3 ms·
In this case, burning the natural gas is the lesser evil, the unburnt methane that gets into the atmosphere is a much worse greenhouse gas than CO2. But of cour
by rob74 5y ago
In this case, burning the natural gas is the lesser evil, the unburnt methane that gets into the atmosphere is a much worse greenhouse gas than CO2. But of course, if you have natural gas pipes going into every building, that will also lead to emissions of unburnt gas. However I don't think the problem is that huge, because methane gas leaks are an explosion hazard, so it's in everyone's interest to keep them to a minimum...
- stephen_g 5y agoYes, flaring gas is a slightly lesser evil. But I think it's the gas that misses being captured (even when they're trying) from the gas wells, the big pipelines and industrial facilities that are the real big problem sites for fugitive emissions. I read a report that claimed that properly accounting for fugitive methane emissions (which have tended to be massively underestimated) actually brings gas back to being just as bad as coal in terms of global warming cost. But coal plants do emit huge quantities of other nasty pollutants apart from CO2, so gas is still slightly better in that way.