How to Frack Responsibly
New York Times
27 February 2012
By Joe Nocera
Fracking isn’t going away.
To put it another way, the technique of hydraulic fracturing, used
to extract natural gas from once-impossible-to-get-at reservoirs
like the Marcellus Shale that lies beneath New York and
Pennsylvania, has more than proved its value. At this point, shale
gas, as it’s called, makes up more than 30 percent of the
country’s natural gas supply, up from 2 percent in 2001 — a figure
that is sure to keep rising. Fracking’s enemies can stamp their
feet all they want, but that gas is too important to leave it in
the ground.
Fred Krupp, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund,
understands this as well as anyone. Last summer, he was a member
of a small federal advisory panel that was charged by Steven Chu,
the secretary of energy, with assessing the problems associated
with fracking. The group came up with a long list of environmental
issues. But it also concluded that “the U.S. shale gas resource
has enormous potential to provide economic and environmental
benefits for the country.”
One thing I’ve always liked about the Environmental Defense Fund
is its hardheaded approach. Founded by scientists, it believes in
data, not hysteria. It promotes market incentives to change
behavior and isn’t afraid to work with industry. Utterly
nonpartisan, it is oriented toward practical policy solutions.
And that has been its approach to fracking. When I spoke to him
recently, Krupp didn’t back away from the idea that domestic
natural gas could be the “bridge fuel” that helps bring us toward
a renewable energy future. Unlike others in the environmental
movement, he and his colleagues at the Environmental Defense Fund
don’t want to shut down fracking; rather, their goal is to work
with the states where most of the shale gas lies and help devise
smart regulations that would make fracking environmentally safer.
Let’s take one example: the problem of methane leaks. Every
natural gas well leaks methane — methane is natural gas, after all
— and while the natural gas that winds up being burned as fuel is,
indeed, relatively clean, methane that escapes into the air is
potent. Though it eventually disintegrates, for several decades
methane can add significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.
Question No. 1: How much methane leaks into the air as a result of
fracking? Incredibly, nobody knows. The Environmental Protection
Agency has estimated the leak rate at a little more than 2
percent, but a recent study suggested it might be twice that. And
a controversial Cornell University study last year said it was
closer to 6 percent. Clearly, it is critical to know the answer,
which is why the Environmental Defenses Fund is currently
participating in a study that is expected to provide one.
Question No. 2: How big a difference will it make to the
environment if industry can minimize methane leaks? A lot. To
illustrate the point, Steven Hamburg, the group’s chief scientist,
showed me a model he had devised. It allowed me to see the effect
on greenhouse gas emissions as methane leaks were reduced.
Suppose, for instance, the current leak rate turns out to be 4
percent. Suppose we then reduce it in half. That would mean an
immediate reduction in overall U.S. greenhouse gases by — are you
sitting down for this? — 9 percent. If the leaks are reduced to 1
percent, the decrease in greenhouse gases jumps to 14 percent.
(That number eventually gets smaller as the potency of the methane
wears off.) Meanwhile, failing to reduce methane leaks largely
eliminates the environmental advantage of natural gas over coal.
You can plug in different estimates and get different results, but
the point is this: There is no denying the huge difference it can
make to the environment to reduce methane gas leaks.
Nor is this some kind of impossible dream. “There are
cost-effective ways to reduce methane leaks,” says Michael Levi,
an energy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. In fact, a
number of the better producers, like Shell, are already employing
technology to minimize leaks and taking other steps to drill for
natural gas in a responsible fashion. Nor is there much doubt that
the outcry by environmentalists over fracking helped awaken the
industry to the problems.
But, of course, not all drillers can be counted on to drill
responsibly, which is why regulation is so critical. “Wouldn’t it
be better,” I asked Krupp, “for fracking to be regulated by the
federal government rather than by the states? Wouldn’t that mean
better, more uniform regulation and tougher enforcement?”
Krupp frowned. “Given the dysfunction in D.C., a state-by-state
approach will be more effective,” he said. “We need to focus on
getting the rules right, and complied with, in the 14 states which
have 85 percent of the onshore gas reserves.”
Here’s hoping that the anti-frackers someday join him.