Pennsylvania’s natural gas wells are leaking up to 1,000 times more methane than EPA estimates

Image: Fracking site. (Credit: Jim Parkin/Shutterstock)

salon.com - April 16th, 2014 - Lindsay Abrams

Fracking sites at Pennsylvania’s natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale are releasing way more methane than we thought — somewhere on the order of 100 to 1,000 times EPA estimates, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. Flying about seven well pads in a plane equipped to measure greenhouse gas emissions, researchers found that, on average, the sites emitted 34 grams of methane per second. The EPA’s estimate: between 0.04 and 0.30 grams of methane per second.

The problem, the researchers were surprised to discover, begins before the controversial process of fracking even gets started.

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