Energy Exchange

Selected tag(s): Natural Gas

Amid an oil and gas boom, New Mexico legislators need to refill regulators’ tanks

By Jon Goldstein / Published: January 31, 2020

As lawmakers convene in Santa Fe for the current legislative session, they face a state transformed by an oil and gas boom. Expanded oil and gas drilling has made New Mexico the No. 3 oil producer in the nation and is transforming large swaths of the state’s landscape.

However, while oil and gas production has skyrocketed over the past decade, years of funding cuts under former Gov. Susana Martinez have left New Mexico’s energy and environmental agencies unable to guarantee oil and gas operations take place safely and responsibly.

The state’s leaders can chart a new course this year by ensuring these agencies have the resources they need to keep pace with industry’s growth and protect the health, air and water of New Mexicans across the state. This will mean going above and beyond the budget proposed for these agencies by Gov. Lujan Grisham in order to get vital regulators back on their feet.

Posted in Climate, Methane, Natural Gas / Also tagged EMNRD, energy, Methane, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, New Mexico, New Mexico Environment Department, NMED, oil and gas, Permian | Comments are closed

Report reveals heavy burden of energy waste, methane emissions on Navajo communities

By EDF Blogs / Published: March 21, 2019

By Matt Miccioli, EDF Stanford Schneider Fellow

A recent study of oil and gas methane emissions on the Navajo Nation reveals companies operating on tribal lands pollute 65 percent more than the national average, wasting millions in tribal resources every year and underscoring the opportunity for tribal leaders to reduce emissions.

The analysis, conducted by Environmental Defense Fund and released in conjunction with Grand Canyon Trust, Dinè CARE and Native American Voters Alliance, quantifies the volume of natural gas burned off, vented or leaked from oil and gas production on Navajo lands. It found that companies are wasting about 5.2 percent of their natural gas, generating about 13,000 tons of methane pollution.

Posted in Air Quality, General, Methane, Methane regulatons, Natural Gas / Also tagged Methane, Navajo Nation, New Mexico | Comments are closed

The right way for California to divest from natural gas

By Tim O'Connor / Published: March 19, 2019

As California’s drive to wean itself from fossil fuels continues, important new challenges are emerging in its wake. Part of a broader effort to shift the state’s electric grid entirely to clean energy by 2045, for example, includes the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s recent announcement to retire three gas-fired power plants, while making a series of local investments to manage and balance the electric load. And with the grid getting cleaner, efforts are now getting underway to electrify as many of the other residential, commercial and industrial activities that currently depend on gas.

Posted in California, Climate, Gas to Clean, Natural Gas / Also tagged California, Climate | Comments are closed

National clean air protections are in jeopardy of going away, but Pennsylvania can be protected

By Andrew Williams / Published: January 9, 2018

Source: Bob Donaldson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Governor Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently announced plans to control harmful smog-forming emissions from the state’s existing oil and gas sites. There’s just one problem: their plan is based on national clean air guidelines that are now under attack by President Trump’s EPA. However, by changing this plan, and creating strong state-led policies, Governor Wolf can ensure Pennsylvania remains in control of its own clean air protections.

Posted in Air Quality, Methane, Natural Gas / Also tagged Methane, Pennsylvania | Comments are closed

How Sensible BLM and EPA Methane Rules Can Mean Millions to Tribal Communities

By EDF Blogs / Published: October 25, 2016

By Daniel Roda-Stuart, Fellow

With oil and natural gas production, it’s not only the industry that benefits monetarily. Mineral rights holders (the people who actually own the oil and gas deep below the earth’s surface) benefit too. Depending on where you look in the United States, who owns these mineral rights varies. In many places those minerals are owned by individuals and in other situations it’s the federal or state government.

In the Western U.S., it can often be Native American tribes that own the rights to these resources. And the revenue from the production of these tribal resources can be invaluable for funding education, health care, and other programs. So, what happens when faulty equipment and poor practices allow valuable natural gas to escape to the atmosphere before making it to the sales line? It can result in millions of dollars of lost royalty revenue for Native American tribes.

A recent EDF analysis focuses on the value of this wasted gas and the financial impacts to the Northern Ute tribe in the Uintah Basin of Northeastern Utah. Read More »

Posted in Air Quality, BLM Methane, Climate, Methane, Natural Gas / Also tagged Bureau of Land Management, Flaring, Utah | 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 »

Posted in Air Quality, Methane, Natural Gas / Also tagged Pennsylvania | Comments are closed