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REPORTS & MULTIMEDIA
REPORTS & MULTIMEDIA / EXPLAINER
Environmental Impacts of Natural Gas
Published Jun 19, 2014
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Global warming emissions
Natural gas is a fossil fuel, though the global warming emissions from its combustion are much lower than those from coal or oil.
Natural gas emits 50 to 60 percent less carbon dioxide (CO2) when combusted in a new, efficient natural gas power plant compared with emissions from a typical new coal plant [1]. Considering only tailpipe emissions, natural gas also emits 15 to 20 percent less heat-trapping gases than gasoline when burned in today’s typical vehicle [2].
Emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes, however, do not tell the full story.
The drilling and extraction of natural gas from wells and its transportation in pipelines results in the leakage of methane, primary component of natural gas that is 34 times stronger than CO2 at trapping heat over a 100-year period and 86 times stronger over 20 years [3]. Preliminary studies and field measurements show that these so-called “fugitive” methane emissions range from 1 to 9 percent of total life cycle emissions [4].
Whether natural gas has lower life cycle greenhouse gas emissions than coal and oil depends on the assumed leakage rate, the global warming potential of methane over different time frames, the energy conversion efficiency, and other factors [5]. One recent study found that methane losses must be kept below 3.2 percent for natural gas power plants to have lower life cycle emissions than new coal plants over short time frames of 20 years or fewer [6]. And if burning natural gas in vehicles is to deliver even marginal benefits, methane losses must be kept below 1 percent and 1.6 percent compared with diesel fuel and gasoline, respectively. Technologies are available to reduce much of the leaking methane, but deploying such technology would require new policies and investments [7].
Answer:
The emission of this light, or electromagnetic radiation, is one of the ways in which objects can lose energy to their lower-temperature surroundings. The light is emitted as a continuous spectrum of all frequencies, but the distribution of the emitted energy depends on the temperature of the object which is radiating.