President Obama and his environmental advisers touted natural gas as a "bridge energy source far cleaner than coal" and readily available in the shale formations in the US as the answer to the problem of weaning us off of Oil and Coal into a future of solar, wind, biomass, geo thermal, and hydrogen energy sources. This optimism spawned a massive upsurge in drilling and fracking for natural gas.
IMAGE of the UNITA BASIN Fracking Sites
The caution in this has been tied to the proposition that natural gas or methane would be contained and not allowed to leak into the atmosphere in amounts under 3% of the total gas being trapped and put into the nationwide system of pipes and transfer stations ending up at the consumers residence or business. The EPA has "guessed" from mainly using industry information, that the leakage total was less than 2%. That estimate is now seriously in question.
This weeks edition of YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY Episode 6 shows the actual testing for leaks in Colorado, Utah and Los Angeles and gives us an up front first hand view of leakage from 11% in Colorado to 17% in Los Angeles.
