Methane

Natural Gas Power Plants Emit Up To 120 Times More Methane Than Previously Estimated

March 27, 2017 Steve Horn, www.desmogblog.com Educate! Methane, Natural Gas, Power Plants

By Steve Horn for Desmog Blog - Researchers at Purdue University and the Environmental Defense Fund have concluded in a recent study that natural gas power plants release 21–120 times more methane than earlier estimates. Published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, the study also found that for oil refineries, emission rates were 11–90 times more than initial estimates. Natural gas, long touted as a cleaner and more climate-friendly alternative to burning coal, is obtained in the U.S. mostly via the controversial horizontal drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”).

130 Groups Call For Investigation Of EPA In Methane Scandal

June 24, 2016 Jim Warren, www.ncwarn.org Resist! EPA, Investigation, Methane

By Jim Warren for NC Warn - Durham, NC – Today NC WARN sent the Inspector General of the US EPA a statement signed by 130 diverse organizations calling for an investigation into ourJune 8 complaint that scientific fraud and cover-up by agency officials has already wasted crucial years in slowing the climate crisis and has enhanced hazards for gas facility workers and neighbors. Today’s joint statement coincides with the release of data by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showing the hottest May on record for average global temperature.

EPA Official Covered Up Methane Leakage Problems

June 9, 2016 Jim Warren, www.fsm2016.org Educate! EPA, Gas, Methane, Whistleblowers

By Jim Warren for NC Warn - Durham, NC – A watchdog group today charged that a high-ranking federal official connected to the fossil fuel industry committed scientific fraud and possibly criminal misconduct in a case with sweeping ramifications for global climate change and the safety of workers and neighbors of natural gas sites across much of the United States. The group called for an expedited investigation due to the urgent climate and safety implications of the EPA’s failure to curb widespread methane emissions.

Environmental Group Asked To Post Bond To Challenge Permit For Methane Gas Plant

May 12, 2016 John Downey, www.bizjournals.com Resist! Environment, Methane

By John Downey for Charlotte Business Journal - An environmental and consumer advocacy group has until May 27 to decide if they can risk ponying up a $10 million bond to challenge Duke Energy’s $1.1 billion Asheville natural gas and infrastructure project. If it does, Charlotte-based Duke (NYSE: DUK) has until Sept 1 to decide whether it wants to start construction of the 560-megawatt plant knowing that delays for the appeal could make the project more expensive.

Tacoma Methanol Plant Plans Paused

February 21, 2016 Derrick Nunnally, www.thenewstribune.com Resist! Corporatism, Environment, health, Methane

By Derrick Nunnally for the News tribune. Tacoma, Washington - A controversial proposal to build the world’s largest methanol manufacturing plant at the Port of Tacoma has been shelved for “the next several months,” the company proposing to build the facility said Friday afternoon. In a press release on its website, Northwest Innovation Works said it has asked Tacoma officials to pause the environmental review process that was a prerequisite to getting permits to build the plant. The company, which is majority-owned by China’s government, has proposed to build a facility that would produce 20,000 tons of methanol a day for export via tanker to China, where it would be used to manufacture plastics.

L.A.’s Slow-Moving Oil And Gas Disaster

February 13, 2016 Laura Bliss, www.citylab.com Educate! California, Climage Change, Los Angeles, Methane, Oil and Gas

By Laura Bliss for City Lab - Prior to October 2015, many homeowners in the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles were unaware that they lived next door to one of the largest natural gas storage facilities in the nation. Against the copper hills of the northern San Fernando Valley, their gated clusters of multi-story villas, arranged on neat curves and cul-de-sacs, probably felt worlds away from toxins and industry. Then came the largest methane gas leak in U.S. history.

Methane Leaks Undercut Climate Change Goals

January 31, 2016 PSE Healthy Energy, www.popularresistance.org Educate! Clean Power Plan, climate crisis, Methane, Oil and Gas

By PSE Healthy Energy. Oakland, California (January 27, 2016) – New analysis from PSE Healthy Energy and University of California at Berkeley finds that increased deployment of renewable energy is the best way to meet or even surpass Clean Power Plan targets, as recent scientific measurements of methane leaks from natural gas systems have found higher rates of leakage than those recorded in official inventories. States that plan to depend on switching their electricity generation from coal to natural gas under the Clean Power Plan risk failure to achieve meaningful greenhouse gas reductions.

2015: The Year Methane Leaked Into The Headlines

December 30, 2015 Lisa Song, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, Methane

By Lisa Song for Inside Climate News - Scientists made significant progress in 2015 measuring methane emissions from the natural gas industry, continuing a years-long quest to quantify the industry's contribution to climate change. What they found adds to a growing body of evidence that methane leaks are sporadic, difficult to predict, and often far larger than existing government estimates. Many of the studies came from the Environmental Defense Fund's $18 million project. Launched in 2011, it aims to measure emissions from every sector of the industry, including production, storage, transmission and natural gas vehicles. The project has drawn praise for its scope, vision and scrupulous methods.

Project Censored 2015: Top Ten News Stories The Media Ignored

November 29, 2015 Tim Redmond, www.cascadiaweekly.com Educate! Arctic, Drones, Enviornment, Food and Agriculture, Fracking, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Fukushima, Groundwater, killed by police, Mass Media, Methane, Oil and Gas, Poverty, Propaganda, Renewable Energy, spying, Wealth Ineqaulity

By Tim Redmond for Cascadia Weekly. As Project Censored staffers Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth note, 90 percent of U.S. news media—the traditional outlets that employ full-time reporters—are controlled by six corporations. “The corporate media hardly represent the mainstream,” the staffers wrote in the current edition’s introduction. “By contrast, the independent journalists that Project Censored has celebrated since its inception are now understood as vital components of what experts have identified as the newly developing ‘networked fourth estate.’”

Fireball Explodes In Man’s Face, Sues Nearby Fracking Companies

August 14, 2015 Samantha Page, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! health, Methane, Oil & Gas

By Samantha Page in Think Progress - A Texas man is suing a group of fracking companies after burns from a methane explosion near his house allegedly hospitalized him for a week, burned his family, and caused permanent damage. Cody Murray, 38, and his father, wife, and four-year-old daughter were all burned by a “fireball” after methane built up in his pump house and exploded when Murray entered the shed to check on a water issue. The lawsuit, filed last week against EOG Resources, Fairway Resources LLC, and three subsidiaries of Fairway, alleges the methane was from the defendants’ fracking wells just 1,000 feet from Murray’s house, which sits 35 miles outside Fort Worth.

Key Greenhouse Gas Study “Systematically Understated” Methane Leaks

August 6, 2015 Sharon Kelly, www.desmogblog.com Educate! Climate Change, Environment, Methane, Science, Study

By Sharon Kelly in DeSmogBlog - The study's key contribution to the science on methane leaks was that researchers were allowed to access to oil and gas wells, including 27 wells where fracking was underway, and test individual pieces of equipment. “This is actual data, and it’s the first time we’ve had the opportunity to get actual data from unconventional natural gas development,” Mark Brownstein, an Environmental Defense Fund associate vice president, told FuelFix when theUT study was published. But the problem stems from the tool that the University of Texas study used to collect its data – which can malfunction when leaks are spewing at high rates. The “University of Texas study underestimates national methane emissions at natural gas production sites due to instrument sensor failure,” Mr. Howard, who invented the basic technology used by that instrument, wrote.

Should Climate Scientists Tell The Full Truth?

July 19, 2015 David Griffin, www.opednews.com Educate! Carbon, Climate Change, Methane

By David Griffin for OpEd News - Should climate scientists tell the public how dire the climate crisis is -- in particular, whether it threatens to bring civilization to an end in the not-too distant future? In the August 2015 issue of Esquire, writer John H. Richardson deals with this question in an article entitled, "When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job." The occasion for this article was a tweet about a year ago by a highly respected climate scientist, glaciologist Jason Box. After reading a report about the discovery of more than 100 new sites in the Arctic where methane is seeping out, he wrote: "If even a small fraction of Arctic sea floor carbon is released to the atmosphere, we're f'd." The government is very supportive of Box's work, but it did not, in Richardson's words, "take kindly to one of its scientists distressing the populace with visions of global destruction." Richardson's essay is focused on the internal struggle of Box and other climate scientists with the issue of how to deal psychologically with the devastating climate facts, which their vocation forces them to face daily.

Dangerous Methane Leaks Found In DC

January 26, 2014 Tina Sigurdson, www.ecowatch.com Educate! Environment, greenhouse gases, Methane

A less visible but serious problem is that methane is a greenhouse gas at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, roughly 60 percent of global methane emissions are caused by human activity, and leaks occurring during natural gas and oil extraction, production and distribution are the nation’s most significant source of these emissions. These leaks contribute significantly to global warming—a sobering fact often overlooked by those who propose to increase natural gas use as an alternative to coal.

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