More Research Showing Nat Gas Cleaner Than Coal

Following up on this recent CD post about how the media has been giving much greater coverage to a Cornell University research report that found the environmental impact of natural gas to be more harmful than coal, and much less coverage to a report from Carnegie-Mellon University that came to the opposite conclusion:

WASHINGTON – "Six months removed from the release of the paper from researcher-activists at Cornell attempting to argue that the production and consumption of coal was better for the environment than natural gas from shale, new data and research rebutting and correcting those unsubstantiated claims continues to roll in. The latest shoe to drop? A detailed analysis from researchers at the University of Maryland that takes a closer look at the GHG profile of natural gas derived from shale when used in the electricity sector."

From the abstract of the University of Maryland paper: 

"We show that for electricity generation the greenhouse gas impacts of shale gas are 11% higher than those of conventional gas, and only 56% that of coal for standard assumptions."

MP: In other words, the researchers at Maryland found that the greenhouse gas impacts of coal are almost twice the impacts of natural gas for electricity generation.