Carnegie Mellon Study: Radon in Marcellus Gas Doesn’t Kill People
Anti-fossil fuel zealots have long attempted to scare the masses with false claims about fracked shale gas in the Marcellus. Early on radical environmental organizations tried to scare people in New York City, telling them they’ll get lung cancer from radon in Marcellus gas if they use it (see The Latest Anti-Drilling Scare Tactic: Radon in Shale Gas). One of the early “scientists” who pimped himself out to Big Green, Dr. Marvin Resnikoff, made wild claims about radon levels in Marcellus gas. Resnikoff also made accusations that the U.S. Geological Survey was in the back pocket of Big Oil on this issue. The USGS responded with a major slapdown of Resnikoff (see Radon Debate: USGS Responds to Marvin Resnikoff Accusation). Finally, someone has done some real research to put this issue to rest. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have just published a paper titled, “Lung Cancer Risk from Radon in Marcellus Shale Gas in Northeast U.S. Homes” (draft copy below). The Carnegie research says “there is no support” to back up the wild claims that radon in Marcellus gas increases cancer risks. Period. In particular, they take aim at Dr. Resnikoff’s claims and say he “provided insufficient documentation of the methodology used” and “[a]t this time there is no support for the high mortality argument offered by Resnikoff.” Total repudiation of his earlier claims. For once and for all: whatever “extra” radon there may be in Marcellus (i.e. fracked) shale gas, it’s not in sufficient quantities that by standing near a burning stove all day long every day will it add to your risk of contracting lung cancer…
Read More “Carnegie Mellon Study: Radon in Marcellus Gas Doesn’t Kill People”
Last Friday MDN reported that none other than the man-made global warmists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a research report admitting that cows and rice farms are the real cause of an increase in global methane emissions–NOT shale drilling (see 
NOAA–the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration–contains some of the biggest kool-aid drinking man-made global warming fanatics on the planet. So we found it interesting that the mighty NOAA has just released new research that finds yes, so-called “fugitive” methane that escapes into the atmosphere is up–way up. And yes, oil and gas drilling contributes WAY MORE to the fugitive methane problem “than previously thought.” And yes, methane leaks from fossil fuel development represents something like 20-25% of of the total “problem.” But then those same researchers, in little teeny tiny type add this: “However, the findings also confirm other work by NOAA scientists that conclude fossil fuel facilities are not directly responsible for the increased rate of global atmospheric methane emissions measured in the atmosphere since 2007.” That is, while the shale revolution has grown exponentially over the past 10 years, and while the rate of fugitive methane has grown during that same period–the growth has NOT come from oil and gas development. Instead, it’s coming from rice paddies and cow farts/burps…
Speakers at this weeks Energy Dialogues LLC’s North American Gas Forum in Washington, DC were up on their high horses lecturing the natural gas industry that if we only can get our heads out of our backsides and clamp down on fugitive methane emissions we might actually get to stay around a few more decades, providing fuel to power the world. That’s the gist of the comments we read by so-called environmental “leaders” who spoke at the event. (Arrogant snobs, if you ask us.) But the one thing that really caught our attention was the statement that it may be possible to capture and control carbon from burning natgas to the point that it becomes a “zero-emitter.” Bet you never thought you would see “natural gas” and “zero carbon emissions” in the same sentence, eh?…
Stephen Heins, an energy and regulatory consultant for a Wall Street firm, and former vice president of communication for Orion Energy Systems, is an occasional guest blogger here on MDN. Steve calls himself a “luke warmer” when it comes to the fairy tale that mankind is causing Mom Earth to toast. That is, he’s not convinced that man-kind is causing a catastrophic warming up, but he’s also not ruling it out. That’s OK, we forgive him. A lot of intelligent people believe in such things. At least he’s a skeptic! Steve recently penned an article that finds “several flaws” with President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan (which has been challenged in court by 29 states). The CPP outright kills coal, and it mortally wounds natural gas, as we’ve previously written (see 
Last week the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) doled out a total of $13 million in grants for twelve multi-year research projects. The aim of the projects is to develop ways to mitigate methane emissions from natural gas pipelines and storage infrastructure, ways that don’t break the bank. Two of the twelve projects will be run in Pittsburgh. PPG Industries, the Gas Technology Institute and RTI International received a combined $876,639 to study remote monitoring of natural gas pipelines. The University of Pittsburgh and Corning together got a whopping $1.2 million to develop an advanced distributed optical fiber technology for natural gas infrastructure monitoring. Here’s the lowdown from the DOE…
Last week MDN alerted you to yet another study, in a long line of such studies, issued by anti-drilling zealots pretending to be researchers at Johns Hopkins University (see 
Two radical environmental groups in Ohio–Ohio Environmental Council and the Clean Air Task Force–have just released a 100% bogus “report” that attempts to tie asthma in children to fracking. If lying to the public were a crime, they’d be in jail right now. Here’s how these sleazy groups make such a claim: They claim, from looking at medical records, that there are 7,129 childhood asthma attacks in the Columbus metro area, and 7,558 in the Cleveland metro area each year. Absolutely no context as to whether those numbers are higher or lower than elsewhere in the country, or whether or not the numbers are increasing year over year. These groups just toss out numbers. They claim the asthma attacks are because of smog in those cities. They further claim smog comes from burning oil and gas and ergo, childhood asthma attacks are the result of fracking, because fracking extracts more oil and gas which is burned and causes smog which causes asthma. It is a heaping mound of cow manure. The problem is that otherwise good news sources, like the Akron Beacon Journal, push this manure out as news…
The Pennsylvania State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) keeps track of emissions from various sources–including the shale industry. When drillers drill and pipeline companies pipe, the equipment used leaks nasty stuff into the air. Frankly it’s no different for any industrial activity or business. Even homes. We all emit stuff into the air. The question is, how much do we emit and does it rise to the level of being harmful? Yesterday the DEP released air emissions numbers for the shale industry for 2014–the most recent year in which they have completed data. What does it show? In 2014 the industry was still in an upswing–there were more wells drilled, more pipelines being added, etc. than in 2013. So it’s no surprise to learn that the shale industry as a whole emitted more emissions in 2014 than in 2013. What will be interesting is to see the 2015 numbers when they get released a year from now (the downturn began in 2015). With less drilling and piping, will air emissions go down? Stands to reason. At any rate, here’s what the DEP said yesterday about an increase in emitting nasty stuff by the drilling industry…
In June MDN told you about another sham “study” on the way from an anti-drilling “researcher” from Yale University, funded by Big Green groups (see 
Last week MDN reported that a previously trumpeted so-called research study of air quality near fracking sites in Ohio had been retracted (see