Biden Admin Works On 'Green' Natural Gas As U.S. Vies For Top LNG Spot — “The Biden administration is holding talks with global energy companies and foreign officials in an effort to set standards for certified natural gas, a form of the fuel that producers market as climate friendly. The effort comes as the United States seeks to sustain its liquefied natural gas, or LNG, exports to Europe to displace Russian fuel, while also promoting efforts to fight global warming. … If successful, certified gas could help sustain U.S. LNG exports to European markets and put perhaps put pressure on Russia to clean its gas once the war in Ukraine ends, experts said. The thousands of miles of pipelines from Russian gas fields to Europe leak methane but there is little transparency about how much, said Leslie Palti-Guzman, president and founder of the research group Gas Vista. Meanwhile, U.S. LNG is not only linked to methane leakage, but takes large amounts of energy to supercool and ship, adding to its carbon footprint. Nobody knows which is cleaner, ‘but certified gas could strengthen the case for the U.S. and challenge the Russians to report credible numbers’ on its methane emissions, said Robert Kleinberg, a Columbia University research scholar who advises DGCC, free of charge.” [Reuters, 3/3/23 (=)]

 

Revealed: 1,000 Super-Emitting Methane Leaks Risk Triggering Climate Tipping Points — “More than 1,000 ‘super-emitter’ sites gushed the potent greenhouse gas methane into the global atmosphere in 2022, the Guardian can reveal, mostly from oil and gas facilities. The worst single leak spewed the pollution at a rate equivalent to 67m running cars. Separate data also reveals 55 ‘methane bombs’ around the world – fossil fuel extraction sites where gas leaks alone from future production would release levels of methane equivalent to 30 years of all US greenhouse gas emissions. Methane emissions cause 25% of global heating today and there has been a ‘scary’ surge since 2007, according to scientists. This acceleration may be the biggest threat to keeping below 1.5C of global heating and seriously risks triggering catastrophic climate tipping points, researchers say. The two new datasets identify the sites most critical to preventing methane-driven disaster, as tackling leaks from fossil fuel sites is the fastest and cheapest way to slash methane emissions. Some leaks are deliberate, venting the unwanted gas released from underground while drilling for oil into the air, and some are accidental, from badly maintained or poorly regulated equipment.” [The Guardian, 3/6/23 (+)]

 

‘We Don’t Feel Safe’: US Community In Shock After Record Methane Leak — “It was an ordinary autumn afternoon pottering around the back yard for Doug Harrison when an engine-like roar suddenly drowned out the sound of the leaf blower. ‘It sounded like two jets were directly above my house,’ said Harrison, 50, a former steelworker from Jackson Township, a rural community in Pennsylvania. ‘I swear to God I thought this is it, those jets are going to crash into my property.’ Residents for miles around exchanged frantic messages while scouring flight radar and emergency service scanner apps for clues, as the township’s volunteer firefighters sped past, sirens blazing. But this was no terrorist attack or aviation calamity. The deafening noise and the foul smell of rotten eggs that followed was a massive methane leak at a nearby gas storage facility, an unfolding climate catastrophe captured by satellites in space. Over the next few weeks, more than a billion cubic feet of methane and other toxins were spewed into the atmosphere from a failed storage well at an ageing fossil-fuel facility operated by Equitrans Midstream Corporation on Rager Mountain.” [The Guardian, 3/6/23 (=)]

 

Permian Driller To Cut Smog, Heat-Trapping Emissions — “A Texas oil and gas driller has agreed to cut hundreds of tons of smog-forming emissions from its operations in the Permian Basin and pay a $610,000 fine. EPA announced the consent agreement with Permian Resources Corp. on Friday, saying in a news release that it resulted from regulatory violations flagged in a 2020 flyover. Beside the fine, the Midland-based company will make equipment upgrades and take other ‘corrective actions’ at nine of its West Texas facilities that are expected to cut releases of volatile organic compounds, a key ingredient in smog, by more than 360 tons, and of methane, a heat-trapping pollutant, by more than 1,300 tons, according to the release. A Permian Resources spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment Friday afternoon. In its annual financial report issued last week, however, the company said it has put programs in place to meet the deal’s requirements and is ‘in the process of correcting any identified deficiencies.’ Last year, the company netted about $2.1 billion in revenue, more than double the 2021 total, according to the report. Press staffers in EPA’s Dallas regional office also did not immediately respond to a request for a copy of the actual consent agreement.” [E&E News, 3/3/23 (=)]

 

State Investigates Massive Methane Release — “Three separate satellites detected a large methane plume stretching about 4.7 miles north of Douglas in December, according to analysis by the United Nations’ International Methane Emissions Observatory. The errant methane — a valuable commodity and potent greenhouse gas — came from the Douglas Gas Plant, a natural gas processing plant owned and operated by Tallgrass Energy. The company purposely vented the gas over the course of two days — Dec. 6-7 — because it discovered traces of oxygen in a gas pipeline, creating a potential hazard, according to documents Tallgrass submitted to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and obtained by WyoFile. The company played by the book in conducting the gas releases for safety purposes, according to Wyoming DEQ officials. It notified the agency soon after it began venting operations and consulted with DEQ to ensure that wind and other atmospheric conditions would sweep the gas up and away from the town of Douglas, posing no risk to the public, DEQ Public Information Supervisor Kimberly Mazza said. The company’s actions do not appear to violate its state permits, Mazza added.” [WyoFile, 3/3/23 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: EPA Methane Rule May Be Good News — “Most of us take for granted that we will enter a dark room and can flick on the lights, that our homes will be warm in winter, that we will look out the window of a car and watch the world go by. We just assume that the energy needed to make those things work will always be there. But the energy sources are changing. Recent developments prove the point. According to the International Energy Agency, an estimated $1.4 trillion was spent on ‘clean energy’ projects in 2022. That includes solar farms, batteries and electric vehicle charging stations. That’s more than ever before, and more than the money that was spent on new oil and gas projects. In addition, a recent report stated that investments in low-carbon energy ‘reached parity’ with capital aimed at expanding fossil fuels. And, driving the point home further, the oil giant BP said recently that it expected the war in Ukraine would push countries to ramp up renewable energy projects and that the need for oil and gas would reach its peak soon. This energy transition growth spurt includes solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and, very controversially, nuclear power. Energy security doesn’t mean only fossil fuels anymore.” [Bangor Daily News, 3/5/23 (+)]

 

 

 

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