as preliminary results from a field study in the Uinta Basin of Utah suggesting even higher rates of methane leakage an eye-popping 9% of the total production. That figure is nearly double the cumulative loss rates estimated from industry data which are already higher in Utah than in Colorado.
What's that? Oh, this research conflicts with the President's plan to turn our country into the next Saudi Arabia? Oh well then, fuck it all and brush it under the rug..........
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)Pure propaganda.
joshcryer
(62,277 posts)And conventional natural gas has long since peaked.
lagomorphine
(2 posts)Replying here because I am still unable to make a new thread as a new member.
I have two bus tickets available for the Feb 17th climate change rally in DC (against the Keystone Pipeline). If you are interested in attending and live in the NY metro area (bus leaves from northern Jersey), please send me a PM.
Thanks
joshcryer
(62,277 posts)Unless these are a kind of bus ticket I don't know about, like any origin to destination or something like that.
Nice of you to offer in any event.