News

Shale opponents’ obsession with methane emissions from oil and natural gas development is a distraction in terms of addressing climate change, according to a new study led by researchers from the University of Oxford.

The study argues that focusing on reducing CO2 is more important due to its cumulative impacts over time, a point a lead author of the study, Oxford climate scientist Raymond Pierrehumbert, made in the Washington Post:

“People are placing too much emphasis on methane. And really, people should prove that we can actually get the CO2 emissions down first, before worrying about whether we are doing enough to get methane emissions down.”

Pierrehumbert’s comments come after he recently told Climate Central environmentalists’ continued focus on methane is misguided:

“… Methane is still just a sideshow, and relative to what the U.S. needs to do to fulfill its Paris commitments with regard to keeping the warming under 2°C, even a substantial upward revision of methane leakage is almost completely irrelevant. The warming due to steady methane emissions essentially stops increasing after just two decades, and is largely reversible once the leakage stops.”

Natural Gas Reduces CO2

Of course, we also know that natural gas – by reducing carbon dioxide emissions – is doing more to address climate change than anti-fracking activists would ever admit. In fact, since the shale revolution began, the United States has been a world leader in reducing CO2 emissions, as the following EID graphic illustrates: