Fracking seen by EPA as No. 2 emitter of greenhouse gases

[Redfairen]

Source: Fuel Fix/Houston Chronicle

Natural gas and oil production is the second-biggest source of U.S. greenhouse gases, the government said, emboldening environmentalists who say tighter measures are needed to curb the emissions from hydraulic fracturing.

In its second-annual accounting of emissions that cause global warming from stationary sources, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the first time included oil and natural- gas production. Emissions from drilling, including fracking, and leaks from transmission pipes totaled 225 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalents during 2011, second only to power plants, which emitted about 10 times that amount.

Gas and oil production “is an area where we have technological answers to our problems,” Michael Levi, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said in an interview. “We know how to fix many of these problems; we just need to make the decision to do it.”

.......

“This report confirms that major carbon reductions from power plants wouldn’t be possible without a reliable and affordable supply of domestically produced natural gas,” Simon Lomax, research director at Energy in Depth, an industry group, said in an e-mail.

Read more: http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/02/06/fracking-seen-by-epa-as-no-2-emitter-of-greenhouse-gases/

[Buzz Clik]

1. A bit of wording problem: Natural gas and oil production are #2, not fracking.

Fracking is a subset of gas and oil production.

[RoccoR5955]

2. Good. I hope that this sways Governor Cuomo

to not let them Frack NY. We have been fighting with the marketeers for years now, and I am glad that this is finally out.

Perhaps they will eventually come out and reveal the truth about fracking. It is never safe. No way, no how!

[AndyA]

3. The fracking companies just waste natural resources

The flares burn off natural gas that really should be contained and used for energy, but the oil companies say that process is too expensive for them, so they just waste it by burning it off.

[riverbendviewgal]

4. tar sands are the worst polluter on the continent

And Harper's party which controls the government won't do a thing about it. In Canada we have environment laws that have not been changed in 30 years.

Hopefully the PC will be voted out on 2014.

[robinlynne]

5. The last sentence is strange: an ad for natural gas production instead of

solar...