New NOAA Study Finds Low Methane Emissions, Attempts to Mask Data with Ethane Focus
Tuesday May 3, 2016
A new study by researchers at the University of Michigan and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has produced some pretty alarmist headlines in recent days, none more foreboding than “Fracking in the U.S. causing global surge in dangerous gas.”
One might assume the “dangerous” gas in question is methane, considering it has become an obsession of opponents of shale development in recent years, based on the inaccurate notion that fugitive methane emissions are wiping out natural gas’ tremendous climate benefits.
But this study actually found such low levels of methane in the Bakken Shale region that they didn’t even bother to include estimates in their report. Which begs the question: How does a study finding low methane emissions still manage to generate hyperbolic headlines such as the one above? The answer: by focusing on ethane rather than methane, and selling them as equals.
Based on a series of measurements from flights in 2014 over North Dakota and Montana, the study claims the Bakken is solely responsible for two percent of the world’s atmospheric ethane emissions and is also single-handedly responsible for an upward spike in ethane emissions the past five years after more than a decade of declines. This entire hypothesis is based on a single 2009 report of increased ethane emissions from a remote mountaintop in Europe, by the way.
Setting aside for a moment how strange the latter notion seems, it is more important to understand that ethane emissions have largely been ignored by fracking opponents and the media up to this point for a reason. Here are three things you need to know about the study that (most) of the media missed, resulting in alarmist headlines popping up left and right.
Fact #1: Study finds low methane emissions; chooses to focus on ethane instead
The study states,
“… This study focused on assessing the atmospheric ...