Responding to recent claims by environmentalists, the Heartland Institute notes: "Natural gas fracking is not causing a spike in U.S. methane emissions, the latest U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data show. The data debunk assertions by global warming alarmists that recent declines in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions—caused largely by the increasing use of low-carbon natural gas power—are being offset by rising methane emissions from natural gas fracking." More? "According to EPA’s “Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2011,” U.S. methane emissions are in long-term decline – with minor year-to-year variations – with 2011 emissions (the most recent year for which EPA has data) down 8 percent from 1990 levels. Methane emissions are down 5 percent since 2007, when the fracking boom began."
For a copy of the inventory data, including updates, see here.