O my most noble and misguided lords, methane is the worst of all fossil fuele because of the methane emissions. Have you read the Cornell, Harvard and Tyndall reports on fracking? Perhaps not.
These are the only serious scientific studies that have been done on methane emissions from fracking that I know. The first was by Cornell University in 2009.
Natural gas from fracking could be ‘dirtier’ than coal, Cornell professors find Cornell Chronicle April 11th 2011
It found that methane emissions were greater than had been thought but provoked so much criticism a further study was done at Harvard in 2012. In fact the Harvard one concluded the methane emissions were far worse that even the Cornell one had found.
Anthropogenic emissions of methane in the United States Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States August 2013 (I think)
A third study was done by the Tyndall Centre. http://www. tyndall.ac.uk/sites/default /files/coop_shale gas.report_final_200111/pdf
All three of these studies found that the methane emissions from fracking were far higher than had been thought and are extremely dangerous. ‘It’s best left in the ground’ said Kevin Anderson of Tyndall.
see also
The Myth Gas is “Clean Energy” www.desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/myth
New Study Finds Higher Methane Emissions from Fracking. OilPrice.com. 29th November 2013
Methane Emissions from Fracking Vastly Underestimated. RTQuestionMore April 16th 2014 http:/on.rt.com/ytonOx
Climate Progress October 2nd 2013. ‘More Bad news for Fracking: IPCC warns Methane Traps More Heat than We Thought’.