Since at least the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, liberals have made the end of domestic oil production the cornerstone of the environmental movement. As a result, hundreds of billions of barrels of oil have been left undeveloped causing hire gas prices and lost jobs. But at least the left allowed U.S. energy companies to continue developing our natural gas resources. Until now.

The Hill yesterday, and The New York Times today, report on a new study by Cornell University Professor Robert Howarth published in the journal Climatic Change. The paper, titled Methane and the Greenhouse-Gas Footprint of Natural Gasfrom Shale Formations, claims that the methane gas emitted through hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) not only negates whatever greenhouse gas emission advantage natural gas had over coal and oil, but may even make it a greater contributor to global warming.