Posted on 09/16/2013 2:11:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) — Drilling and fracking for natural gas don't seem to spew immense amounts of the greenhouse gas methane into the air, as has been feared, a new study says.
The findings bolster a big selling point for natural gas, that it's not as bad for global warming as coal. And they undercut a major environmental argument against fracking, a process that breaks apart deep rock to recover more gas. The study, mostly funded by energy interests, doesn't address other fracking concerns about potential air and water pollution.
The results, which generally agree with earlier Environmental Protection Agency estimates, were published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
About 90 percent of the study funding came from nine energy companies that drill for natural gas with the rest coming from an environmental group. But study authors said they controlled how the research was done and how the wells were chosen for study. And even Robert Howarth of Cornell University, one of the scientists who first raised the methane leak alarm, calls the results "good news."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I was moving a gas line in my old house in Santa Clara.
During the inspection I asked if they needed to do a leak pressure test.
The inspector said “If we had to do it for all homes in San Jose, 90% would fail”
Have any of these Watermelon Enviro-Nazis ever seen a underground storage well “conditioned”?
Do they even LOOK at the “pending blowdown” reports as filed?
lol.. Call the EPA Hot Line.. :-]
You might get a cash reward.
What the EPA has to say about Methane emissions..
http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html
That’s scary, what pressure do they use?
The envirofascists don’t care about facts - they don’t want ANY human activity - or any humans for that matter (except themselves, of course).
For a little over 30 years there was a natural gas leak on our road about 500 feet from our house. When the wind was just right it would fill the house with that Mercaptan smell.
The gas company had been called by me and many neighbors numerous times and nothing was ever done and that again is over 30 years.
Only when the property where the leak had occurred was put up for sale did National Fuel Gas come out to fix it. Evidently the Realtor could not sell the land with that stink.
Small leaks which are NOT enough to explode are inconsequential to NFG as gas is so cheap (unless you have to pay for it in you heating bill).
And by the way Methane can be burned as a fuel and we are stinking rich with the stuff (no pun intended, well yes)
The inspector said “If we had to do it for all homes in San Jose, 90% would fail”
Natural gas , downstream of the pressure regulator, which is always outside the house, and normally right by the house, is about 12" to 14" water column pressure. That is the amount of pressure to push water up a straw (for example) 12-14", or about one half pound of pressure.
IIRC from my days as a general contractor, the pressure test the inspectors use requires the system be closed off at all points, (capping the outlet to the stove etc.) then applying more than 60 times as much pressure, 30 pounds, and it has to hold for 2 hours with less than 2 pounds drop in pressure.
You can judge for yourself, but that is a huge margin of safety.
I'd also suspect the 90% number is quite a bit high.
An important fact to keep in mind, natural gas is lighter than air, so it will slowly float up and away. A small leak, with enough openings to the sky, and it’s relatively harmless.
LP gas, on the other hand, is heavier than air, and it will seep into the low spots, basements, sewers, any low area. It collects there, and over time, minutes, hours, months, it becomes a bomb. All it takes then is an ignitions source, a flipped light switch, a dropped rock or tool that sparks and things could end in an enormous explosion.
Good info, thanks!
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