Natural Gas

 

What is natural gas?

 

Natural gas is a fossil fuel composed mainly of methane gas. Becuase conventional methods of natural gas extraction are no longer as fruitful, natural gas is often extracted through the process of fracking – which involves injected chemical-laced water at high pressures into the ground to break rocks and release stored gas to the surface. After extraction, natural gas travels in gaseous form (typically) through pipelines and then to power plants, at which it is burned to produce electricity or for heating.

 

Where is natural gas found?

 

Methane gas is found in many places around the United States, such as Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Texas.  

 

How does natural gas compare to coal?

 

Natural gas, when burned, does release less carbon dioxide than coal. However, because 30% of this gas is lost or deliberately released to the environment during extraction and burning processes, large amounts of methane end up in the atmosphere. As methane is a more potent green house gas, using natural gas is accelerating climate change.

 

"'Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20 percent greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years,' states a pre-publication copy (pdf) of the study"(Howarth, Santoro, and Ingraffea, http://thehill.com/images/stories/blogs/energy/howarth.pdf) (Check out the New York Times Article here)

 

What are some health impacts of natural gas? 

 

Water sources are impacted near drilling sites. In one study, Jackson sampled 60 residential drinking water wells for dissolved methane levels and found that, on average, wells near active drilling sites were contaminated with methane at levels 17 times higher than those found in wells in areas without drilling. 

 

Fracking sites are exempt from the Clean Water and Clean Air Act - meaning that full lists of chemicals used in fracking have not been released to the public, even though there is leakage into ground water. There have been at least 632 known chemicals, of which 40-50% can impact the brain and nervous systems, and 25% could cause cancer and mutations. 

 

Natural Gas Operations from a Public Health Perspective

Blind Rush? Shale gas boom proceeds amidst human health questions

 

For More Resources: 

Energy Casualties: How People are Dying for our Energy

World Energy Outlook Report 2011