Another study highlights gas boom’s climate problem

[theHandpuppet]

http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/
The Charleston Gazette (WV)
Another study highlights gas boom’s climate problem
May 7, 2014 by Ken Ward Jr.

(excerpt)
Here’s the news, summarized in a press announcement from NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder:

During two days of intensive airborne measurements, oil and gas operations in Colorado’s Front Range leaked nearly three times as much methane, a greenhouse gas, as predicted based on inventory estimates, and seven times as much benzene, a regulated air toxic. Emissions of other chemicals that contribute to summertime ozone pollution were about twice as high as estimates, according to the new paper, accepted for publication in the American Geophysical Union’s Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

“These discrepancies are substantial,” said lead author Gabrielle Petron, an atmospheric scientist with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Emission estimates or ‘inventories’ are the primary tool that policy makers and regulators use to evaluate air quality and climate impacts of various sources, including oil and gas sources. If they’re off, it’s important to know.”

The new paper provides independent confirmation of findings from research performed from 2008-2010, also by Petron and her colleagues, on the magnitude of air pollutant emissions from oil and gas activities in northeastern Colorado. In the earlier study, the team used a mobile laboratory—sophisticated chemical detection instruments packed into a car—and an instrumented NOAA tall tower near Erie, Colorado, to measure atmospheric concentrations of several chemicals downwind of various sources, including oil and gas equipment, landfills and animal feedlots.

[Champion Jack]

1. Ken Ward Jr is a lone beacon in the wilderness that is the sacrifice zone of West Virginia

[cprise]

2. Direct link:

http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/2014/05/07/another-study-highlights-gas-booms-climate-problem/