From Environmental Leader

Good piece today:

Leakage Rates ‘Threaten Green Benefits of Natural Gas"

Failure to reduce methane leaks has the potential to eliminate much, if not all, of the greenhouse gas advantage of natural gas over coal, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Methane is the main ingredient in natural gas and burns cleaner than other fossil fuels when combusted, but un-combusted methane is a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide – the principal contributor to man-made climate change. As a result the gas’s leakage from production and transportation has the potential to remove any environmental benefits it boasts over traditional fuels, according to Greater Focus Needed on Methane Leakage from Natural Gas Infrastructure, whose five authors hail from Princeton, Duke, the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Environmental Defense Fund.

Assuming the EPA’s 2009 leakage rate of 2.4 percent (from well to city) is correct, new natural-gas combined cycle power plants reduce climate impacts compared to new coal plants, and do so as long as leakage remains under 3.2 percent.

However, assuming the EPA’s estimates for leak rates, compressed natural gas-fueled vehicles are not a viable mitigation strategy for climate change because of methane leakage from natural gas production, delivery infrastructure and from the vehicles themselves, the paper finds. For light-duty CNG cars to become a viable short-term climate strategy, methane leakage would need to be kept below 1.6 percent of total natural gas produced. This is approximately half the current amount for well to wheels leakage....

This is pretty disappointing news.  We, like others, have pushed for conversions away from coal-powered plants.  Maybe we shouldn't have.

Also, methane leaks are a major problem in old cities with decaying pipes.  Interestingly, in many situations, it is cheaper for utility companies to absorb the lost gas versus fixing the leaks.  And, they do.  That is a sad look at today's business side of green.