A report released yesterday by RAND Corporation offers a wide-ranging estimate of damages due to the extraction of unconventional shale gas in Pennsylvania at somewhere between $7.2 to $32 million dollars for 2011. The report concludes that the extraction, processing and transportation of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale accounted for about 9 percent of the nitrogen oxides and nearly 14 percent of the volatile organic compounds emitted from all “point” sources of pollution in all of Pennsylvania. It also states that compressor stations are responsible for 60% to 75% of air pollution from gas activities.
The RAND report relies on self-reported data from just two of the approximately 74 operators in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction industry. The authors also compared the 2011 emissions from gas extraction to overall emissions in 2008. As a result, the percentage of emissions from gas operations compared to the overall emissions is likely understated due to a nationwide downward trend in overall emissions since 2008.
The report was funded by the RAND Corporation’s Investment in People and Ideas program. The Rand Corporation was started in 1945 by the Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research to the US Air Force. RAND describes itself as a global policy think tank. It is financed mainly by the United States government and a private endowment funded in large part by the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations.
Full report available at: http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014017/pdf/1748-9326_8_1_014017.pdf