This is good news.  Andrew Revkin, a well known writer on environmental issues has just come out backing shale gas over coal.  The Cornell report that looked so damning at first has been further discredited and he publicizes it here.  The science is more clearly pointing to shale gas over coal.

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I think this could be a tipping point in the debate, at least among environmental groups.  Revkin is influential and this blog will be talked about among the anti-fracking groups.  Probably 25% of them will never change their minds for any reason. But, I think 50% or more will listen to reason/science. There are a lot more moderate environmentalists among the voters than people realize because a few of the radical types yell louder. 

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But, we have to keep pointing out that if you make your decision on the basis of science, then the science is pointing to shale gas over coal.  Plus, this time it's an environmentalist making the point for us.  I posted a part of his blog below. Check out the full post and the comments.

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http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/a-fresh-scientific-def...

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A Fresh Scientific Defense of the Merits of Moving from Coal to Shale Gas

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

There’s been a fresh development in a prolonged intellectual tussle among researchers at Cornell University over the climate benefits of moving from coal to natural gas, including gas extracted from shale using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Lawrence M. Cathles of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, with three colleagues, has offered a fresh rebuttal to the conclusions of a team led by Robert Howarth, a biogeochemist at the university.

Here’s the conclusion from Cathles et al. and a link to their long reply:

The data clearly shows that substituting natural gas for coal will have a substantial greenhouse benefit under almost any set of reasonable assumptions. Methane emissions must be five times larger than they currently appear to be before gas substitution for coal becomes detrimental from a global warming perspective on any time scale. The advantage of natural gas applies whether it comes from a shale gas well or a conventional gas well. [Read the rest in a pdf here.

Pasted from a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/a-fresh-scientific-defense-of-the-merits-of-moving-from-coal-to-shale-gas/">http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/a-fresh-scientific-def...>