Reuters: CO2 data conflicts overshadow shale oil and gas

More data on the greenhouse gas emissions impact of shale oil and gas is needed to pinpoint their climate impact, something which recalls a controversy over Canadian tar sands where opposing lobby groups were said to have cherry-picked data.

Shale gas has revolutionised the U.S. energy industry, pressuring prices while tight (also called shale) oil production is on a steep upward curve. Each was enabled by advances in horizontal drilling technology.

The greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of shale gas is uncertain but likely not much more than conventional gas, but next to zero research has been made into emissions from tight oil.

The uncertainty problem rekindles the tar sands debate, where green and industry lobbies have squared off by exploiting uncertainty in emissions numbers, confusing assumptions, tar sands projects (some are cleaner running) and an error margin of about 5 percentage points.

Doubt is multiplied for shale gas and oil -- newer technologies with an even less settled academic view.

Critical questions include: how do the direct GHG emissions compare with conventional fossil fuels; will they displace coal CO2 emissions or add to them; and how pressing is the wider climate problem?  MORE