Most talk about greenhouse gases centers on carbon dioxide — its increasing accumulation in the atmosphere and how to reduce it. It’s relatively easy to measure atmospheric CO2, and its correlation to global warming is now beyond debate.
In an earlier newsletter, I wrote about natural gas and its two faces in the climate crisis Natural Gas, Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. Depending on who you talk to, natural gas is either our savior or the Great Satan. Burning natural gas adds less CO2 for each unit of released energy than any other fossil fuel, so using it to replace coal and oil can be a valuable tool for reducing emissions — you will often hear it referred to as a critical “bridge fuel” on the pathway to a renewable energy future.
On the other hand, natural gas consists almost entirely of methane, a greenhouse gas 80-100 times as potent as CO2 at causing warming.
One would think that since natural gas is a valuable commodity, the companies that extract and transport it would take care to keep it from escaping. But apparently, nothing could be further from the truth! The fracking boom has made natural gas so cheap and plentiful that large releases and sizable leaks are not worth the price of fixing!
Industry whistleblowers have been warning for years that the natural gas industry has been downplaying the methane emissions from their infrastructure. Unfortunately methane is colorless and odorless and a bit hard to detect from any distance. The Environmental Protection Agency publishes numbers for what it thinks should be “normal” releases from natural gas operations — from flaring, well purges, and maintenance operations. But it appears that a lot more gas is released by intermittent and “super-emitter” events. There has long been suspicion that actual emissions are far higher than industry, or even our own government officials, will admit.
Until recently, the only financial risk to companies found guilty of natural gas leaks have been from fires, explosions, and health problems of those exposed to them. The 2015 Aliso Canyon leak near Los Angeles, CA, released nearly 100,000 tons of natural gas, the greenhouse equivalent of the annual pollution from 500,000 cars. SoCal, the company responsible for the leak, paid nearly $1.8 billion in damages to those harmed by the massive leak. However, it paid virtually nothing for the damage caused to the environment.
In 2018 an even bigger leak was found coming from an Exxon Mobil well in Ohio. It took the company 30 days to repair the well. A Dutch satellite estimated the leakage at nearly 100 million cubic feet per day! New Findings Confirm Methane Leak. Since then ever bigger leaks have been found coming from Russian sources.
Fortunately, there is help on the way.
Satellite detection — nowhere to hide.
Until recently, finding methane leaks has been a hit-or-miss affair. Sometimes days, or even weeks, would go by before a large leak was noticed. Most detection operations were run by the gas producer or the distribution utility; unless a leak posed a hazard to nearby people or a substantial financial loss, they could go unreported. Many of the largest leaks were only “discovered” after nearby residents reported headaches, nosebleeds, nausea and heart palpitations. With the existing technology, you had to go looking for a leak —in the US there are over a million oil and gas wells, several millions of miles of gas pipelines, and thousands of pumping stations.
In 2003 a European Space Agency satellite called SCIAMACHY was launched with a mission to study a variety of atmospheric gases. It had the ability to detect methane, albeit with relatively low resolution and sensitivity. Starting in 2017, the pace really picked up, and since then at least six more satellites have been launched. Within another 2 or 3 years we will have the capability for continuous, real time monitoring of the entire globe for methane leaks. Together with ground based testing, satellites will give a complete picture of the sources of atmospheric methane.
Carrots-and-Sticks
The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (really an ambitious climate bill), together with a set of 2021 EPA methane rules, finally puts some costs on methane leakers. The new law uses a carrot-and-stick regulatory approach: firstly, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rewards methane reduction efforts with $1.5 billion in financial assistance to plug leaks on non-federal lands. Secondly, it will discourage excess methane emissions with a range of penalties. Methane Reduction Program
By a wide margin, the US and Russia are the largest fossil fuel natural gas producers in the world. Most experts regard the Russian pipeline system as very leaky. Given that the current regime seems to have little concern for its international reputation, it may prove difficult to get Gazprom and other Russian producers to tighten up their infrastructure.
There are other sources of methane pollution we will need to address: animal husbandry, municipal landfills, melting permafrost. But if the petroleum industry turns out to be the biggest offender, they will have some answering to do, especially given their promotion of natural gas as a “climate solution”. Policy makers, investors and the general public will all be watching satellite imagery and demanding action. It will be difficult for them to sweep this problem under the rug as they did with their early knowledge of the greenhouse effect.
Scientists, as well as anyone with eyes to see, have watched global warming advance much more quickly than early estimates predicted. It would not be surprising to find that the fracking boom is at the root of this trend.
There are several natural mechanisms for reducing CO2 levels, but in general terms, once CO2 is released, it can take thousands of years for these processes to remove it. Not so with methane. In spite of its power to cause warming, it is relatively short lived. Quick work to reduce leakage can result in a deceleration of the current trend and should have the highest priority.
Things you can do:
Watch this TED Talk for an excellent explanation of the importance of reducing methane leaks.
Make a contribution to the Environmental Defense Fund to help finance their powerful new MethaneSAT satellite. EDF
Contact your representative in Washington and ask them to support the EPA and the UN in their work to bring methane leaks to a halt.
If you live in a city, you are almost certainly surrounded by aging natural gas infrastructure. Let your local officials know that eliminating leaks should be on their agenda.
Thanks for reading,
Doug Hylan, Brooklin, Maine
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Native American proverb
Your boldface line "Nothing could be further from the truth," says it all about the natural gas industry. The corporate players that dominate that sector of the energy economy must take their cues from their brothers and sisters who work in America's most powerful gas manufacturing institution of all, the Congress of the United States, a confederation of sycophants dedicated to avoiding the truth about global warming at all costs. If we could build a global pipeline and capture the emissions that leak from the "Swamp" in Washington, America could energize the entire world.