General Coverage

 

Can New Governor Be A Counterweight To Trump On Methane? According to E&E News, “Michelle Lujan Grisham is something of an anomaly among the crop of newly minted Democratic governors. The longtime New Mexican congresswoman is about to lead one of America’s top oil and gas states. Lujan Grisham is headed to Santa Fe amid an oil boom that has seen New Mexico surpass Oklahoma and California to become the third largest oil and gas producer in the United States. Surging crude production in southwestern New Mexico’s Permian Basin has stuffed the state’s coffers. It has also raised new concerns about the state’s persistently high methane levels. No state produces more oil and gas — or emits more methane — on federal and tribal land than New Mexico. The dynamic makes Lujan Grisham a potentially important counterweight to President Trump, who has proposed rolling back methane regulations for oil and gas production on federal land. The governor-elect campaigned on a pledge to curb emissions of the potent greenhouse gas. Greens frustrated by Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican and outspoken oil and gas advocate, have welcomed the call. ‘I think it’s going to be a major sea change come January when it comes to addressing these problems that have been left to languish for the last eight years,’ said the Environmental Defense Fund’s Jon Goldstein, a former environmental regulator under Bill Richardson, New Mexico’s last Democratic governor.” [E&E News, 11/26/18 (=)]

 

Good Pay In Booming Shale Economy Led To More Dropouts — Study. According to E&E News, “Counties in rural America with prolific shale oil and gas operations have seen an uptick in high school dropouts, a new study found. For much of the past decade, the fracking boom has benefited struggling labor markets. An increase in high-paying oil and gas jobs also tended to boost other corners of rural economies such as construction and drilling equipment suppliers and local services. And as a result, rising property taxes and royalty revenue benefited public school systems. New research from a team of resource economists in Arizona and Kentucky builds on a growing body of work examining the overall economic effect of the U.S. shale boom, which took off around 2007, slowed when oil prices dropped in 2014, and then accelerated again as oil prices crept up in 2017. This latest finding published in the upcoming February 2019 edition of the journal Resource and Energy Economics suggests that a high school diploma was no match for well-paying jobs in hard-hit economies. Researchers found counties with intensive drilling operations had decreased enrollment among 11th and 12th graders, a trend that mirrors the 1970s energy boom. The findings were especially true in states where the compulsory schooling age was just 16 years old, rather than 17 or 18. In addition, rural areas with high poverty levels or states with lower effective taxes on oil and gas drilling saw higher dropout rates.” [E&E News, 11/26/18 (=)]

 

Scientists Find Methane Leaking From Melting Ice. According to E&E News, “Melting glaciers are some of the most conspicuous casualties of climate change, and for good reason: Meltwater from Greenland and Antarctica has dangerous potential to raise global sea levels as the climate warms. But now, scientists have identified a new possible consequence. Some of those glaciers could release potent, climate-warming methane into the atmosphere as they retreat. It’s an idea scientists have discussed over the years, although mainly hypothetically until now. Pockets in the beds of glaciers, buried deep beneath layers of ice, can be prime habitats for methane-producing microbes. That means stores of the greenhouse gas may lie trapped beneath the ice in parts of the Arctic and Antarctic. And some scientists suggest that as glaciers melt, they could release some of that gas along the way. Yet researchers have rarely observed methane actually seeping out from glaciers in real time. Now two studies, both published this month in the journal Scientific Reports, confirm that it is happening — at least in a few isolated spots. In one of the studies, researchers Jesper Riis Christiansen and Christian Juncher Jørgensen of the University of Copenhagen detail some of the first observations of methane emissions from the Greenland ice sheet ever recorded.” [E&E News, 11/26/18 (=)]

 

Refiners Investing To Capitalize On Flood Of Permian Crude. According to Houston Chronicle, “Gulf Coast oil refiners are looking to take advantage of the flood of cheap oil from West Texas by investing millions, if not billions, of dollars to expand and upgrade refineries to handle lighter grades of crude flowing from the Permian Basin and other shale plays. Most Gulf Coast refineries are configured to process heavier crudes from Latin America and Canada, which has limited their abilities to capitalize on the record production from the Permian, where output has reached 3.7 million barrels a day — about one-third of U.S. production. Those refining constraints have come into focus recently as crude from the Permian trades at significant discounts to U.S. and international benchmark prices, in part because a lack of pipelines have made it difficult to deliver oil from West Texas to Gulf Coast markets. Some of nation’s biggest energy companies are considering expanding their refining capacity to capitalize on their growing production in West Texas. Exxon Mobil of Irving and Chevron of San Ramon, Calif. have each invested billions of dollars in acquiring and developing holdings in the Permian.” [Houston Chronicle, 11/21/18 (=)]

 

 

 

 

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