Is Methane Really Better For The Climate Than Coal?
Natural gas is the good cop in the bad cop world of fossil fuels, right?
Depending on who you ask, methane is either a the ideal transition fuel to a low-carbon future, or a super polluter.
The science of methane says that for natural gas to have a lower climate footprint than other fossil fuels — particularly coal — there can be leakage of no more than 3.2% from end to end. Yet studies across the US show wildly different leakage rates. One of the most influential, by Robert Howarth of Cornell University, puts it at 4.8%, making methane worse for the environment than coal. The EPA tells a different story, and says leakage rates are just 0.93%.
All of this really matters for the climate, especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The US has become the world's biggest producer and exporter of natural gas, and hundreds of billions of dollars have been invested globally on the premise that natural gas is a cleaner stop-gap between our fossil present and our low-carbon future.
So who is right? And how can we find ways to reduce those methane emissions in either case. Grant Swartzwelder, founder of OTA Environmental Solutions and ESG Dynamics, based in Dallas, Texas, joins Cleaning Up to tease out the problem.
To listen to the interview with Grant Swartzwelder, visit cleaningup.live, search for Cleaning Up on your podcast platform of choice, or watch the video on YouTube here.