Natural gas has lower GHG emissions during energy production, but this doesn't account for GHG emissions during its extraction. With total life-cycle taken into

Natural gas has lower GHG emissions during energy production, but this doesn't account for GHG emissions during its extraction. With total life-cycle taken into account, this kind of GHG "reduction" isn't so clear cut. Natural gas is mostly methane. Methane is a potent GHG, far stronger than CO2. During fracking and so on, lots of natural gas (methane) escapes to the atmosphere. It is a gas, after all. A proper accounting would add in this other set of emissions. So yeah, saying that natural gas usage "drastically lowered GHG emissions" is kind of suspect. Maybe it is better on balance vs. coal, but that is not saying a lot.