Secondly, one of the biggest concerns with fracking is air pollution. Although many who are pro fracking say that it does help the environment since fracking actually provide a variety of different alternatives for the use of fossil fuels, which in return reduces carbon emissions. Backing up these claims Bjørn Lomborg, a fracking supporter and director if the environmental assessment institue says “Carbon-dioxide emissions in the United States have dropped to their lowest level in 20 years,” (2). Though this may be true, it doesn’t necessarily mean that fracking is safer for the environment. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth Systems Research Laboratory in Denver are claiming that natural gases such …show more content…
(Tollefson 10). This means the primary method methane escapes is during the drilling process. But recently in 2013 Andew Nikiforuk concluded that approximately 6 percent of all newly built gas wells had leaked. (6). Although this number may not seem intimidating, The ProPublica reports that “nine out of 10 gas wells in the United States” use fracking (1). With that knowledge and knowing that Marcellus Shale operation planned to construct up to 200,000 new wells, means that 190,000 leaky wells could very well be in operation in one year (Nikiforuk 24). Now there are some arguing that it’s just as, if not worse than fracking. Jeff Tollefson, states that methane pollution in the air is just as bad. “[there is] hard evidence that the cleanest-burning fossil fuel might not be much better than coal when it comes to climate change” (1). He continues by saying “methane is some 25 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere” (2). What Tollefsen is say is that any environmental gain caused by the lack of carbon emissions is quickly removed from the atmosphere by the methane gasses from