CONNECT THE DOTS

There are significant health and environmental impacts when examining the full life-cycle of shale gas.

• Air pollution comes from the exhaust of generators and compressors (that run 24/7) at shale well sites, from heavy-duty truck traffic and from the venting of wastewater storage tanks.
• Shale development results in more emissions of greenhouse gases, smog-inducing compounds and other hazardous air pollutants than conventional oil and gas development.
• Increased use of shale gas instead of coal may actually accelerate climate change in the coming decades, not reduce climate change impacts.
• Air pollutants found near fracking sites include methanol, formaldehyde, carbon disulfide, and VOCs (including nitrogen oxides, benzene and toluene) are also discharged during fracking
• Emissions from well sites form ground-level ozone combine with particulate matter to form smog
• In Dish, Texas air samples contained high levels of neurotoxins and carcinogens
• In Wyoming, drilling and fracking have caused ground-level ozone pollution to exceed amounts recorded in Los Angeles.

Shale gas is not an alternative fuel that can serve as a bridge to a future powered by clean, renewable energy resources, but a path to more environmental degradation.

References:


Food and Water Watch. (2012, March). Fracking:  The new global water crisis.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2011, June). The future of natural gas: An
interdisciplinary MIT study.

Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester. ( 2011, January). Shale gas: a provisional assessment of climate change and environmental impacts.

Brown, Stephen P.A. et al. (2009, December). Natural gas: a bridge to a low-carbon future? 



United States House of Representatives:  Committee on Energy and
Commerce. [Minority Staff Report]. (2011, April). Chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.
April 2011