The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
April 12, 2011

Study: Natural Gas Drilling May Contribute More to Global Warming Than Coal 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------



A new study on the environmental impact on natural gas drilling in shale
has found that the process known as “hydraulic fracturing” may
contribute to global warming as much as coal, or even more, because
large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas, are escaping into the
atmosphere during the process. For years, advocates of "fracking" have
promoted natural gas as a clean alternative to coal. In the new study,
Cornell Professor Robert Howarth writes, "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."



.