Shale gas is 20% to 50% cleaner than coal

See Drill for Independence, We Have Enough Rules Already. Here is an excerpt from a letter to the editor to the WSJ, 8-29-11:

"A recent peer-reviewed study from Carnegie Mellon University that was financed in part by the Sierra Club concluded that Marcellus Shale gas is 20% to 50% cleaner than coal when greenhouse-gas pollution is used to compare the environmental impact of gas and coal. The study specifically analyzed the carbon footprint of Marcellus gas and not other shale reservoirs. The National Energy Technology Laboratory has also issued a study that arrives at the conclusion that gas is about 50% cleaner than coal on a life cycle carbon basis. The Aug. 5 CMU study further found that there was no statistical difference between the carbon emissions from a Marcellus Shale well and a conventional gas well.

Finally, gas power plants emit no toxic air pollution—mercury, arsenic, lead—and already meet the EPA's proposed Air Toxic Rule, while 90% of the toxic air pollution that comes from power plants is emitted by coal-burning plants.

John Hanger
Harrisburg, Pa.

Mr. Hanger is a former head of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection."