Energy Exchange

End of an Era: New York City Bids Farewell to Dirtiest Heating Oil

By Abbey Brown / Published: February 17, 2016

NY Clean Sky It has been about six years since an Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) staffer first looked out the window in our New York City office, saw black smoke coming from a building’s chimney, and wondered what it was. This concern led to EDF’s Bottom of the Barrel report, which determined the smoke was caused by No. 6 heating oil. A highly polluting fuel source, No. 6 heating oil is hugely harmful to public health and the environment – not to mention, bad for building efficiency. This led to a citywide regulation to phase out No. 6 and No. 4 heating oils, and to create a program called NYC Clean Heat to help buildings switch to cleaner fuels.

And now, New York City is free of No. 6 oil.

Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that all 5,300 buildings that were registered as burning No. 6 heating oil in 2011 have converted to a cleaner fuel. This historic moment for New York City means cleaner air (soot pollution has decreased more than 50 percent) and a healthier city: 210 premature deaths and 540 hospitalizations will now be avoided yearly. It’s not often you see an environmental issue that is so quantifiable, or one where you can say it’s been completely achieved. Read More »

Also posted in Energy Efficiency, New York / Read 1 Response

Preventing Future Aliso Canyon-Sized Gas Leaks – the Importance of Well Integrity

By Scott Anderson / Published: January 28, 2016

AlisoCanyon4 Southern California is now in month three of one of the country’s worst environmental disasters. In October 2015, a natural gas storage well operated by SoCal Gas sprung a massive leak hundreds of feet underground, releasing nearly 1,400 tons of gas into the air each day at its peak. Thousands of local residents impacted by noxious fumes and oily mist have been evacuated from the communities around the Aliso Canyon storage field. Because the leak is so large and technically complex, SoCal Gas has been working for months to fix it – so far without success.

In January, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a State of Emergency because of the ongoing leak. In addition to addressing the immediate disaster at Aliso Canyon, Gov. Brown ordered emergency regulations for the state’s natural gas storage industry and has directed several state agencies and commissions to prepare and submit reports and propose how to prevent similar leaks at similar sites across the state. Read More »

Also posted in Aliso Canyon, California, Methane, Natural Gas / Tagged well integrity | Comments are closed

Pennsylvania Announces Plan for Strongest Methane Rules in the Nation

By Andrew Williams / Published: January 20, 2016

(From left to right)
John Quigley, Secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environment Protection, joins Cindy Dunn, Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf at a Facebook town hall event Jan. 19 to announce plans to regulate methane emissions from the state’s oil and gas industry.

Pennsylvania leaders have a duty to protect Keystone residents from oil and gas pollution. Fortunately, Governor Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection took an important step in that direction this week when they released a blueprint for cutting methane pollution from the natural gas industry.

“The goal here is to cover not only new sources of methane and VOC emissions [from oil and gas facilities], but also existing sources over time,” DEP Secretary John Quigley told hundreds of viewers during a live Facebook town hall event yesterday. “We want to have a comprehensive emissions program that is nation-leading. I think it’s the strongest set of provisions in the country, and I think the number two natural gas producing state in the nation should have the best regulations. That’s what we’re going to have in Pennsylvania.”

That’s a bold and laudable commitment – one that deserves our support to help make sure the promise becomes reality. Read More »

Also posted in Methane, Natural Gas / Tagged Natural Gas, Pennsylvania | Comments are closed

Oil and Gas Pollution Delivers a One-Two Punch to Our Public Health

By Felice Stadler / Published: December 2, 2015

One of the country’s largest leaks ever of natural gas, which is primarily made up of the potent greenhouse gas methane, has been going on in California’s Aliso Canyon for over a month. The volume that’s been leaking has been staggering—and the impacts to local residents severe enough to warrant relocating hundreds of families.

Major disasters like the one unfolding in Aliso Canyon have a tendency to grab our attention because the impacts are so acute and can be immediately documented—from the volume of methane that’s leaked (latest climate impacts estimate: equivalent to driving 160,000 cars/year) to the documented health impacts (bloody noses, headaches, breathing difficulties, nausea).

The Aliso Canyon leak, however, also provides us a good reminder of what communities across the U.S. who are close to oil and gas facilities have been increasingly concerned about—the ongoing environmental impact of air pollution that is being released into their neighborhoods, and the safety of those operations. Most of the pollution is invisible to the naked eye, but infrared cameras are bringing the problem into sharper focus, and with that a louder call for action and oversight by federal officials. EPA estimates that today, methane leaks from onshore oil and gas development is contributing climate impacts equivalent to driving nearly 130 million cars annually. And their emissions are contributing to unhealthy air for residents living next door and downwind of this development. Read More »

Also posted in California, General, Methane, Natural Gas / Read 1 Response

Wyoming Proposal to Curb Venting and Flaring Needs Work

By Jon Goldstein / Published: November 19, 2015

When operators pull oil out of the ground, it often comes up with copious amounts of natural gas. This “associated gas” can be captured and brought to market, creating an additional revenue source for operators. But if no gathering infrastructure or other methods of capture are deployed, operators either vent the gas to the atmosphere or burn it off with controlled flares. Venting results in the release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Flaring results in troublesome emissions as well, including CO2 and hazardous air pollutants.

According to the Wyoming Oil and gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC), Wyoming’s oil and gas operators vented and flared more than five billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2014. Five billion cubic feet of gas that could be sold to generate taxes and royalties, heat homes and power machinery across the country, instead was wasted. Read More »

Also posted in Natural Gas, Wyoming / Tagged Flaring, regulations | Comments are closed

PBS Sheds Light on Oil and Gas Industry’s Methane Problem—and Solutions

By Jon Goldstein / Published: November 9, 2015

*UPDATE: On Jan. 22 the Bureau of Land Management announced new rules to curb methane pollution on federal and tribal lands. Click here to show your support for protecting the West from oil & gas pollution.*

In case you missed it, PBS NewsHour recently took a close look at an issue EDF has been deeply involved in: oil and gas methane emissions.

PBS captured what many across the country have experienced for years – frustration with a significant waste and pollution problem. U.S. oil and gas drillers emit millions of tons of methane into the air every year. This pollution increases global warming and deteriorates air quality. As impacted rancher Don Schreiber in Gobernador, New Mexico told the reporter, the problem is “sobering.”

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