EPA's Methane Proposal Would Create 19,000 Texas Jobs — Report. According to Politico, “EPA’s proposed rule to limit methane emissions from oil and gas production could create more than 19,000 jobs in Texas, according to a new report. The analysis, authored by the Texas Climate Jobs Project and the Ray Marshall Center at the University of Texas, Austin, said implementing the EPA standards would deliver both short-term and long-term jobs. That would include jobs to replace equipment known to release methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — and to conduct inspections and detect leaks.” [Politico, 6/1/23 (=)]
Congress Is Turning Climate Gaslighting Into Law. According to the New York Times, “Late on Saturday, as members of Congress scrambled to strike a deal for legislation that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling, they agreed to a total non sequitur in the text they would release the next day. Following a series of late-in-the-game interventions by lobbyists and energy executives, the draft bill declared the construction and operation of a natural gas pipeline to be “required in the national interest.” It wasn’t really germane to the debt ceiling, at least not in the literal sense. But then again, it wasn’t any ordinary pipeline. Natural gas is predominantly made up of methane, a climate-warming super-pollutant that is responsible for about a third of the warming the world has experienced to date. If completed, the Mountain Valley Pipeline will be a very large and long-lived methane delivery device. At the wells that feed it and along the way, some of that methane will inevitably leak into the atmosphere, where each molecule will exert 86 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. At the end of the line, the methane will be burned in power plants and furnaces, producing carbon dioxide. Taken together, by one estimate, the M.V.P. would generate yearly emissions equivalent to what’s produced by 26 coal plants.” [New York Times, 6/1/23 (=)]
How Will Mountain Valley Pipeline Affect The Climate? Experts Are Debating Its Emissions. According to the Washington Post, “Environmentalists are blasting provisions in the debt ceiling bill to expedite the Mountain Valley Pipeline, saying the project will lead to a massive amount of greenhouse gas emissions. But just how many million metric tons of emissions will the pipeline pump into the atmosphere? That’s the subject of a burgeoning debate among energy analysts. Many climate activists have cited a 2017 analysis by Oil Change International that found the pipeline would lead to annual emissions of more than 89 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent — the same as adding 26 coal plants or 19 million passenger cars.” [Washington Post, 6/1/23 (=)]
Can The Oil And Gas Sectors Deliver On Their Decarbonization Promises? According to Forbes, “The oil and gas sectors had prospered when most of the world paid record-high energy prices — profits that can get redirected to reduce their carbon footprints. That’s the view International Energy Agency, which says drilling, processing, and delivering energy accounts for 15% of global energy-related emissions. The good news is that knowledge and technologies exist to cut the emissions associated with oil and gas development. In other words, it takes energy to produce energy. Batteries and green hydrogen can power oil rigs. The value chain stretches from the upstream producers to the downstream consumers at the industrial level. Decarbonization can occur at multiple points along the way. For example, green hydrogen can run diesel engines. The industry can first cut its methane emissions and stop flaring natural gas, both of which are heating the planet. Methane is more potent than CO2, although it remains in the atmosphere for a shorter time. Still, technologies can capture and resell 75% of escaping methane.” [Forbes, 6/1/23 (=)]