Environmental Issues: Health

Health Main Page

All Documents in Health Tagged natural gas

Don't Get Fracked!
Steps to Keep You and Your Family Safe from Drilling
Overview

Drilling for natural gas and the use of hydraulic fracturing is growing across the United States. Although drilling can create jobs and income, many fear the effects of drilling on their health, land and quality of life. Current laws need to be changed to catch up with the drilling explosion. In the meantime, you can act now to protect you and your family.

Documents Tagged natural gas in All Sections

Leaking Profits
The U.S. Oil and Gas Industry Can Reduce Pollution, Conserve Resources, and Make Money by Preventing Methane Waste
Overview

Methane makes up as much as 90 percent of natural gas, and significant amounts of methane are wasted when natural gas is extracted by fracking or other techniques. Preventing the leakage and venting of methane from natural gas facilities would reduce pollution, enhance air quality, improve human health, and conserve energy resources.

Environmental Risks with Proposed Offshore Oil and Gas Development off Alaska’s North Slope
Issue Paper

In August 2012, Royal Dutch Shell Oil (Shell) plans to begin exploratory drilling in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska's northern coast. This paper argues that drilling and related industrial activity would create an unacceptable risk of irreparable damage to this unique part of the planet and should be postponed until comprehensive research can be performed and a credible system for responding to spills is put into place.

In Fracking's Wake
New Rules are Needed to Protect Our Health and Environment from Contaminated Wastewater
Issue Paper

Natural gas development has exploded, fueled by advances in an extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Unfortunately, federal and state safeguards to protect people and the environment from the hazards of fracking have not kept pace.

The Role of Natural Gas in America’s Energy Mix
Fact Sheet

Our nation’s top energy priority must be the rapid expansion of energy efficiency and renewable energy resources. These are the quickest, cleanest, and most sustainable solutions to meeting our energy needs, while curbing global warming and other serious pollution problems. As we work to increase renewable and more efficient energy, however, more damaging energy sources—including fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas—will continue to play a role in our energy mix. Because power plants burning natural gas produce less air pollution than coal-burning plants, in the near term natural gas can actually serve to diminish a number of public health threats caused by generating electricity. To achieve this, though, sound policies must be in place to make certain that natural gas is used to replace coal and minimize methane emissions—a potent global warming pollutant—and does not displace investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. Get document in pdf.

More >

For additional policy documents, see the NRDC Document Bank.
For older publications available only in print, click here.