Methane Clips: February 1, 2023

 

Difficulty Measuring Methane Slows Plan To Slash Emissions. According to the Associated Press, “The doors of a metal box slide open, and a drone rises over a gas well in Pennsylvania. Its mission: To find leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, so that energy companies can plug the leaks and reduce the emissions that pollute the air. The drone is among an array of instruments whose purpose is to detect leaks of methane, which scientists say causes roughly 30% of manmade global warming. Along with satellites, ground sensors and planes armed with infrared cameras, drones are part of the backbone of a new federal policy to compel energy companies to record and slash their methane emissions. The problem is, no one knows when — or even whether — that will be possible. Technology that might allow for precise methane measurements is still being developed. Under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, enacted into law last year, companies must start producing precise measurements of their methane emissions next year and face fines if they exceed permissible levels. Yet if no one knows how much methane an energy company has emitted, it’s unclear that any fines could be justified.” [Associated Press, 1/31/23 (=)]

 

Western Energy Alliance, IPAA: BLM’s Methane Emissions Regulation “Oversteps Authority.” According to World Oil, “Western Energy Alliance and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) submitted comments to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regarding the proposed rule on Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation. photo of methane molecule The associations urged the agency to implement targeted changes to portions of the proposed regulations on methane emissions that overstep the authority granted by Congress. IPAA and Western Energy Alliance also reminded officials of the successful legal challenges to a similar rule in 2016. ‘BLM can regulate waste of methane, but it does not have the authority to regulate air quality. The Clean Air Act gives that authority to EPA and the states, as affirmed by a federal court in striking down a similar rule from the Obama Administration. BLM makes some of the same mistakes in this rule as in the rule we successfully overturned,’ said Kathleen Sgamma, president of Western Energy Alliance.” [World Oil, 1/31/23 (-)]

 

Opinion: Climate And Health In South Phoenix: Building Advocates Through Education. According to the Arizona Capital Times, “Growing up in South Phoenix, I was constantly, unknowingly exposed to the devastating effects air pollution has on environmental and human health. As a child it was common for my family and friends to have asthma, including myself. So common, in fact, that I didn’t think to question why that was, until I was much older and got involved in social justice efforts when I learned about the environmental injustices that communities like mine face. Now I know what the problem is: South Phoenix has a history of redlining and racist city planning, which zoned it for heavy industrial use that contaminated the communities of color who were segregated there. This has also occurred nationally: communities of color and low-income communities are more likely to be located near industrial and oil and gas facilities that spew air pollutants such as methane – a precursor to ozone–and soot, causing those high rates of asthma.” [Arizona Capital Times, 1/20/23 (+)]

 

This Five-Mile-Long Cloud Of Methane Was Spotted Over Wyoming. According to Bloomberg, “It all started with an apparent mistake. Alarms at Tallgrass Energy’s Douglas Gas Plant in Wyoming were triggered by high oxygen levels after a maintenance project didn’t go as planned. The operator told regulators it vented a total of about 2.1 metric tons of methane in five separate safety releases. A satellite passing over the US state, however, observed a methane cloud 4.6 miles (7.4 km) long emanating from the location, which scientists estimated was spewing the planet-warming gas at a rate of 76 to 184 metric tons an hour. Because NASA’s Landsat 9 satellite orbits the Earth, the researchers who studied the data couldn’t verify how long the release lasted or calculate the total amount of methane spewed, but said it was likely to be far higher than reported. ‘It’s highly unlikely the volume reported by the operator could account for the emissions rate observed by the satellite coming from the facility,’ said Manfredi Caltagirone, head of the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), an initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme, summarizing the findings of its geospatial scientists.” [Bloomberg, 1/31/23 (=)]