Energy Exchange

To fix flaring, Railroad Commission must tackle the incentive problem

By EDF Blogs / Published: May 29, 2020

Previously published in Shale Magazine

A remarkable thing happened at the Texas Railroad Commission these past few weeks. Throughout the contentious debate over proration, a growing chorus of voices on both sides was calling on the commissioners to address flaring — an incredibly wasteful, environmentally damaging practice that has been giving producers a black eye for years.

During the epic 10-hour proration hearing on April 14, it wasn’t just environmental and health groups banging the drum on flaring. Large and small producers (both for and against proration), mineral rights groups and investors all called for action on flaring. So while proration may be off the agenda for now, the need and desire to address flaring lives on.

Also posted in Climate, Methane, Methane regulatons, Natural Gas, PermianMAP, Texas / Comments are closed

A zero flaring policy is long overdue, and investors can help make it reality

By Ben Ratner / Published: May 27, 2020

As investors take a hard look at the U.S. energy sector during this time of volatility, natural gas flaring is one of the most important and immediate risks to manage.

The eyesore of the oilfield, flaring natural gas destroys shareholder value and creates environmental, social and governance risk — exactly the kind of problem that an increasing number of asset managers, investment banks, and even private equity firms have promised to address.

Routine flaring is damaging the environment in several ways. In addition to the CO2 emissions from combusted gas, flares can release significant amounts of methane into the atmosphere. EDF’s recent helicopter survey found that more than one in every 10 flares at oil and gas sites across the Permian Basin was either unlit — venting uncombusted methane straight to the atmosphere — or only partially burning the gas they were releasing. In fact, the survey suggests that flaring could be among the region’s largest sources of fugitive methane and a troublesome contributor to local air pollution.

Also posted in Climate, Methane, Natural Gas, PermianMAP, Texas / Tagged New Mexico | Comments are closed

However you measure it, Permian oil and gas operations have highest emissions ever measured in a U.S. oilfield

By David Lyon / Published: May 11, 2020

Two fundamentally different methods EDF is using to measure and understand methane emissions in the Permian Basin are producing strikingly similar results. The mutually reinforcing sets of data — one gathered using aircraft, the other by satellite — each show that oil and gas operators in the region are releasing more than 3.5% of the natural gas they extract from the ground into the atmosphere as methane pollution.

That’s roughly twice the average rate found in 11 other major U.S. oil and gas basins. The wasted gas in the Permian is enough to supply 2 million American homes for a year.

The first of these efforts is EDF’s year-long PermianMAP, which tracks emissions from the ground and in the air, and takes the unprecedented step of publishing data online in near-real time to help industry and officials reduce those emissions, while letting the public see the results. The other is the first peer-reviewed scientific study to take direct measurement of Permian emissions, using the European Space Agency’s TROPOMI instrument.

Also posted in Climate, Methane, Methane regulatons, PermianMAP, Texas / Tagged New Mexico | Comments are closed

Groundbreaking clean truck initiative will reduce air pollution in California

By Lauren Navarro / Published: April 29, 2020

California recently released new details of a plan to bring more affordable electric trucks, vans and buses to market while also reducing harmful air pollution. The latest proposal reflects calls from California Air Resources Board members to increase the number of electric trucks sold under the rule and to ensure that the benefits of cleaner air they bring will reach disadvantaged communities.

If adopted, the state will require truck manufacturers to produce more electric or zero-emission vehicle options. Beginning in 2024, at least 9% of vocational trucks (like package-delivery vans and beverage-delivery box trucks) will need to be electric (or another kind of ZEV). By 2035, nearly 75% of these trucks will be electric or ZEV. The proposal sets similar schedules for other truck types.

Also posted in California, Electric Vehicles / Comments are closed

Big step back: Changes in new EPA Greenhouse Gas Inventory mask methane emissions

By David Lyon / Published: April 28, 2020

For years, experts have urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to improve the way it estimates methane emissions from the oil and gas sector to reflect major advances in the peer-reviewed scientific understanding of how much methane is escaping from each link in the industry’s complex supply chain. Bringing agency methods into line with this science would yeild better, more accurate accounting, and it would almost certainly show that actual emissions are much higher than previously indicated.

Instead, EPA has gone in the exact opposite direction, making a million metric tons of methane pollution disappear from the books with the stroke of a methodological pen.

The EPA’s latest inventory released this month, incorporated data from a new study for the gathering segment, but this study uses “bottom-up” measurements that scientists say are likely to systematically underestimate emissions rather than incorporate “top-down” approaches that rely on atmospheric science, and which extensive research has shown to be far more accurate.

Also posted in Climate, Methane, Natural Gas, PermianMAP / Comments are closed

Satellites and state regulators: New data spotlights extreme emissions and need for action in nation’s largest oilfield

By EDF Blogs / Published: April 22, 2020

By Jon Goldstein and Colin Leyden

This week a study drawing on nearly a year’s worth of satellite data revealed that Permian methane emissions are the highest ever measured from a U.S. oil and gas basin.

As the federal government continues its rollback of methane safeguards, public attention is now trained on policymakers and companies in Texas and New Mexico — two leading oil producing states that straddle the Permian Basin.

While New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham forges ahead on nation-leading rules to curb oil and gas methane waste and pollution, state leaders in Texas have yet to get serious about a problem that could undermine the industry’s viability in an economy that increasingly prioritizes cleaner sources of energy.

Also posted in Climate, Methane, Methane regulatons, Natural Gas, PermianMAP, Texas / Tagged New Mexico | Comments are closed