«[Howarth et al.'s] analysis is seriously flawed in that they significantly overestimate the fugitive emissions associated with unconventional gas
extraction, undervalue the contribution of «green technologies» to reducing those emissions to a level approaching that of conventional gas, base their comparison between gas and
coal on heat rather than electricity generation (almost the sole use of
coal), and assume a time interval over which to compute the relative climate impact of gas
compared to
coal that does not capture the contrast between the long residence time of CO2 and the short residence time of methane in the atmosphere.»
Thus, the NETL analysis concluded that there was little difference in the total amount of life cycle climate pollution between «U.S. LNG exports for power production in European and Asian markets... when
compared to regional
coal extraction and consumption for power production.»