Coal Seam Gas and one greenhouse gas emissions myth doing the rounds

THE MYTH

A RESPONSE

Letter to the Editor in The Daily Examiner 23 April 2013:

I’ve noticed recently that there has been some discussion in both mainstream and social media concerning coal seam gas mining and levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

Various assertions has been made that the reduction in these emissions is both considerable and due solely to gas produced by fracking replacing coal as the main energy source for the U.S. population.

Some have attempted to use this argument to justify coal seam gas (CSG) mining in Australia.

What no-one mentions as they spread this myth is that natural gas has not yet replaced coal as the main source of energy, as where America primarily draws the raw materials supplying its energy generators varies across any one year but coal has generally remained dominant since at least 1973.

There is complete silence on the fact that shale/unconventional gas mining has been conducted on a widening scale since the late 1980s and early 1990s when U.S. national greenhouse gas emissions stood at an estimated 6,183 to 6,912 Tg CO2 equivalent and never a word is said about the fact that government agencies still expect emissions to be back around 6,320 million metric tons in 2035.

Neither do they point out that gas production from coalbed methane (coal seam gas) has been falling since the 1990s. So currently CSG is only an estimated 7.5%  of America’s natural gas production profile.

Nor does anyone mention that annual greenhouse gas emissions began to fall significantly only after U.S. superior courts held in 2007 that these emissions were in fact pollutants under that country’s Clean Air Act and that the Environmental Protection Agency had the right to control emissions emanating from both moving and stationary sources.

Other facts that don’t rate a mention are that America’s national greenhouse gas emissions levels (including methane) are higher now than they were in the 1980s and, that annual emissions from “natural gas” use have been steadily climbing again for the last four years so that it remains the fourth highest source of greenhouse gas emissions ahead of both cement/lime production and the incineration of waste.

So yes, America has made reductions in its emission levels since these peaked in 2007 and its federal and state governments should be congratulated. However, the reductions are in the context of slowing not stopping inevitable rises over time and no single energy source is the hero of the hour.

All this is easily checked at U.S. Energy Information Administration, Energy Protection Agency and Dept. of the Interior websites.

JUDITH M. MELVILLE

Yamba