EPA official calls Cornell gas-climate study ‘important piece of information’

A senior Environmental Protection Agency official said Tuesday that a controversial study about the global warming effects of fracking warrants federal review, while expressing confidence that the emissions it describes can be brought under control.

“This study ... is an important piece of information that we need to bring into the discussion,” said Robert Perciasepe, EPA’s deputy administrator, at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on natural-gas drilling.

Cornell University researchers, in a forthcoming paper, say that natural gas developed through the drilling method referred to as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is more damaging to the climate than coal over 20 years, with comparable global warming effects over a century.

The study (which E2 covered here and here) challenges the widely held view that gas is far more climate-friendly than coal. It argues that “fugitive” emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane at well sites and gas distribution render this untrue.

Perciasepe said that technologies are available to curb the release of methane at development sites.

“These are generally problems that can be addressed through proper controls or through collection controls at the wellhead,” said Perciasepe, who noted the methane issue “needs to be taken into account.”

Perciasepe emphasized the need to both reduce emissions of methane at shale gas drilling sites and traditional pollutants that contribute to smog and other problems. “This is something that is going to have to be looked at over the long haul here. We have to make sure that fugitive emissions can be reduced,” Perciasepe said.

“If this study, after we review it, adds to this discussion, we are going to definitely want be looking as a country at reducing the emissions from these facilities,” he said.

The study’s authors have acknowledged that their data is limited, but say it’s the best available, and that more research is needed.

But multiple oil-and-gas industry groups have gone on the attack over the paper, alleging its methodology is shoddy. The American Petroleum Institute called the study "bunk" in a statement released Tuesday. 

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) at the hearing called the study “a real surprise to many of us.”

Perciasepe’s prepared testimony Tuesday highlighted EPA efforts to tackle gas-sector methane emissions through a partnership with companies called the Natural Gas STAR program.

“Beginning in 1993, this successful voluntary program now has over 130 partner companies. Together we have identified over 80 technologies and practices that can cost-effectively reduce methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector,” he said.