Is Natural Gas Really Helping The U.S. Cut Emissions?
According to Inside Climate News, “Can natural gas be part of a climate change solution? That’s what the American Petroleum Institute argues in a new campaign it has launched ahead
of this year’s elections, pushing back against some Democratic candidates who support bans on new development of oil and gas. The campaign echoes a refrain that supporters from both political parties have pushed for years: that gas is a cleaner fuel than coal
and can serve as a bridge to a low-carbon future. The industry points to data showing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions are at their lowest level in decades, as coal power generation has been replaced by gas, which produces about half the carbon dioxide
emissions when burned, and by renewable energy sources like wind and solar. But experts agree that those official figures understate emissions of methane, the primary component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas released in leaks throughout the oil
and gas development supply chain. And while there’s uncertainty about how much methane is leaking, several studies show that the benefits of the switch from coal to gas over the last decade are smaller than government data suggests, perhaps substantially smaller.
Many oil and gas companies have pledged to reduce their methane emissions. But beyond the methane leaks, emissions from new petrochemical plants and liquid natural gas export facilities in coming years, spurred by the gas boom, are set to surge.” [Inside Climate
News,
1/30/20 (=)]
A Way To Halt Natural Gas Flaring Arrives On The Back Of A Truck.
According to Bloomberg, “Perched on the back of a semi-trailer is the latest weapon in tackling the problem of wasted natural gas that oil producers often vent into the air or even
burn off at the wellhead. Cryobox takes fuel directly from wells and turns it into liquefied natural gas, which is easy to store and transport. For small gas fields uneconomical or too distant to connect to a traditional pipeline network, this small-scale
LNG plant is a solution to absorb fuel that would otherwise be wasted. That also makes it a way to prevent greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming and solve a growing problem for the industry. Wherever oil is produced, gas often follows.
If there aren’t enough customers to take it away, the gas is often treated as a waste product and either burned off at the wellhead or allowed to escape into the air—flared or vented in the jargon of the industry. Making LNG directly at the well can also help
recover these supplies known in the trade as ‘stranded gas’ when they aren’t economical to develop or lack pipeline connections. In North America alone, that stranded gas is worth about $600 million. Cryobox is a product of Edge Gathering Virtual Pipelines
2 LLC. It’s backed by a closely-held Buenos Aries compressor maker Galileo Technologies SA and Blue Water Energy LLP, a private-equity investor managing $2.5 billion. The Cryobox mobile LNG station is one of a growing number of systems that aim to reduce flaring
and get gas to where it’s needed.” [Bloomberg,
1/31/20 (=)]
Poll: Pennsylvanians Favor Statewide Ban On Fracking.
According to KDKA, “Pennsylvanians are split on the future of the fracking industry. A Franklin and Marshall College poll found 48 percent of voters favor a statewide ban on fracking
while 39 percent oppose such a ban. The major divide is by location. Sixty-one percent of people in Allegheny County want fracking to be banned across the state. But only 28 percent in the rest of Southwestern Pennsylvania are in favor of a ban.” [KDKA,
1/30/20 (=)]
Lawmakers Want To Allow Fracking Companies To Drill Sooner – For A Price.
According to the Beckley Register-Herald, “West Virginia lawmakers are moving forward with a bill to promote fracking in West Virginia. House Bill 4091, sponsored by Del. Bill Anderson,
R-Wood, has passed the House of Delegates and, on Thursday, the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee. It now goes to the full Senate for a vote. The bill would allow companies that want permits for new horizontal and shallow drilling projects in West
Virginia to pay $20,000, instead of the current permit fee of $10,000, to ensure their permits are approved or denied within 45 days. According to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the current approval time is typically 54 days. Terry
Fletcher, acting spokesman for the DEP, wrote in an email that part of that time includes a 30-day period for the public to submit comments. Currently, horizontal well permitting applications are processed in the order they are received. Also during that time,
DEP workers are charged by state code with evaluating the company’s safety plan and whether the company has prepared for environmental impacts by reviewing its erosion and sediment control plan, how it plans to dispose of wastewaster, methods to be used for
surface water withdrawal to minimize adverse impact to aquatic life, and how close the site is to public water intakes. Fletcher said the bill ‘does not alter the permit review.’ Half of funding from expedited permits would go toward plugging abandoned wells,
while half would go toward DEP operations.” [Beckley Register-Herald,
1/30/20 (-)]
The Hunt For Fugitive Emissions In The Permian’s Oilfields.
According to DeSmog, “Meaningful regulation of the fracking, industry is a non sequitur to Sharon Wilson, organizer for Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project. She supports
her employer’s efforts to encourage tougher industry regulations, but believes that humankind needs to keep oil and gas in the ground if there is any chance of meeting the benchmarks set by the Paris Climate Accord to limit global warming. After spending a
couple days with Wilson as she monitored for methane leaks at oil and gas industry sites in the Permian oilfields of West Texas, it is easy to understand why she believes that talk of meaningful regulation of the industry lacks meaning itself. Wilson uses
an optical gas imaging (OGI) camera, which makes otherwise invisible emissions visible. With the specialized camera, also used by environmental regulators and industry, she recorded fugitive emissions spewing from nearly every site we visited. The handful
of places we stopped were only a tiny fraction of the countless oil and gas production sites in the Permian Basin. This region, one of the most prolific oil and natural gas plays in the U.S., spans approximately 86,000 square miles in West Texas and southeastern
New Mexico. The basin is roughly 250 miles wide and 300 miles long and is in the midst of an oil boom. In 2014 the basin’s fracking industry began ramping up, using horizontal drilling and high-pressure fluid injections to crack open shale and release the
oil and gas trapped inside.” [DeSmog,
1/30/20 (+)]
Sanders Introduces Anti-Fracking Legislation.
According to E&E News, “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has introduced legislation to ban hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas. The Democratic presidential candidate tweeted about
the legislation, saying actor and activist Mark Ruffalo ruined the ‘surprise’ of the bill by mentioning it yesterday during an event on separate legislation from Sanders to crack down on pollution from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. ‘I don’t mind if
@MarkRuffalo spoils his own movies. But please, don’t ruin the surprise of our new legislation,’ Sanders wrote, mentioning Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) as co-sponsors with him. ‘I don’t want
the dirty fracking industry CEOs to know what hit them,’ Sanders wrote on his Senate Twitter account. Sanders’ Senate office did not respond to multiple requests for comment or offer more details on the legislation. He introduced S. 3247 on Tuesday, though
congressional records do not have the text of it beyond the title: ‘A bill to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing, and for other purposes.’ Sanders has introduced numerous pieces of legislation over the years to ban fracking. The controversial process
to produce oil and natural gas has led to a boom that has made the United States the top producer of both fossil fuels worldwide, but environmentalists blame it for air and water pollution and exacerbating climate change. Sanders has also pledged to ban fracking
if elected president, a position he shares with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and many other Democratic presidential hopefuls.” [E&E News,
1/30/20 (=)]
Researchers Make Critical Advances In Quantifying Methane Released From The Arctic Ocean.
According to Phys.org, “A new study, lead by researchers at Stockholm University and published in Science Advances, now demonstrate that the amount of methane presently leaking into
the atmosphere from the Arctic Ocean is much lower than previously claimed in recent studies. Methane is well known as a major contributor to global warming. Understanding the natural sources of this gas, especially in the fast-warming Arctic, is critical
for understanding the future climate. Compared with the amount of methane produced by human activities, the amount from the ocean was long thought to be negligible. Nevertheless, over the past decade, there have been reports claiming large amounts of methane
emitted from the Arctic Ocean to the atmosphere. The amounts released were sometimes claimed to be catastrophically large and, even though the emissions had not been observed by atmospheric monitoring stations, it raised the question that perhaps scientists
had missed something important about the Arctic Ocean’s methane cycle. However, measuring small amounts of gas escaping from the sea and properly scaling the emissions over millions of square kilometers of the remote Arctic Ocean is not an easy task. In their
study, the researchers used direct measurements of the methane sea-to-air flux to determine how much methane is leaking from the eastern Arctic Ocean to the atmosphere. They used data from the 2014 SWERUS-C3 project, during which the Swedish icebreaker Oden
crossed the eastern Arctic Ocean from Tromsø, Norway.” [Phys.org,
1/30/20 (=)]
Big Oil Projects Could Plunge 50% In Value.
According to E&E News, “Oil companies could see the value of new projects cut by 50% under a ‘handbrake turn’ scenario where governments take forceful and overdue action to mitigate
the impacts of climate change, according to a report released yesterday. The analysis from the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a London-based think tank, said under that ‘inevitable policy response’ scenario, demand for oil would fall by 2.6% per year from 2025
to 2040. Oil companies that pursue the highest-cost projects — such as Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and Chevron Corp. — are most exposed to drops in oil prices, the report said, and are thus more sensitive to potential losses in project value. Andrew
Grant, head of oil, gas and mining at Carbon Tracker and the report’s author, said the longer it takes for governments to enact serious climate policy, the more projects oil companies will invest in while assuming that oil demand will continue to grow. ‘The
problem with governments acting later is oil and gas companies don’t get the investment signal,’ Grant said, ‘which means the oil price isn’t going to give them the right messages ... to lower their investments accordingly.’ By comparison, earlier policy action
makes planning for the impacts of climate change easier. Only projects developed prior to 2025 might never generate the value expected if the IPR scenario is not anticipated, the report said.” [E&E News,
1/31/20 (=)]
Chad Ellwood
Climate Action Campaign
202.448.2877 ext. 119