Like most any industrial process, nominal amounts of emissions – albeit short-term – are emitted during the natural gas development process. Importantly though clean-burning natural gas, which is increasingly being used for power generation and transportation, is helping to improve air quality both regionally and nationally. In fact, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions were down eight percent nationally and nearly 14 percent across the Mid-Atlantic, thanks in part to expanded natural gas use.
Furthermore, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that CO2 emissions are at a 20-year low, thanks to increased use of natural gas. State and federal regulations are also in place to control and mitigate ambient methane emissions during the drilling process and transportation of natural gas. According to Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, “emissions from drilling represent a small fraction of air pollution in the state, which has gone down considerably since shale gas development began in earnest several years ago.”
In a recent Beaver County Times letter to the editor, MSC’s CEO Kathryn Klaber laid out these facts.
