Helping workers in fracking

The natural gas industry in Pennsylvania is worried about its future — and rightfully so.

During last week’s virtual global climate summit, President Joe Biden announced a goal of cutting greenhouse gas pollution in half by 2030, from a 2005 baseline. Biden has already rejoined the Paris Agreement and set a goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

The U.S. will not reach the 2030 goal without Pennsylvania, which produced nearly 10 percent of all energy in the nation in 2018 — only second to Texas. Now the state has an opportunity to manage the decline of its polluting energy industry while investing in sustainable, high-paying green union jobs as a replacement.

While burning natural gas emits less CO2 than burning coal or oil, natural gas is abundant in methane — a powerful greenhouse gas that traps more heat than does carbon, though it lingers for less time. The United Nations will soon release a report declaring it urgent to cut methane to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Natural gas production nationwide was responsible for 47 percent of methane emissions by industry in 2018. And that doesn’t account for storage and distribution. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has identified 8,500 unplugged abandoned oil and gas wells and estimates approximately 200,000 older undocumented wells, many of which may be leaking methane.