News

In the wake of the Department of the Interior announcing proposed methane regulations on oil and gas production on federal lands, there has been a barrage of activity this week from anti-fracking groups and some elected officials who are taking the opportunity to push out misinformation on methane emissions.

Their full court press is ironic considering that fuel they are trying to stop – natural gas – has done more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than any other government scheme or agreement.  Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that fracking is “an important reason for a reduction of GHG emissions in the United States.”

The IPCC isn’t alone:  according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), natural gas has prevented more than one billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted from power plants in the United States, bringing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to a 27-year low. That’s why the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) recently hailed natural gas as a “valuable component of a gradually decarbonizing electricity and energy system.”

Yet anti-fracking activists continue to deny the science and push talking points that have long been debunked.

Perhaps chief among these groups is Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSEHE), an organization funded by the anti-fracking Park Foundation.  The group put out a report this week, which rehashes the thoroughly debunked claim that “methane emissions from gas production may greatly reduce the real climate benefits” of natural gas. But that’s not surprising considering that the group’s President, Anthony Ingraffea, has become infamous for pushing this tired talking point, and his scholarship has been overwhelmingly View Full Article