Re:Climate change: Curbing methane emissions will 'buy us time'
by rob74 on Thursday August 12, 2021 @03:51AM
(#28153352)
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...
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Re:Climate change: Curbing methane emissions will 'buy us time'
by stephen_g on Thursday August 12, 2021 @04:10AM
(#28153484)
Yes, 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.