EQT Says Fracked Gas Is a Climate Solution; Scientists Call Greenwashing [1]
"The Pittsburgh corporation says its natural gas is saving the world, countering Russian aggression and solving the climate crisis. Numerous experts say that’s not true."
"“The biggest green initiative on the planet.” That’s what EQT CEO Toby Rice called his company’s exports of liquified natural gas before a Waynesburg crowd in September.
The gas the Pittsburgh corporation extracts from the Marcellus Shale—liquified and shipped around the world as LNG—would be a key solution to the world’s warming crisis, Rice said in remarks that echoed messaging in media appearances and at similar “Unleash U.S. LNG” events throughout the region.
By then, Earth and its inhabitants had experienced nine months of the hottest year ever recorded, with hundreds of millions of people enduring extreme heat. Smoke from Canadian wildfires—the largest by area in North American history—had blanketed Pittsburgh, Appalachia and much of the United States. Antarctic sea ice shrunk by a record margin, floating in ever warmer ocean waters.
Scientists have long warned that methane, the main ingredient in the gas fracked out of Appalachia, is a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span. The International Energy Agency [IEA] has said that if the world is to stay within safe limits of global heating and have a chance at achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, new fossil fuel development must stop immediately."
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.