Marcellus shale drilling operation

Article by E. Mayfield, J. Cohon, N. Muller, I. Azevedo & A. Robinson, Nature Sustainability, Vol. 2, Pp. 1122–1131(2019)

ABSTRACT — Natural gas has become the largest fuel source for electricity generation in the United States and accounts for a third of energy production and consumption. However, the environmental and socioeconomic impacts across the supply chain and over the boom-and-bust cycle have not been comprehensively characterized.

To provide insight for long-term decision-making for energy transitions, we estimate the cumulative effects of the shale gas boom in the Appalachian basin from 2004 to 2016 on air quality, climate change and employment.

We find that air quality effects (1,200 to 4,600 deaths; US$23 billion +99%/−164%) and employment effects (469,000 job-years ±30%; US$21 billion ±30%) follow the boom-and-bust cycle, while climate impacts (US$12 billion to 94 billion) persist for generations well beyond the period of natural gas activity.

Employment effects concentrate in rural areas where production occurs. However, almost half of cumulative premature mortality due to air pollution is downwind of these areas, occurring in urban regions of the northeast.

The cumulative effects of methane and carbon dioxide emissions on global mean temperature over a 30-yr time horizon are nearly equivalent but over the long term, the cumulative climate impact is largely due to carbon dioxide.

We estimate that a tax on production of US$2 per thousand cubic feet (+172%/−76%) would compensate for cumulative climate and air quality externalities across the supply chain.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0420-1

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CMU study suggests taxing natural gas to offset environmental damage

Article by Paul J. Gough, Pittsburgh Business Times, December 10, 2019

PHOTO in ARTICLE: A drilling rig stands about 100 feet tall on a well pad being developed in the Utica shale play near Marietta, Ohio. From Jeff Bell | Columbus Business First

A Carnegie Mellon University study said a $2 per thousand cubic foot tax on natural gas production would help compensate for the climate and air quality impacts of drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Appalachian basin and elsewhere.

The study, co-written by former CMU President Jared L. Cohon and Princeton University’s Erin N. Mayfield, was published in Nature Sustainability, an academic journal published by the same company that owns the globally respected journal Nature. The article, published in Nature Sustainability’s December 2019 issue, looks to reconcile what it said was the environmental and socioeconomic costs of drilling not just in the field, but through the supply chain.

The researchers found benefits and costs on both sides of the equation, including economic development and job gains, while at the same time an increased amount of deaths from air quality related to the shale gas activity. The study estimated between 1,200 and 4,600 premature deaths due to shale activity between 2004 and 2016, and about 469,000 job years in the period. Job years are defined in the study as a part-time or full-time job over a year.

The analysis projected $12 billion to $94 billion in additional climate impacts over the course of 30 years. It also found long-term impacts further away from the shale drilling areas, with what it said was half of the premature mortality happening downwind in the Northeast. The drilling activity modeled occurred in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio between 2004 and 2016.

“The cumulative effects of methane and carbon dioxide emissions on global mean temperature over a 30-year time horizon are nearly equivalent but over the long term, the cumulative climate impact is largely due to carbon dioxide,” the study said.

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