Industry Slams 'Alarmist' Methane Study. According to E&E News, “The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), which represents many of the companies involved in natural gas drilling and processing, is criticizing an Environmental Defense Fund report that concluded last week that the industry leaks 60 percent more methane that past studies have shown. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that has a major impact on global warming. EDF responded on Saturday, asserting that after five years of cooperating with the industry, it also used aircraft that sampled methane emissions over facilities and over entire natural gas basins without consulting the companies. The point was to remove any potential industry bias from the findings, said David Lyon, an EDF scientist who worked on the study. ‘We have a bias,’ Lyon said. ‘We want to reduce emissions.’ The clash between the influential New York-based environmental group and the trade association that represents the booming U.S. natural gas industry will play out this week starting tomorrow, when the World Gas Conference, which represents the global industry, opens its annual conference in Washington, D.C. Speakers from EDF, which has spent five years trying to measure methane leaks from the U.S. industry, will appear in at least three sessions. The group’s study estimates the leaks cost industry investors $2 billion a year in losses. Fred Krupp, EDF’s president, and other representatives will argue that stopping industrial leaks of methane — a major component of natural gas — will be one of the quickest and cheapest ways to slow climate change.” [E&E News, 6/25/18 (=)]

 

USGS Releases Eagle Ford Estimates. According to Politico, “A major Texas energy play holds vast potential resources of both oil and gas, a new government analysis shows. South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale could hold 66 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 8.5 billion barrels of oil and 1.9 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated. ‘Usually, formations produce primarily oil or gas, but the Eagle Ford is rich in both,’ said USGS scientist Kate Whidden, lead author for the assessment. The formation is the second-largest oil play behind the Midland Basin in Texas and the second-largest gas play aside from the Haynesville-Bossier Shale spanning Texas and Louisiana, according to a comparison of five USGS assessments of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources across the United States. ‘Texas is so well-known for its history of oil and gas production that it’s almost synonymous with petroleum,’ USGS Director Jim Reilly said in a statement. ‘Texas continues to remain in the forefront of our Nation’s energy supply chain with remarkable increases in production and reserves due to the revolutionary unconventional techniques used to release previously unrecoverable resources.’” [Politico, 6/25/18 (=)]

 

Shale Fees Rise But Fall Short Of Expectations. According to Politico, “Shale-gas producers in Pennsylvania paid this year some $209.6 million in ‘impact fees’ — $36 million more than last year, according to the state Public Utility Commission. The fees are a state-level tax imposed every time drilling begins at a well. Much of the money flows back to local governments in areas where drilling occurs. This year, for instance, over half of the total fees collected will go to county and municipal governments to offset the toll taken on roads and other services. But the $209.6 million total is around $10 million less than what Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office had projected. That’s because of a 2017 ruling by the state’s Commonwealth Court that expanded the definition of ‘stripper’ wells, which produce in small volumes and are exempted from impact fees. Seventeen companies disputed the status of several hundred wells this year, seeking to have them reclassified as strippers, said PUC spokesman Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, resulting in a $6.1 million decline in impact fees. The state Supreme Court is considering the dispute.” [Politico, 6/25/18 (=)]

 

 

Editorial: Wolf Deserves Thanks For Methane Standards Protecting Our Common Home. According to The Patriot-News, “Last Saturday, Pope Francis met with energy industry executives from around the world to talk about climate change and ask one of the most pressing questions of our time -- ‘Will we turn the corner in time?’ One day earlier, Gov. Tom Wolf took bold action that moves Pennsylvania one step closer to turning that corner and ensuring a healthy environment for future generations of the Commonwealth. The Wolf administration and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced final standards that will curb emissions of methane and volatile organic compounds at new and modified natural gas facilities. Reducing this pollution is a critical step in protecting our environment and the health of our citizens. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with more than 86 times the power to warm our planet than carbon dioxide over a 20 year period, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Methane and other volatile organic compounds have been linked to asthma, low birth weights and heart, kidney and liver damage. These negative health effects are even more pronounced for the 1.5 million Pennsylvanians living within a half mile of oil and gas sites. These chilling figures are more than statistics. They’re real outcomes for Pennsylvania residents who find themselves contending with increased health challenges simply because they happen to live near a fracking operation where profit trumps public health. They’re a warning sign of destruction that seems more certain every day to what Pope Francis calls ‘our common home.’” [The Patriot-News, 6/22/18 (+)]