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Study Finds Methane Leaks Negate Benefits of Natural Gas-Powered Vehicles

Posted by samzenpus on from the zero-sum-game dept.

Lasrick writes "Coral Davenport at the NY Times reports on a study to be published on Friday: '...a surprising new report...concludes that switching buses and trucks from traditional diesel fuel to natural gas could actually harm the planet's climate.' The report apparently documents that the leaks of methane that occur when drilling for natural gas more than make up for the climate change benefits of using natural gas as a transportation fuel. The report will be published Friday in the journal Science."

4 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Manipulative headline by HateBreeder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The title implies that we should abandon gas as an alternative to diesel/petrol.

    This is done by falsely implying that pollution due to methane leaks are an inherit part of the drilling process.

    Instead, what we should really do is improve the drilling techniques to avoid/minimize leakage.

    --
    Sigs are for the weak.
    1. Re:Manipulative headline by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd also like to know how much methane is leaked from oil (petroleum) drilling. You see them burning gas off in flares on the rig and refineries, but how much escapes. This is important because if we assume the alternative gives zero methane we may not see the true saving.

    2. Re:Manipulative headline by Vintermann · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Instead, what we should really do is improve the drilling techniques to avoid/minimize leakage.

      No. In order to say that, we need to know how feasible it is to reduce leakage. It's by no means certain it's easy or even possible.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    3. Re:Manipulative headline by lisaparratt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or, you know, get a little perspective, realise that those imaginary shiny pennies are inconsequential compared to the long term survival of our species, and just do what it takes to make fission/fusion/solar a practicable, virtually endless, virtually free supply, and just make this whole energy scarcity issue vanish in a puff of science.

      But then they wouldn't be able to rinse us common folk for every penny we've got through fuel costs and associated taxes, would they?