This article from Yale Environment 360 takes a look at natural gas as the critical piece of the U.S.’s energy future.

The piece does a good job of discussing the environmental problems of our move toward natural gas, the potential for natural gas price fluctuations (just because supply has shot through the roof doesn’t mean price will stay low and steady), and the need for renewables (free fuel) as a hedge for this price uncertainty. The article also covers the impact of a natural gas infrastructure on climate in a general fashion (that is, it has less climate-warming potential than coal). Though the logic is solid and I agree with the argument, the primary thing that is missing (as a commenter notes) is a lack of discussion of methane leakage.

Most anybody who knows climate science understands that methane, though it has a shorter life-span in the atmosphere, has much more (about 23x) heat trapping potential than CO2. If natural gas is indeed going to be realized as a way to further lessen the U.S.’s carbon output, a stiff regulatory structure to address leakage NEEDS to be in place, and be in place QUICKLY. If we indeed will need more than a million wells to extract our natural gas, and the new wells are to be built quickly (about 100 oil and gas wells were drilled in 2010 every day), there is serious potential to make the climate situation worse if methane leakage occurs at even a fraction of these new wells.

Many reports about natural gas these days ignore the issue of leakage. The rapid emergence of natural gas as a climate-friendlier energy source, the highly political nature of energy and climate, strong lobbying by the oil and gas industry, and understaffed federal agencies with highly politicized bureaucratic structures only exacerbate the potential of the natural gas boom to do more harm than good. We need to address this problem before the cure (gas) becomes as harmful as the disease (coal).