Pipeline pressures up to about 1200 pounds per square inch are common

How Oil & Gas Industry Could Cut Methane Pollution in Half

From an Article by Cole Mellino, EcoWatch.com, November 20, 2014

Leading environmental groups—Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, and Clean Air Task Force—released a summary report today to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) laying out how the agency can cut methane pollution in half with low-cost technologies and practices. The report, Waste Not: Common Sense Measures to Reduce Methane Emissions from the Oil and Natural Gas Industry, shows how the U.S. EPA must meet its obligations under the Clean Air Act by requiring the oil and gas industries to halt methane emissions. The full report will be available later this fall.

One of the simple solutions highlighted in the report shows that “most of the industry’s methane pollution comes from leaks and intentional venting that can be identified and curbed with existing, low-cost technology and better maintenance practices.” Mark Brownstein, associate vice president for U.S. Climate and Energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, agrees. “Methane leaks are simply a waste of a valuable national energy resource. The good news is that there are simple technologies and practices that the oil industry can use to substantially reduce this waste, creating new opportunities for American companies and new jobs for American workers.”

The big takeaway from this report is that these standards would cut up to 10 times more methane and up to four times more smog-forming pollutants than other proposals because these standards would apply to oil and gas infrastructure across the country, not just to equipment located in certain areas.

Why care about methane when there is so much carbon dioxide in our atmosphere? Because “methane warms the climate at least 80 times more than an equal amount of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period … its impact on the climate [is] huge. About 25 percent of the warming we are experiencing today is attributable to methane emissions. Taking steps to address methane, in addition to carbon pollution, is critical to combating climate change,” said Earthjusticeattorney Tim Ballo.

Deb Nardone, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Natural Gas campaign, believes the best thing for the climate would be to keep all dirty fossil fuels in the ground because “fracking threatens to transform our most beautiful wild places, our communities and our backyards into dirty fuel industrial sites, so in the short term the EPA must work quickly to control methane from existing fracking operations, close the exemptions that allow the oil and gas industries to benefit at the cost of our health, prevent future leasing of our public lands and advance truly clean energy like wind, solar and energy efficiency.”

NOTE: A Marcellus gas well flare has been burning for about a week near Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania.  It lights up the night sky. But, flares do not achieve complete combustion of the natural gases so there is air pollution in addition to the carbon dioxide produced. This is in Greene County, just north of the Mason Dixon Line, between Morgantown, WV and Waynesburg, PA off I-79.  P.S. Another big problem is the diesel emissions from all the trucks and heavy equipment, known to be extremely dangerous to the workers and residents near to drilling operations.  DGN

Frack Checked Videos Feature Wes Wilson and Tony Ingraffea

Article from EcoWatch

Date: Nov. 2, 2013

Colorado is the midst of a David vs. Goliath fight, in which four municipalities will be voting November 5th  on ballot initiatives to protect their communities from fracking. The gas and oil industry has already spent $600,000 on misleading ads and mailers to fight local residents’ rights to home rule. By next week it may well be more than $1,000,000. 

Colorado has been called the ground zero of fracking. It has more than 50,000 fracking wells, many within hundreds of yards of schools, homes and public parks. Gas and oil companies are virtually self-regulated, with devastating consequences, as we saw in the recent flooding of thousands of fracking sites that were allowed to be built on a flood zone. Governor Hickenlooper, in fact, is such a supporter, he once claimed to have  drunk fracking fluid. 

Local groups have taken it upon themselves to try to limit gas and oil activity in their communities. If the initiatives pass, Fort Collins, Broomfield, Boulder and Lafayette would join the city of Longmont by instating local municipal fracking bans and moratoriums.  

Because the anti-fracking local campaigns don’t have the spending power of the oil and gas industry, Frack Free Colorado released these video to combat the misinformation campaign laid out by the industry. These videos feature local and national experts who touch on economics, air pollution, groundwater contamination and renewable energy solutions. The first video features EPA whistleblower Wes Wilson and the second features Cornell scientist Tony Ingraffea.

The West Virginia DEP’s emergency rule issued on August 22nd references i well site safety standards and casing and cementing standards.  To develop these plans, the DEP is seeking input from the public through September 30th.  These may be mailed to the Office of Oil and Gas, 601 57th St., S.E., Charleston, W. Va., 25304 or e-mailed to DEP.comments@wv.gov.  You can download the casing and cementing standards here, and the well site safety plan standards here.