Energy Exchange

Why EPA’s Press Release Doesn’t Reflect the Real Methane Emissions Numbers

By Mark Brownstein / Published: October 6, 2014

Source: Dan Lurie

At first glance, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Sept. 30 press release looked like a winner: Methane emissions from the oil and gas sector dropped by 12 percent in 2013, with a whopping 73-percent decline from hydraulically fractured natural gas wells making up the largest share of reductions.

The drop in methane emissions shows how effective regulation is in reducing air pollution from oil and gas production. It was led by an early phase of EPA’s air pollution rules, enacted in October 2012, with full implementation expected by January 2015. (Although this regulation targets emissions of volatile organic compounds, it has also reduced methane as a co-benefit.)

Except, the 73- percent decline is not the whole story. It only accounts for 2.3 percent of the total methane emissions reported to EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, leaving a large amount of tons on the table addressed.

Also posted in Air Quality, Climate, Natural Gas / Tagged Greenhouse gas, Methane, Natural Gas | Read 1 Response

Report Finds Opportunity for Natural Gas Job Growth—But it’s not Where you Think

By Sean Wright / Published: October 3, 2014

In 1933, Milton Heath senior opened a small, family-run consulting firm to find leaks from natural gas pipelines by conducting vegetation surveys in New England Fields. More than 80 years later, the family business has grown substantially, and now the Texas-based company provides more than 1,200 manufacturing and service jobs across the country. Their business model may have changed—but their commitment to finding and reducing leaks of methane—a potent greenhouse gas—has not wavered.

Stories like Heath’s are the focus of a new report released this week by Datu Research. The Emerging U.S. Methane Mitigation Industry looks at the growing industry that specializes in manufacturing technologies and providing services that help oil and gas companies reduce their environmental impact and deliver a valuable product to market. The report analyzes more than 70 companies that limit emissions of methane and provide high-paying, highly skilled jobs to thousands across the country. These companies are part of an increasingly strong market growing amidst rising awareness of the need to reduce methane pollution alongside the domestic energy boom. Read More »

Also posted in Natural Gas / Read 3 Responses

Five Reasons Now is the Time for Federal Standards to Reduce Oil and Gas Methane Emissions

By Mark Brownstein / Published: September 18, 2014

Source: Tim Evanson Flickr

Today sixteen leaders of the nation’s largest environmental and conservation groups, including EDF’s president Fred Krupp, came together to call for urgent federal action to curb methane emissions from oil and gas development.

This past march, President Obama laid out his Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions, where he announced that the Environmental Protection Agency will decide by this fall how best to reduce methane pollution from the oil and gas sector. The Strategy builds on the commitment from his 2012 State of the Union Address that the development of oil and gas resources must not put Americans’ health and safety at risk.

Here are five reasons why reducing methane is a national priority that requires the Obama administration to follow through on its commitment:

Also posted in Clean Energy, Natural Gas / Read 5 Responses

Lasers, Circuit Boards, and a $30 Gizmo: Innovative Solutions to the Methane Problem

By Ben Ratner / Published: September 15, 2014

Source: MIssy Schmidt/Flickr

The technologies we see today didn’t all start out in the forms we’re used to. The phones we carry in our pockets used to weigh pounds, not ounces. Engineers developed hundreds of designs for wind turbines before landing on the three-blade design commonly seen in the field.

Fast forward and now we’re looking at a drunk-driver-and-alcohol sensor that was converted into a methane leak detector. And a sensor purchased off the web for less than $30 that was transformed into a monitor that fights off greenhouse gases.

I was excited to see the diversity of technologies such as these moving forward in the Methane Detectors Challenge. Read More »

Also posted in Air Quality, Clean Energy, Climate / Comments are closed

McKibben and EDF Agree: Plugging Methane Leaks “A Huge Priority”

By Mark Brownstein / Published: September 10, 2014

Methane is flared from a natural gas well site.

Bill McKibben is at it again—using his formidable analytical and rhetorical skills to challenge comfortable climate assumptions. In this case, the author and activist puts the heat on politicians, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who argue that natural gas can be a “bridge fuel” to a low-carbon energy future.

Since natural gas emits half the carbon of coal when it’s burned, supporting it gives politicians a way to position themselves as both pro-energy and pro-climate. But writing in Mother Jones, Bill questions whether switching from coal- to natural gas-fired electric generation brings any climate benefit at all.

Because natural gas is mostly methane, a potent greenhouse gas, he points out that if enough uncombusted methane is leaking from the natural gas supply chain, natural gas may be even worse for the climate than coal.

We couldn’t agree more. Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, Natural Gas, Renewable Energy / Read 1 Response

Using Google Street View in our Fight Against Climate Change

By Steven Hamburg / Published: July 28, 2014

Throughout history, maps have played a critical role in shaping our decisions—helping us determine where we are going and how we are going to get there. Now, we’re using them to define a way to address climate change.

Environmental Defense Fund and Google Earth Outreach have worked together to launch a series of maps that show methane leaks from natural gas pipelines under city streets in Boston, Indianapolis and Staten Island. This new tool has the power to greatly improve cities’ and utilities’ ability to minimize methane emissions that contribute to global warming.

Why care about methane?

A recent tide of scientific studies about losses from the natural gas supply chain has made it clear the critical importance of reducing methane emissions (methane is the primary ingredient of natural gas).

One of natural gas’s potential benefits over other fossil fuels is that when burned it produces less carbon dioxide emissions, half as much as coal. If used wisely to rapidly displace dirty coal power plants, for example, natural gas could help the country dramatically reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions. Read More »

Also posted in Natural Gas / Tagged Google | Read 1 Response