eprintid: 1727 rev_number: 13 eprint_status: archive userid: 6 dir: disk0/00/00/17/27 datestamp: 2016-09-15 11:30:39 lastmod: 2017-02-08 12:21:38 status_changed: 2016-09-15 11:30:39 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Litovitz, Aviva creators_name: Curtright, Aimee creators_name: Abramzon, Shmuel creators_name: Burger, Nicholas creators_name: Samaras, Constantine corp_creators: RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407, USA corp_creators: RAND Corporation, 4570 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA corp_creators: RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407, USA corp_creators: RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202, USA corp_creators: RAND Corporation, 4570 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA title: Estimation of regional air-quality damages from Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania subjects: O subjects: RU10 subjects: SHU divisions: SHEER full_text_status: none keywords: natural gas, Marcellus Shale, criteria pollutants, air quality, externalities abstract: This letter provides a first-order estimate of conventional air pollutant emissions, and the monetary value of the associated environmental and health damages, from the extraction of unconventional shale gas in Pennsylvania. Region-wide estimated damages ranged from $7.2 to $32 million dollars for 2011. The emissions from Pennsylvania shale gas extraction represented only a few per cent of total statewide emissions, and the resulting statewide damages were less than those estimated for each of the state's largest coal-based power plants. On the other hand, in counties where activities are concentrated, NOx emissions from all shale gas activities were 20–40 times higher than allowable for a single minor source, despite the fact that individual new gas industry facilities generally fall below the major source threshold for NOx. Most emissions are related to ongoing activities, i.e., gas production and compression, which can be expected to persist beyond initial development and which are largely unrelated to the unconventional nature of the resource. Regulatory agencies and the shale gas industry, in developing regulations and best practices, should consider air emissions from these long-term activities, especially if development occurs in more populated areas of the state where per-ton emissions damages are significantly higher. date: 2013-01 date_type: published publication: Environmental Research Letters volume: 8 number: 1 publisher: IOP Publishing pagerange: 014017 id_number: doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014017 issn: 1748-9326 official_url: http://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014017 access_IS-EPOS: limited owner: Publisher citation: Litovitz, Aviva and Curtright, Aimee and Abramzon, Shmuel and Burger, Nicholas and Samaras, Constantine (2013) Estimation of regional air-quality damages from Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania. Environmental Research Letters, 8 (1). 014017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014017