piece<\/a> that shines a spotlight on industry tactics evident at the meeting of a committee advising the City of Fort Worth on a study to better characterize the emissions from natural gas production in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\nI happen to serve on that committee, and here is my take on this week\u2019s events.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The City of Fort Worth wants to conduct a study to obtain much-needed data on the actual emissions from gas drilling and production taking place in the city. Getting accurate and representative measurements of air emissions from an industry with more than 1,200 actively producing wells in the city (and 500 more already permitted) will be a challenging and costly undertaking. However, the need for such a study is indisputable, given the existing public concern stemming from limited studies conducted to date and the prospect that \u2014 according to city staff estimates provided to the committee \u2014 the current drilling activity might represent only 20 or 30 percent of the ultimate level of development.<\/p>\n
If\u00a0gas producers in Fort Worth want to put the air pollution coming from their facilities in context, as the Star-Telegram<\/em> reported, it is their prerogative to do so. In fact, the largest gas producers are conducting their own such study right now. If for no other reason, an independent city-sponsored study is still important and should not duplicate industry\u2019s project.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nThe city-funded study should focus on the basics:\u00a0 independently identifying and quantifying the pollutants released during the natural gas production process and assessing the resultant risk to city residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Natural gas producers should not impede the city\u2019s efforts to better characterize their industry’s air pollution. After all, if industry\u2019s claims are true that the natural gas production in Fort Worth does not produce harmful emissions, then they should have nothing to fear from a thorough and independent city-sponsored study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram\u2019s Mike Norman wrote an excellent piece that shines a spotlight on industry tactics evident at the meeting of a committee advising the City of Fort Worth on a study to better characterize the emissions from natural gas production in the city.\u00a0 I happen to serve on that committee, and here is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[693,181],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-gas","category-texas"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Barnett Shale gas producers caught with their hands in the cookie jar - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2010\/04\/16\/barnett-shale-gas-producers-caught-with-their-hands-in-the-cookie-jar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Barnett Shale gas producers caught with their hands in the cookie jar - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Fort Worth Star-Telegram\u2019s Mike Norman wrote an excellent piece that shines a spotlight on industry tactics evident at the meeting of a committee advising the City of Fort Worth on a study to better characterize the emissions from natural gas production in the city.\u00a0 I happen to serve on that committee, and here is ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2010\/04\/16\/barnett-shale-gas-producers-caught-with-their-hands-in-the-cookie-jar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-16T13:38:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-03-30T14:31:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/texasenergyexchange\/files\/2010\/03\/Ramon2911-214x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ramon Alvarez, Ph.D.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ramon Alvarez, Ph.D.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/16\\\/barnett-shale-gas-producers-caught-with-their-hands-in-the-cookie-jar\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/16\\\/barnett-shale-gas-producers-caught-with-their-hands-in-the-cookie-jar\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ramon Alvarez, Ph.D.\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e11d5e3a8c60f38817b1af459294a321\"},\"headline\":\"Barnett Shale gas producers caught with their hands in the cookie jar\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-04-16T13:38:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-03-30T14:31:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/16\\\/barnett-shale-gas-producers-caught-with-their-hands-in-the-cookie-jar\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":327,\"commentCount\":11,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/16\\\/barnett-shale-gas-producers-caught-with-their-hands-in-the-cookie-jar\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/texasenergyexchange\\\/files\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/Ramon2911-214x300.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Natural Gas\",\"Texas\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/16\\\/barnett-shale-gas-producers-caught-with-their-hands-in-the-cookie-jar\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/16\\\/barnett-shale-gas-producers-caught-with-their-hands-in-the-cookie-jar\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/16\\\/barnett-shale-gas-producers-caught-with-their-hands-in-the-cookie-jar\\\/\",\"name\":\"Barnett Shale gas producers caught with their hands in the cookie jar - 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<\/p>\n