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New Backgrounder Released by Environmental Defence Summarizes the Problems of Ontario’s Increasing Reliance on “Natural” Gas

Enviromental Defense

Some 90 per cent of the gas used in Ontario is fracked gas, imported from the U.S. In the process of fracking, a lot of methane gas escapes into the atmosphere. Enbridge is aggressively marketing gas as clean and low-carbon, when in fact, it’s neither of those things. and Western Canada.

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Pipelines, Emissions and FERC

Legal Planet

On Friday there were two seismic shocks in the world of gas pipeline regulation. FERC has spent years resisting pressure to change the way it licenses new gas pipelines. A whole point of a natural gas pipeline is to deliver the gas to users who will burn it, thereby releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.

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Atmospheric helium levels are on the rise

Physics World

Levels of helium-4 in the Earth’s atmosphere have been increasing since at least 1974, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, US that resolves a longstanding anomaly in atmospheric science. When the gas is extracted and burned, the helium is released into the atmosphere.

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Gas Plants Have a Real Climate Problem. So Do Some Proposed Approaches for Addressing It. 

Union of Concerned Scientists

Power plants fueled by methane gas have a serious climate problem. The fuel, commonly known as natural gas, now powers the biggest portion of US electricity generation—more than 40 percent. Notably for a discussion of gas plants, that includes methane, which traps many times more heat than CO 2.

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Alaska Communities Struggle for Baseline Water Data Amid Climate Uncertainty

Circle of Blue

Atmospheric warming, however, will almost certainly affect the waters quality. If built, the proposed Alaska LNG pipeline which would transport natural gas 800 miles through the heart of Alaska, from the North Slope to the Kenai Peninsula would likely cross through and then terminate adjacent to the Beaver Creek watershed near Nikisi.

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The definitive CO2/CH4 comparison post

Real Climate

But methane’s role in atmospheric chemistry and as a source of stratospheric water vapour means that it has a bigger effect on climate than just the direct effect of its concentration. Before we go any further though, we need to understand that the effective perturbation time for CO 2 and CH 4 in the atmosphere are very different.

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Washington & Jefferson College Hosts March 8 Webinar On Renewable Natural Gas

PA Environment Daily

The Washington & Jefferson College Center for Energy Policy and Management in Washington County will host a free March 8 webinar on renewable natural gas as part of its Energy Lecture Series. Renewable Natural Gas: Sustainable Energy from Trash” will be the subject of a free, hour-long webinar at 11:00 a.m.