PITTSBURGH (AP) — THE CHANGE: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently dramatically lowered its estimates of how much of a potent greenhouse gas leaks during gas drilling operations, from 214 million metric tons for 2010 to 144 million metric tons, a change of more than 30 percent.
THE DISPUTE: There’s a split between leading environmental groups over whether the boom in natural gas drilling, or fracking, will help or hurt efforts to fight climate change. That’s because while natural gas is a far cleaner burning fuel than coal, the methane in the gas is also a potent greenhouse gas. If too much methane leaks into the atmosphere, that negates the benefits over coal.
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