Landmark U.S. Power Plant Rule Ignores Methane in Natural Gas Fracking

The new carbon pollution standard released Monday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) doesn’t account for methane released in natural gas fracking, according to researchers from Cornell and Stanford, even though methane is 21 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. “Converting to natural gas plants, which is what this latest rule is likely to do, will actually aggravate climate change, not make things better,” said Cornell Prof. Robert Howarth. “You don’t get natural gas at the gas-fired power plant out of a bottle—it comes out of thousands of wells, and those wells are dirty,” agreed Cornell’s Anthony Ingraffea. “You don’t win, you lose in the climate change battle if you switch from coal to methane.” (h/t to InsideClimate News)