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Pro-gas Australian Labor Govt wants Coal to Gas transition by Carbon Tax - but Gas burning worse GHG-wise

19 April 2011, 00:17, by Dr Giudeon Polya

As a 5-decade career scientist and responsible citizen I have sent the following letter to media, MPs and other citizens of Australia that sets out how gas burning for power can be much worse than coal burning depending upon the degree of gas (mostly methane) leakage. So far the Silence has been Deafening in look-the-other-way Australia, a world leader in annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution and fossil fuel exports.

"Dear Sir,

1 mole (16g) of methane (CH4) has 105 times the greenhouse gas (GHG) effect as 1 mole (44g) of carbon dioxide (CO2) and, accordingly, 1t leaked CH4 is equivalent to 105x44tCO2/16 = 288.8t CO2-equivalent.

Burning 16t CH4 yields 44t CO2 and accordingly burning 1t CH4 yields 44/16 = 2.75t CO2. Burning 12t carbon (C; atomic weight 12) yields 44t CO2 and hence burning 1t C yields 44/12 = 3.7t CO2.

Burning 100t CH4 (circa 85% of natural gas) yields 275t CO2 and about the same electrical power as burning 200t coal (C) which yields 200x3.7 = 740t CO2. However, based on the latest US EPA data the CH4 leakage in the US is 3.3% and hence using 100tCH4 for electrical power yields 1,218.9t CO2-equivalent.

According to Professor Robert Howarth, fugitive emissions from CH4 leakage are 1.7-6.0% for conventional gas and 3.6-7.9% for shale gas (e.g. from “fracking”) and hence using 100t of conventional gas to generate electricity actually yields 761.3-1,991.3t CO2-equivalent and using shale gas actually yields 1,304.8-2,534.8t CO2-equivalent i.e. using gas for electrical power is much dirtier greenhouse gas-wise than burning coal.

Labor’s Carbon Tax-based coal to gas transition strategy for “tackling climate change” is utterly wrong and counterproductive.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Gideon Polya

PS. Some key scientific references:

Drew T. Shindell, Greg Faluvegi, Dorothy M. Koch, Gavin A. Schmidt, Nadine Unger and Susanne E. Bauer, “Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions”, Science 30 October 2009: Vol. 326 no. 5953 pp. 716-718: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/3... .

Robert W. Howarth, Renee Santoro, Anthony Ingraffen, “Methane and the greenhouse gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations”, Climatic Change, May 2011: http://www.sustainablefuture.cornel... ."