Alaska News

Study: Climate benefits of natural gas inflated

The climate benefits of natural gas are overrated because production of the fuel winds up releasing methane, a greenhouse gas that is far more potent than carbon dioxide, concludes a new study published in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

The study synthesizes findings of about 200 previous investigations into methane leaks and natural-gas production and processing methods and finds that the negative side effects cancel out many of the climate benefits of a product widely considered to be a bridge between fossil and renewable energy.

The natural gas industry itself is responsible for much of the atmospheric leakage of methane, which is about 30 times more potent in its greenhouse characteristics than carbon dioxide. Officials have underestimated overall methane releases, and many of those releases come from natural-gas fields.

The lead author, Adam Brandt of Stanford University, said some switches from gasoline or diesel to natural gas are doing little good.

"Fueling trucks and buses with natural gas may help local air quality and reduce oil imports, but it is not likely to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Even running passenger cars on natural gas instead of gasoline is probably on the borderline in terms of climate," Brandt said in a statement released by Stanford.

Still, using natural gas for electricity production is better for the climate than using coal for that purpose, the study concludes. And some methane leaks in the natural gas system could be avoided, preventing climate impacts and waste of valuable fuel that would otherwise stream into the atmosphere, the study says.

Contact Yereth Rosen at yereth@alaskadispatch.com.

Yereth Rosen

Yereth Rosen was a reporter for Alaska Dispatch News.

ADVERTISEMENT