Gee, We Won't Be Fracking Our Way out of the Problem...Whodathunk?

Oil and gas extraction using some form of fracturing has been around for over a century. The specific technique of hydraulic fracturing itself arose several decades ago. But the highly intensive shale gas boom in America has lasted for only about ten years or so now. Its praises are of course sung at howling decibel levels by climate change deniers, so there has been no shortage of claims regarding fracking's alleged panoply of miraculous environmental, financial, and political benefits.

"Developed economies should therefore help emerging economies switch from coal to natural gas; and shale gas technology should be advanced as rapidly as possible and shared freely...environmentalists should recognise the shale gas revolution as beneficial to society – and lend their full support to helping it advance."

- Anthony Watts

"A large part of the success behind this tremendous oil and gas production and jobs creation is due to an energy-extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing...Although natural gas prices in the United States have historically been volatile, the abundance of shale gas brings the possibility of low, stable prices."

- Nicolas Loris, The Heritage Foundation

A proposed [fracking] ban in response to widespread green hysteria leaves [Germany] at the mercy of Vladimir Putin.

- The Wall Street Journal

"The displacement of coal by natural gas in the power generation sector has allowed the U.S. to reduce its carbon footprint back to levels not seen since the early 1990s, and the only response from the 'environmental' movement has been to complain even louder."

- David Blackmon, Forbes

"The US CO2 emmisions has gone down to early 1990’s level. This is ONLY because of the cheap price of natural gas (Thank You Hydraulic Fracturing!)"

- westhoustongeo, contributor at Steven Goddard's blog

Well, cheap natural gas prices and, you know, that slight economic issue we had a while back, which curtailed industrial output and therefore our emissions...but, hey, thank you, anyway, hydraulic fracturing!

Even President Obama, who is probably more interested in a boost to a sputtering economy than an environmental remedy, has gotten in on the heady cheerleading.

"The all-of-the-above energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades. One of the reasons why is natural gas, if extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change."

So, OK then, let's put some rose-colored fracking glasses on here for a moment, pretend the Great Recession had nothing to do with emission reductions, attribute the decline in US emissions predominantly to fracking, and see where this amazing gas extraction technology has gotten us...



We've gone from a 2004-6 peak of just under 6 Gt CO2 annual output to a 2012 total of just over 5 Gt CO2 per year. Let's just call it a 1 Gt per year reduction for simplicity's sake, which I will admit is certainly better than nothing or an increase, but hardly an amount that will allow fracking to prevent the Arctic meltdown all on its own. Among the fracking proponents above, only Obama admits it's merely one aspect of a multifaceted approach aimed at reducing emissions enough to make a difference. The rest act as if we can ride the shale gas wave off into the carbon-neutral sunset.

Removing our rose-colored spectacles and regaining a focus on reality, we are reminded that, despite the deniosphere's love affair with hydraulic fracturing, it is far from the sole reason US CO2 emissions have dropped over the past few years, so all the accolades for this 1 Gt/year drop are not deserved. And a recent paper in Nature confirms this by all but putting the final nail in the coffin of fracking's potential to reverse climate change.

Some researchers have observed that abundant natural gas substituting for coal could reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions 3, 4, 5, 6. Others have reported that the non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions associated with shale gas production make its lifecycle emissions higher than those of coal 7, 8...Here we show that market-driven increases in global supplies of unconventional natural gas do not discernibly reduce the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions or climate forcing.

We can't frack our way out of this mess, but, as all five of my blog readers know, I believe there's a much better way to satisfy the world's energy needs while simultaneously reducing GHGs. Sure, it may come with a hefty price tag, but so do our present emission levels.