NMOGA
Official Encouraged State Wants Dialogue On Methane Rules. according
to the Carlsbad Current Argus, “A member of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association (NMOGA) offered encouragement on proposed regulations on methane emissions to the Eddy County Energy Advisory Board (EAB). ‘We’ve been engaged with the State and the Energy
and Environment Departments and really helping provide credible expert folks from our companies to help our state develop rules that really reflect the desire of New Mexico to continue to grow economically while also reducing methane emissions,’ said Robert
McEntyre, NMOGA’s director of communications. McEntyre briefed the EAB Aug. 8 in Artesia. McEntyre’s visit came after a public meeting held Aug. 7 in Carlsbad by the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) and the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department
(EMNRD). Both agencies are collaborating to adopt stricter rules for methane emissions from oil and gas operations. Public meetings were also held in Farmington and Albuquerque. ‘Our departments are very pleased with how the stakeholder meetings went,’ said
Susan Torres, EMNRD spokesperson. ‘All of the meetings had a very high turnout, reinforcing what an important issue this is to New Mexicans. Thanks to feedback from the public, we have a lot of crucial information on how best to move forward.’ McEntyre said
the crowd in Carlsbad was the most engaged of the meetings he attended. ‘Carlsbad emphasized an approach on collaboration and innovation,’ he said.” [Carlsbad Current Argus,
8/12/19
(=)]
Natural-Gas
Leaks Are Important Source Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Los Angeles. According
to Science Daily, “Scientist have found that methane in L.A.’s air correlates with the seasonal use of gas for heating homes and businesses. In discussions of anthropogenic climate change, carbon dioxide generally gets the spotlight, but it is not the only
greenhouse gas spewed into the atmosphere by human activity, nor is it the most potent. Methane is another greenhouse gas that is increasing in Earth’s atmosphere because of humans. Methane is produced by human activity in much smaller amounts than carbon
dioxide, but it is roughly 25 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas. Though it is often associated with cow flatulence, bovines are not the only human-associated source of methane. New research by Caltech scientists shows that, at least in the Los Angeles
Basin, leaks of natural gas used for heating homes and businesses are major contributors to methane in the atmosphere. The research was conducted by Liyin He (MS ‘18), a graduate student in environmental science and engineering, while working in the lab of
Yuk L. Yung, Caltech professor of planetary science and research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech manages for NASA. She found that methane concentrations in the air above L.A. fluctuate in tandem with the seasons. In winter, when natural
gas use is at its highest, methane concentrations are also highest. In the summer, when natural gas use drops, so does the amount of methane in the air.” [Science Daily,
8/12/19
(=)]
Trump
To Promote Turning Natural Gas Into Plastics In Pa. According
to the Associated Press, “Trying to hold support in the manufacturing towns that helped him win the White House in 2016, President Donald Trump is showcasing growing efforts to capitalize on western Pennsylvania’s natural gas deposits by turning gas into plastics.
Trump will be in Monaca, about 40 minutes north of Pittsburgh, on Tuesday to tour Shell’s soon-to-be completed Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex. The facility, which critics claim will become the largest air polluter in western Pennsylvania, is being built
in an area hungry for investment. The focus is part of a continued push by the Trump administration to increase the economy’s dependence on fossil fuels in defiance of increasingly urgent warnings about climate change. And it’s an embrace of plastic at a time
when the world is sounding alarms over its ubiquity and impact. Trump’s appeals to blue-collar workers helped him win Beaver County, where the plant is located, by more than 18 percentage points in 2016, only to have voters turn to Democrats in 2018′s midterm
elections. In one of a series of defeats that led to Republicans’ loss of the House, voters sent Democrat Conor Lamb to Congress after the prosperity promised by Trump’s tax cuts failed to materialize. Today, Beaver County is still struggling to recover from
the shuttering of steel plants in the 1980s that surged the unemployment rate to nearly 30%. Former mill towns like Aliquippa have seen their populations shrink, while Pittsburgh has lured major tech companies like Google and Uber, fueling an economic renaissance
in a city that reliably votes Democratic.” [New York Times, 8/13/19
(=)]
Small Producers Push EPA To Gut Obama Methane Agenda.
According to E&E News, “Independent oil and gas producers want EPA to consider significantly revamping the way it regulates emissions from the sector, potentially transforming a landmark
Obama-era climate rule into a regulation that may only partly or indirectly target greenhouse gases. EPA is expected to come out with a draft rule in the coming weeks to replace the Obama 2016 New Source Performance Standards for oil and gas drilling. Lee
Fuller, vice president of government relations at the Independent Petroleum Association of America, sees a clear chance to address regulatory requirements put in motion by the Obama rule, which he warned would have led to high regulatory costs for hundreds
of thousands of low-production wells scattered across the country. If EPA follows through with some of the changes, it could also end up transforming how the agency regulates emissions from the sector under the Clean Air Act and, in turn, change how much the
agency is required to regulate emissions from existing wells, pipelines and storage tanks. Details of how EPA plans to rewrite the rule are sparse, but the agency is expected to address two main issues in the rulemaking. One of those issues is the type of
pollutant EPA should target: methane, a potent greenhouse gas, or volatile organic compounds (VOCs), classified as a criteria pollutant.” [E&E News,
8/12/19 (=)]
Va. Widow Leads Eminent Domain Fight At Supreme Court.
According to E&E News, “The day Clarence Givens died, he and his wife were set to hire a lawyer to guide them through a brewing battle over a natural gas pipeline slated to pass through
this mountainous farming community. Karolyn Givens, now 77, was at her husband’s side as he was shuttled to the local hospital and airlifted to a medical unit in Roanoke. What she initially thought was a stroke turned out to be a fatal complication from a
cluster of veins and arteries near the base of his brain — a birth defect he never knew he had. He died at 80 years old. After her husband collapsed in their basement, Givens was a widow with three rural Virginia properties in her charge and a phone number
at her fingertips. Knowing she didn’t want to abandon their hard-fought efforts to block the Mountain Valley pipeline from crossing their historic farm, Givens called landowner attorney Chris Johns the day after her husband died. ‘We didn’t skip a beat,’ Givens
said. Since teaming up with Johns in August 2017, Givens and a host of other residents living along the 300-mile Mountain Valley project have joined calls for federal courts to address a quirk in the pipeline eminent domain process that enables pipeline developers
to gain access to private property before paying to use the land.” [E&E News,
8/13/19 (=)]
Is Grass-Fed Beef Really Better For The Planet? Here's The Science.
According to NPR, “For the environmentally minded carnivore, meat poses a culinary conundrum. Producing it requires a great deal of land and water resources, and ruminants like cows
and sheep are responsible for half of all greenhouse gas emissions associated with agriculture, according to the World Resources Institute. That’s why many researchers are now calling for the world to cut back on its meat consumption. But some advocates say
there is a way to eat meat that’s better for the planet and better for the animals: grass-fed beef. But is grass-fed beef really greener than feedlot-finished beef? Let’s parse the science. Feedlot calves begin their lives on pasture with the cow that produced
them. They’re weaned after six to nine months, then grazed a bit more on pasture. They’re then ‘finished’ for about 120 days on high-energy corn and other grains in a feedlot, gaining weight fast and creating that fat-marbled beef that consumers like. At about
14 to 18 months of age, they are sent to slaughter. (One downside of the feedlot system, as we’ve reported, is that a diet of corn can lead to liver abscesses in cattle, which is why animals who eat it receive antibiotics as part of their feed.)” [NPR,
8/13/19 (=)]
Chad Ellwood
Research Associate
202.448.2877 ext. 119