The alarming methane leakage from gas wells is not news.

There is little new news about the natural gas bridge to nowhere.

I have a couple of things to say about this: Researchers from NOAA and UC Boulder upped their estimate of methane leakage from 4 percent to 9 percent.

1. NOAA address only upstream/midstream emissions. They do not include leakage from transmission, storage, and distribution losses.
2. We knew about leaking gas wells way back in 2006 when Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe reported about research done in 2003.

Published on 2006-05-28, by Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe, Denton Record-Chronicle
Cars not only culprit for smog
Bright, blue skies are turning hazy for the summer, and no one knows yet whether last year’s spike of unhealthy ozone days will subside.

She told us, “…those emissions, along with hydrogen sulfide, often leak from pipelines and production facilities.”

In 2002, a University of California professor collected air samples from around the country. They came back to north Texas in 2003 and tested far away from roads to exclude vehicle emissions.

But they still found hydrocarbons at high levels; so high, in fact, that they established a total count for the region that was once thought to be the entire country’s annual emissions, six teragrams in all, he said.

There is hardly any new news about this bridge to nowhere. It’s all been reported over and over. The only thing new are the people who are finally tuning in.

About Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.

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