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A Comparative Analysis of U.S. State-level Policies and Programs to Advance Energy Justice - December 6, 2023
This study examines some of the massive changes happening to the US energy system through a social justice lens - which they argue should be a priority. They analyzed the EJ programs in 7 states and found a worrying lack of transparency and accountability in most programs. They recommend that more work be done to best understand best practices in energy justice policymaking through more formal surveying or better addressing root causes of injustice. Second, state focus on a very narrow range of solutions for energy justice issues.
Ground-Based Mobile Measurements to Track Urban Methane Emissions from Natural Gas in 12 Cities across Eight Countries - January 25, 2024
In order to mitigate emissions from urban natural gas distribution systems, a group of researchers analyzed local leak rates and occurrence rates of urban methane emissions on distribution systems in 12 cities across eight countries. They found that the cities had a similar spectrum of small, medium, and large emissions sources with emission rates following a heavy-tailed distribution – the top 10% of emitters accounted for 60-80% of total emissions. Knowing the distribution implies that with strategic repair planning could help reduce emissions quickly.
Clearing the Air: Public Health Concerns and Support for Natural Gas Restrictions in the United States - February 1, 2024
Researchers conducted an online survey of 2623 U.S. adults to see how public support for natural gas restrictions varied based on policy framing. They found that people are most influenced by the health impact of such policies while factors like monthly energy costs, industry support, climate effects, and political backing showed a weak influence on public opinion.
Non-Pipeline Alternatives: Meeting Energy Demand Responsibly - February 1, 2024
A new EDF report examines the role that non-pipeline alternatives ("NPAs") can play in utility planning and operations as potential solutions for evolving distribution systems. The researchers noted multiple states including Colorado, New York, and California who have incorporated NPA consideration into their RFP processes.
Gas Leaks, Gas Shutoffs, and Environmental Justice in New York City - March 4, 2024
In this analysis of residential gas leaks in New York City and their association with socioeconomic inequality, the authors indicate that gas leaks and resulting residential gas shutoffs seem to be concentrated in places with high numbers of people of color, high numbers of residents in poverty, or both.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces $392 Million In Grants to Fix Old, Leaky Natural Gas Pipes, Improve Public Safety, and Reduce Energy Costs - April 3, 2024
PHMSA has granted $392 million in support of 130 projects across the U.S. that will fix aging natural gas pipelines, help reduce air pollution and reduce costs for ratepayers. The Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization grant program will continue to spread out additional funding across more than 65 communities within the U.S.
Ground Surface Conditions Found to Impact Speed and Distance of Leaking Natural Gas - July 16, 2024
A new study from a Southern Methodist University research team found that subsurface natural gas leaks from water/snow saturation or on asphalt paving can cause gas to migrate from the leak site up to four times further than through dry soil. Furthermore, under asphalt, moisture, or snow conditions gas tends to escape to the surface faster and at higher concentrations increasing the safety risk posed to operators.
Methodology and Uncertainty Estimation for Measurements of Methane Leakage in a Manufactured House - July 17, 2024
This recent paper investigated the prevalence of post-meter emissions of natural gas appliances and infrastructure within buildings. Given that methane losses from residential buildings have now been included in national inventories, researchers wanted to help establish a framework for future studies trying to quantify indoor methane losses. Measurements from their manufactured house averaged around .34 grams per day, similar to the .5 g/d found in the Fischer et al. (2018) study. The researchers aim to do more intensive work in the future ideally with different house characteristics (age, location, size) to best inform national inventories.
Rethinking Natural Gas Infrastructure: How Non-Pipe Alternatives are Shaping Utility Planning - November 6, 2024
A new research article published in Climate and Energy examines the role that non-pipe alternatives (NPAs) may play in meeting emission reduction efforts given the enhanced scrutiny and regulatory mandates met by utilities. The article addresses some supply-side NPAs like renewable natural gas and liquefied natural gas storage, as well as some demand-side NPAs like energy efficiency and demand response programs. Despite the many challenges for implementation, NPAs do present an opportunity to align utility operations with an evolving environmental landscape provided that robust modelling efforts are prioritized that can properly assess potential risks and accurately quantify a project’s benefits.
Investigation on the Methane Emissions from Permeation of Urban Gas Polyethylene Pipes Under the Background of Hydrogen-mixed Natural Gas Transportation - November 10, 2024
These researchers investigated the emissions of hydrogen-mixed natural gas when travelling through PE pipes in urban areas. Through molecular dynamics simulations they determined that a pipeline’s pressure has little impact on permeation but that there will be less methane emissions caused by permeation at lower temperatures and higher hydrogen mixing ratios. More real-world experimentation is needed to confirm these simulated findings, but these results do seem promising for limiting leaks hydrogen-mixed natural gas transportation through PE pipes.
Pipeline Leakage Identification Method-based on DPR-net and Distributed Optical Fiber Acoustic Sensing Technology - December 1, 2024
Using a deep learning approach, distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) was employed to enable real-time monitoring of a natural gas pipeline network. In this experiment, optical fiber was laid directly on the pipeline and paired with a one-dimensional DPR-net to overcome the common challenge of signal identification in DAS leakage detection. In tests, the method’s recognition accuracy reached over 99%, prompting future experiments to validate whether DAS could be utilized to remotely identify leaks in densely populated areas.
Highlights from the COP 29 Global Methane Pledge Ministerial - November 15, 2024
Some of the 159 Global Methane Pledge participating countries met at COP29 in Azerbaijan earlier this month to review progress from the previous year and commit to new actions that will help meet the goal of cutting methane emissions 30 percent below 202 levels by 2030. Some of the highlights from the past year include billions of dollars raised to mobilize project finance on methane emissions, more countries working through national methane action plans, and methane-detecting satellites allowing for easier detection of super emitter events all over the world.
EPA’s Methane Super Emitter Program Update - November 12, 2024
The EPA has updated its Super Emitter Program website to include a voluntary pre-registration option for oil and gas owners and operators. This pre-registration will allow operators to provide preferred contact information that will be used for super emitter event notifications. The EPA hopes to release the public Data Explorer in coming months as more third-party companies begin using the newly opened data submittal portal.
EPA Finalizes Rule to Reduce Wasteful Methane Emissions and Drive Innovation in the Oil and Gas Sector - November 12, 2024
On November 12th, the EPA announced a final rule that will allow for a Waste Emissions Charge to be collected from large methane emitters after their emissions exceed specific performance levels. Oil and gas facilities that report emissions greater than 25,000 metric tons of CO2eq per to the GHGRP will be subject to a charge of $900 per metric ton of wasteful emissions above a certain threshold based on the facility’s industry segment. The EPA estimates that the rule will results in cumulative emissions reductions of 1.2 million metric tons of methane through 2035.
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Gas Pathing: Improved Greenhouse Gas Emission Estimates of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports through Enhanced Supply Chain Resolution - November 5, 2024
This study introduces a novel framework that may improve supply chain-specific life cycle assessments (LCAs) for LNG purchased, sold, and transported within the U.S. By using a gas pathing algorithm, the GHG emissions of 138 distinct gas pathways can be more accurately characterized and differentiated. Novel to this approach is that they used recent supply chain measurement data which increased GHG intensities by 41-52% when compared to the standard LNG delivery reference case. These findings drive home the idea that LCAs must include emission measurement integration if suppliers want to accurately differentiate gas pathways.
Hilcorp Energy Company, New Mexico Clean Air Act Stationary Source Settlement
For the first time, an oil and gas producer will be forced to pay a civil penalty for violations of the Clean Air Act, and New Mexico’s Air Quality Control Act. Last month the EPA and the DOJ announced a settlement with Hilcorp Energy Company that includes a $9.4 million penalty for unlawfully emitting methane and other VOCs directly to the atmosphere and not meeting reporting requirements for their well completion operations. This is the first settlement brought forth by EPA’s Mitigating Climate Change National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative which may target other O&G producers in the future who act in violation of the Clean Air Act.
Hybrid Bottom-up and Top-down Framework Resolves Discrepancies in Canada’s Oil and Gas Methane Inventories - October 7, 2024
A new report on Canada’s National Inventory Report showed how a hybrid framework that incorporates independent low-altitude aerial measurements could radically improve official inventories in the country. Using continuous tower-based atmospheric measurements, researchers were able to reduce the discrepancy between measurement-based estimates and emission inventories by nearly 10%, a strategy that could be useful for other nations as well.
IEA, UNEP and EDF Announce Comprehensive Metrics to Report Action and Measure Progress by Oil and Gas Companies on Methane Commitments - September 23, 2024
The three organizations released a comprehensive new framework that urges progress from oil and gas companies in line with targets defined by COP28’s Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter. This framework is the first product from the recently announced independent methane accountability initiative. In coming years, oil and gas companies around the world will be assessed on 25 different metrics covering emissions reductions, decarbonization investments, and transparency and public disclosure of emission-relevant information.
New GHGRP Oil and Gas Dashboard for Subpart W - September 15, 2024
The EPA has published a new dashboard that can isolate for trends in Subpart W reporting data since 2016. The data can be visualized for any one of the petroleum and natural gas source categories (e.g., distribution, transmission, or production).
Charting the Course: Reducing GHG Emissions from the U.S. Natural Gas Supply Chain - April 23, 2024
A diverse group of stakeholders brought together by the National Petroleum Council analyzed how natural gas GHG emissions might be reduced for all future supply and demand scenarios. Research in this study found that through existing policies, voluntary commitments, emerging technologies, and market mechanisms, a 63% reduction in methane emissions can be achieved by 2030.
SEC Issues Climate Disclosure Rules - March 11, 2024
The SEC has instructed large publicly traded companies to disclose their "material" Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Large companies who have stated climate goals or may face possible increased business costs due to future regulations are considered to have "material" Scope 1 and 2 emissions. The rule aims to better standardize climate disclosures and is largely scaled back from a previous proposal which would have required companies to calculate and disclose Scope 3 emissions, like ones from upstream supply chains.
EPA Rule Tees-up Legal Battle Over Federal Climate Authority - March 11, 2024
EPA's latest rule to limit methane emissions from the O&G sector is facing extensive legal backlash. Much of it aimed at a new "super-emitter" program that authorizes outside third-party groups to monitor for the biggest polluters. There are some concerns about the lack of accountability or quality control that these third-party entities may be subject to. The rule is also requiring fossil fuel companies to use equipment upgrades and leak detection to tackle emissions from existing sources.
COP28 World Climate Action Summit - Presidency Summary - December 5, 2023
154 Heads of States and Government, and 22 International Leaders gathered for the World Climate Action Summit in early December and gave unwavering support to keep the Paris goals within reach and shift the focus to near-term solutions. Leaders across numerous energy sectors agreed on a comprehensive COP28 energy package labeled as the Global Decarbonization Accelerator (GDA) that will rapidly scale future energy systems and will presently target GHGs to drastically decarbonize the energy system of today. Additionally, the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC) saw 51 companies support its target to reach net zero emissions by 2050 or before, with 30 of those committing to near zero methane emissions for the first time.
UN Environment Programme (UNEP): An Eye on Methane 2024 - November 15, 2024
UNEP recently published the 4th edition of their International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) publication which contends that data-driven action on methane mitigation represents a clear opportunity to keep climate goals within reach. UNEP’s IMEO collects data from industry reporting via OGMP 2.0 and from satellites via the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS). UNEP researcher found that better understanding the emissions reporting gap and building capacity for methane action can help the world deliver on the Global Methane Pledge and the Paris Agreement.
Supreme Court Declines to Block Biden Rules on Planet-warming Methane and Toxic Mercury Emissions - October 4, 2024
On October 4th, the Supreme Court turned down a request by Oklahoma and industry groups to repeal EPA regulations from earlier this year that aim to curb methane emissions and oil and gas facilities. Notably, a separate order seeking to block regulations on carbon emissions from power plants remains pending. Litigation against the EPA’s latest regulations will continue in lower courts but the Supreme Court rejecting these cases against the EPA does convey optimism about the agency’s ability to enact and enforce future regulatory actions on coal- and gas-fired power plants.
A Research Agenda Toward Atmospheric Methane Removal - October 4, 2024
The National Academies have published the first part of a 2-phase report exploring the potential of technologies to remove methane from the atmosphere. In this study, they examine the need for removal and assess whether the potential benefits outweigh the risks of deployment. They identify priority areas of research, technologies of interest, and recommend that the U.S. complete a more thorough assessment of the technologies need in the next few years.
EPA, DOE Announce $850 Million to Reduce Methane Pollution from the Oil and Gas Sector - June 21, 2024
In June, the EPA and the Department of Energy opened applications for $850 million in funding for projects predicated on helping to monitor, measure, quantify, and reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sectors. The funding originated from the Inflation Reduction Act and covers a wide range of topic areas including repairing leaks from small operators, enhancing methods of detection/measurement, and improving communities’ access to relevant data and monitoring. GTI Energy plans to pursue some of the funding opportunities across the three separate areas of interest: (1) emission mitigation at marginal conventional wells, (2) field deployment of new methane emissions reduction solutions, and (3) coalescing methane monitoring solutions for impacted communities and regional emissions characterization.
Harnessing Hydrogen: A Key Element of the U.S. Energy Future - May 1, 2024
The National Petroleum Council conducted a comprehensive study at the request of the Secretary of Energy on how low carbon intensity hydrogen might be deployed at scale in the coming decades to achieve emission reductions in hard-to-abate sectors. In doing so, they evaluated key economic, policy, and technical challenges critical to the entire hydrogen value chain.
IEA Global Methane Tracker 2024 - March 13, 2024
March 2020
The latest annual IEA analysis showed that methane emissions remained near a record high in 2023, but that methane intensity on the whole has dropped slightly. There has been substantial movement in policy adoption by many different countries in recent years but recommends that a major cut in methane emissions is still needed to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. The IEA estimates that nearly 40% of 2023 methane emissions from fossil fuel operations could have been avoided at no net cost, putting the onus on countries to develop robust implementation plans in the coming years.
Climate Impacts of Hydrogen and Methane Emissions Can Considerably Reduce the Climate Benefits across Key Hydrogen Use Cases and Time Scales - February 21, 2024
This EDF-funded research reanalyzed Life Cycle Assessments of eight different blue and green hydrogen production pathways/use cases and found that considering the indirect GHG impacts of hydrogen and methane leakage rates greatly impacted each technology’s climate benefit. Subsequent studies on hydrogen applications are needed to further refine the LCAs but the study underscores the need to consider multiple environmental factors in future frameworks.
U.S. Pauses Build-out of Natural Gas Export Terminals to Weigh Climate Impacts - January 27, 2024
The Biden administration has temporarily delayed 17 planned projects of new natural gas export facilities and will now give the DOE time to review the long-term climate change impacts that the facilities pose. It seems likely that the DOE will not finish its review until after the election in November. Recently, the House Committees on Science, Space, and Technology and Oversight and Accountability have launched probes questioning the validity of the delay.
U.S. Natural Gas Demand Eyes Record as Arctic Blast Dents Output - January 16, 2024
Natural gas demand in the U.S. for heating and power generation was set to hit a record high on Tuesday, January 16th despite the weather affecting much of the country’s production - including half of North Dakota’s oil production and shutting down a Texas refinery on the gulf coast.
Methane Rule Comparison: United States (final) vs. Canada (draft) - December 23, 2023
Highwood Emissions recently published a breakdown comparing the methane rules announced by the U.S. (EPA’s OOOOb/c) and Canada (ECCC) in light of declarations made at COP28. They found that the rules were rather inconsistent with each other despite them having similar goals of drastically reducing methane emissions by 2030 to 87% relative to 2005 levels for the U.S. and 75% relative to 2012 levels in Canada.
MethaneSAT Project Update: Latest Images Demonstrate MethaneSAT's Unique, Powerful Capabilities - November 16, 2024
The Environmental Defense Fund’s MethaneSAT recently released high resolution images from the Appalachian, Permian, and Unita Basins in the US as well as other basins in Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Early observations suggest that emissions in these production basins are significantly higher than current inventories estimate, likely caused by a large amount of smaller emissions dispersed across wide areas of the basin. The satellite was even able to detect emissions in cloud cover due to its wide swath and high spatial-resolution measurements.
Carbon Mapper Data from the Tanager-1 Satellite Reveals Methane and Carbon Dioxide Super-emitter Activity Around the World - November 15, 2024
3 months ago, Carbon Mapper’s Tanager-1 satellite was launched into orbit, and since then it has been undergoing instrument calibration and data validation during its commissioning phase. Interestingly, the satellite had its first verified methane mitigation action on October 9th when the Carbon Mapper team noticed and reported a large plume coming from a gathering pipeline in the Permian Basin. The operator quickly responded and conducted repairs on the asset with follow-up observations from Tanager-1 confirming that the leak was fixed. Carbon Mapper will look to scale up observations in coming months and make its CO2 and methane collection data routinely accessible to the public.
New Map Helps Show Significant Methane Pollution from Municipal Landfills - September 30, 2024
The Environmental Defense Fund analyzed TROPOMI satellite data on landfills and published a new map, linked here, that shows the scale of the 1,100 municipal solid waste landfills in the United States. As the third-largest source of human-caused methane emissions, numerous groups have lobbied the EPA this past year for more comprehensive monitoring standards and the use of gas collection systems. EDF also hopes for more updated data on landfill emissions in coming months after the launch of MethaneSAT in March.
Unlocking Solutions: Innovative Approaches to Identifying and Mitigating the Environmental Impacts of Undocumented Orphan Wells in the United States - September 29, 2024
Many of the abandoned orphan wells throughout the United States are undocumented and little is known about their toxicity, emission profile, or basic characteristics. These authors surveyed the existing literature and found an urgent need to develop and implement methods like machine learning, acoustic sensing, and concentration mapping to serve as cost-effective methods for determining a well’s location. Outreach with state and tribal governments would also provide more clarity and be instrumental in addressing the environmentally-costly orphan well problem.
Transforming Pneumatic Methane Emissions Mitigation While Leveraging IRA Energy Credit - September 20, 2024
Recent Quad O regulations, made effective in May 2024, have begun to impose stricter restrictions on natural gas-driven pneumatic controllers in onshore oil and gas operations. Two case studies are used that compare existing solutions like compressed instrument air, vapor recovery units, and solar-powered instrument air compressors and pumps. In the case studies, new financial incentives like those present in the Inflation Reduction Act make transitioning to sustainable technologies much more economically feasible in the short-term.
New Data Show U.S. Oil & Gas Methane Emissions Over Four Times Higher than EPA Estimates, Eight Times Greater than Industry Target - July 31, 2024
New aerial measurements gathered by MethaneAIR of sites accounting for 70% of onshore contiguous U.S. oil and gas production found methane emission rates four times higher than EPA estimates. Methane loss rates observed across 12 basins are 8 times higher than emissions intensity targets announced at COP28’s Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter. Individual oil/gas basins’ loss rates vary from less than 1% to nearly 8% of gross gas production due to numerous factors including the age of the facilities, company operating practices and oil versus gas production. The Environmental Defense Fund hopes that continuous high-resolution measurements from remote sensing tools like MethaneAIR and MethaneSAT can help inform future policy and be integrated into national estimates like the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program.
EPA and Justice Department Announce $241.5M Settlement with Marathon Oil to Reduce Climate- and Health-Harming Emissions in North Dakota - July 11, 2024
Marathon has been levied a civil penalty of $64.5 million due to Clean Air Act violations at 90 of their North Dakota facilities. It is the largest ever penalty incurred by an O&G operator and mandates that they implement extensive compliance measures at their 200 facilities across the state. This settlement is one of the most significant to date brought by the EPA’s climate enforcement initiative and this agreement will result in the equivalent of over 2.25 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next five years.
High-resolution U.S. Methane Emissions Inferred from an Inversion of 2019 TROPOMI Satellite Data: Contributions from Individual States, Urban Areas, and Landfills - April 30, 2024
In this study, researchers used inverse analysis of atmospheric methane columns to re-quantify emissions estimates from the 2019 GHGI and found numerous large increases from certain sectors. Landfills emission estimates were 51% greater compared to the EPA’s estimates in large part due to overestimated recovery efficiencies and under-accounting of operational leaks. Of the 95 urban areas that were analyzed, emissions were 39% higher than EPA estimates which are generally consistent with previous top-down studies of this nature.
EDF and Google Partner to Map Global Methane Emissions from Space - February 14, 2024
MethaneSAT's first satellite was launched into orbit March 4th and will allow for a detailed global picture of methane emissions from major oil and gas basins by the end of 2025. MethaneSat has an unparalleled combination of detail and scope as Google will leverage its cloud-computing resources to make a dynamic methane map available to the public later this year. EDF hopes to paint a fuller picture of emissions by taking real-world measurements of oil and gas fields accounting for nearly 80% of global production.
Single-blind Test of Nine Methane-sensing Satellite Systems from Three Continents - January 31, 2024
In this study, a single blind test of 9 methane sensing satellites from 3 continents and five countries was studied to detect large point sources of methane. They conducted 82 controlled methane releases during satellite overpasses. Teams correctly detected emissions as low as 0.03 metric tons of methane per hour, it is unclear whether detection performance in this test is representative of real-world field performance. 58 % were correctly identified, with 34% true positive detections and 25% true negative non-detections. There were 41 false negatives, in which teams missed a true emission, and 0 false positives, in which teams incorrectly claimed methane was present.
Comparing Continuous Methane Monitoring Technologies for High-Volume Emissions: A Single-Blind Controlled Release Study - January 18, 2024
In this study, continuous methane monitoring technologies were studied using a single blind controlled release for high volume emissions. The study assessed 8 commercial continuous monitoring solutions. The performance varied but all teams reported false positives below 10%. For true positives, 4 out of the 8 systems exceeded 80%.
LPO Announces Conditional Commitment to LongPath for Emissions Technology to Support Methane Monitoring and Leak Reduction - January 5, 2024
The DOE’s Loan Programs Office have conditionally committed up to $189 million to LongPath Technologies and their Active Emissions Overwatch System to cover O&G production basins across Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Texas. The project seeks to use large-areas remote methane monitors to provide leak detection and quantification services in lieu of just utilizing flyovers and OGI cameras.
Scientific Challenges of Monitoring, Measuring, Reporting, and Verifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Natural Gas Systems - December 29, 2023
A recent publication from ACS Sustainable Resource Management written by the EEMDL group at the University of Texas assessed some of the challenges that come with monitoring, measuring, reporting, and verifying GHG emissions on Natural Gas systems. They also announced a special issue in ACS that will explore some of the best available analysis approaches in this field.