Forbes: Does Shale Gas Production Alter Equation For Climate Change?

The shale gas industry has long thought that the Environmental Protection Agency would limit its possibilities. But a new report from the regulator is fueling the unconventional natural gas, noting that its heat-trapping emissions are much less than originally thought.

This power generation sector is embracing the results given its increasing reliance on natural gas to provide electricity to its customers. Nevertheless, the news out of EPA is divisive: One school reasons that because natural gas is replacing coal that is twice as toxic, the recent data is a net positive. The other, however, is fearful that the findings may ease the burden to publicly finance and produce cleaner alternatives such as wind and solar energy.

“Natural gas has been hailed as a solution to global warming but only if it is used alone,” says Chris Martenson, author of PeakProsperity.com . “The fact remains that we have no intention to stop the use of coal … and in reality, natural gas will only be an additive to existing carbon emissions.”

Let’s look at EPA’s findings : Its annual report detailing greenhouse gases shows that those releases fell by 1.6 percent between 2011 and 2012. That is because of reduced emissions from electricity generation, partly from fuel-switching and partly because they have been less productive. It is also because of improvements in the fuel efficiency of vehicles as well as warmer weather.  MORE