Frack Check WV » Methane emissions

Unbiased Observers See PROBLEMS With FRACKING — Let’s Ban It Now

Duane Nichols — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 18:59:33 +0000

Every month new evidence implicates horizontal hydraulic fracking

We need to ban fracking; it’s a matter of public health

Guest Editorial from Dr. Val Arkoosh, Penn Live, November 7, 2021

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to infect Pennsylvanians and hurt our communities, it is hard to focus on anything else. But as a physician and public health professional, I will not sit back and watch the lack of urgency in Washington on the other escalating public health crisis hurting Pennsylvanians: climate change. This is both an issue of public health and Pennsylvania’s economic future.

Treating patients over two decades, I came to realize that many of the things most impacting them were things outside the exam room and climate change is one of the clearest examples.

People are dying from extreme heat and certain diseases are showing up where they’ve never been before. There are kids who can’t drink water in their neighborhoods or play outside because the air is too dirty for them to breathe. And Pennsylvanians, including in recent months, are being killed in extreme weather events.

But just as we’ve seen COVID deniers undermining the science behind vaccines and masks, we see politiciansin Washington who refuse to accept the science behind climate change or refuse to treat it like the urgent health crisis it is. President Biden is making climate change a domestic priority and repositioning the U.S. as a leader again. But we also have a serious problem in Washington when one U.S. Senator can kill meaningful methane emission rules in the spending bill that could put us on a stronger path.

It is time to be bold. Our kids’ futures, our economic growth, and our national security depend on it. We need to ban fracking, starting with an immediate ban on all new permits and quickly banning fracking near homes and schools. We need to hold polluters accountable for the harm they are doing in our communities. We also need robust testing of water near homes and schools around fracking sites.

Last year, Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a grand jury report , which detailed testimony of dozens of Pennsylvania homeowners who live near fracking sites. The reports reinforced what we’d been hearing for years — children with nosebleeds and chronic fatigue, families with nausea and dizziness, dead livestock, and sludge clogging well-water pumps.

And following an alarming analysis by Physicians for Social Responsibility on the use of PFAS or “forever chemicals” in fracking sites in six other states, an analysis by the Philadelphia Inquirer found that between 2012 and 2014 at least eight Pennsylvania fracking wells used these dangerous chemicals, which have been linked to major health hazards like cancer and low birth weight.

Beyond the clear public health need, this is also about taking the future of our Commonwealth’s economy into our own hands so we can ensure the green jobs of the future are created here in Pennsylvania, not in other states and not in China. Pennsylvanians deserve our share of the sustainable clean energy jobs we are creating today and will create tomorrow.

It just makes sense for our economy and where we know this is headed. For decades, we have seen industries in Western Pennsylvania get the rug pulled out from under them — just look at what’s happened with coal and steel. If we don’t accept the fact that the same will be true of fracking jobs, we risk getting left behind.

Investments in clean energy like solar and wind, efforts to make our infrastructure more energy-efficient and sustainable, and electrifying public transit will create manufacturing jobs here at home and ensure we can lead the way in this fight. We need to incentivize the production of these technologies in American factories by union workers, and give workers in the fossil fuel industry the training to enter this workforce, building the clean energy economy of the future.

Banning fracking will not solve every problem, but it will prevent people from getting sick and must be a priority in creating a healthier Pennsylvania and tackling this climate crisis.

It will take someone with my health background and experience to fight for these pro-public health policies in the U.S. Senate, which needs a science truth-teller right now more than ever. We can’t let ongoing attacks on science and facts hold us back in this fight. I won’t.

>> Valerie Arkoosh, MD, MPH, is the chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners and a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.

Zero Methane Emissions Goal May Be Elusive For Any Driller/Fracker

Duane Nichols — Tue, 28 May 2019 14:23:51 +0000

Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas and is increasing dramatically in the atmosphere

Range Resources pledges to achieve zero gas emissions in its Marcellus operations

From an Article by Rick Shrum, Washington PA Observer Reporter, May 23, 2019

The company that broke ground, literally and figuratively, in the Marcellus Shale is striving for another groundbreaking achievement. Zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Range Resources, the largest natural gas driller in the region, issued its first Corporate Sustainability Report on Tuesday. It is a 32-page summary detailing its successes in reducing emissions over the past decade, along with other corporate initiatives, accomplishments and goals.

The most prominent goal, which jumps off page 5, is this Report Highlight: “Range is actively working to achieve zero emissions across our operations.”

That is an ambitious endeavor, one that will inspire skepticism about the prospects of attaining true zero emissions. And the company did not propose a timeframe for accomplishing that.

But Scott Roy, senior vice president, said the company has been progressing toward that lofty objective. “Ultimately, our goal is zero emissions, meaning if we have any points of emissions, we have additional opportunities to pursue and more work to be done.”

Jeffrey Ventura, chief executive officer and president of Range, echoed those sentiments in a letter to stakeholders: “Range has been at the forefront of the industry in emission reductions by using cutting-edge technologies and customized engineering solutions . . .”

Range, based in Fort Worth, Texas, and with local headquarters at Southpointe, has been operating in Pennsylvania for 26 years. Range drilled the first Marcellus well, the Renz Well, in Mt. Pleasant Township in November 2004.

Among other highlights in the report, Range says it:
>>> has reduced the company’s leak ratio by 70% over the past three years;
>>> is reusing 153% of its own water and other operators’ water in a sharing program;
>>> had made $2 billion-plus in leasing and royalty payments in Pennsylvania since 2006;
>>> has invested $10 million through its corporate giving program into nonprofit and civic organizations;
>>> cut greenhouse gas emissions 8% and increased production 8% from 2017 to 2018.

Range Resources has an estimated 800 employees.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

See Also: The Methane Detectives: On the Trail of a Global Warming Mystery. Article by Jonathan Mingle, May 13, 2019

The amount of methane in the atmosphere has been continuing to increase. And nobody really knows why. What’s more, no one saw it coming. Methane levels have been climbing more steeply than climate experts anticipated, to a degree “so unexpected that it was not considered in pathway models preparatory to the Paris Agreement.”

XTO Timeline Unknown For Capping of Blown Well in Upper Ohio Valley

Duane Nichols — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 09:05:12 +0000

Powhatan Point is across the Ohio River from Marshall County, WV

XTO Offers to Provide Hotel Stay and Toilet Paper to Residents while Gas Well Burns

From an Article by Shelley Hanson, Wheeling News-Register, February 18, 2018

Powhatan Point, OH — Debris must be cleared from the site of a well pad explosion before work can begin to cap a leaking natural gas well in Powhatan Point, XTO spokeswoman Karen Matusic said Saturday.

Matusic said people within a 1-mile radius of the well site still are not allowed back in their homes. She did not have an estimate regarding when the well might be capped. Air and water in the area still are being monitored for methane, but Matusic said the levels have not been found to be harmful to people or animals.

“Today we’re basically getting ready for our well control crew,” she said, noting the company Cudd Energy Services will conduct the work. Matusic described Cudd as the “premiere” well control company, adding that is why XTO chose to hire that firm.

According to its website, “the Cudd family of companies offer a broad range of specialized oilfield services and equipment to businesses engaged in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas worldwide. Cudd Energy Services experienced professionals will design a solution, provide the engineering, and mobilize the resources required to safely execute the planned objective in both onshore and offshore environments. Services include stimulation, coiled tubing and e-coil, hydraulic workover, nitrogen, industrial nitrogen, slickline, braided line, electric line, special service, water management, and well control.”

Images and video from a drone are being used to give workers a better look at the site.

Matusic said no one was injured during the Thursday explosion, and XTO wants to keep it that way. That’s why the debris, such as a damaged crane, must be cleared before an attempt at capping the well can begin.

“Today the state director of the DNR and Ohio EPA were here visiting operations headquarters and looking at the drone footage,” Matusic said Saturday.

Matusic said when the explosion occurred workers were in the middle of the completion phase, which means the site already had been drilled and fracked and was being prepared for production. Earlier this week, officials said the work was being done on a fourth well on the Schnegg pad, located along Cats Run Road.

After the well is capped, Matusic said work will begin to try and figure out what went wrong.

She noted the Powhatan site is the first well that XTO has had blow in Appalachia. She said she was not sure how long the process to get it capped might take, adding she had not been involved in similar situations in other parts of the country.

Matusic said XTO will continue to pay for displaced residents’ hotel bills, along with reimbursing them for items, such as toilet paper, that they have had to purchase while away from home.

Local officials, including those with the Belmont County Emergency Management Agency and Powhatan Volunteer Fire Department, could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Power Plants a Problem

Duane Nichols — Sun, 26 Mar 2017 09:09:11 +0000

Methane is a Very Significant Greenhouse Gas (2014)

Study: Natural Gas Power Plants Emit up to 120 Times More Methane Than Previously Estimated

From an Article by Steve Horn • DeSmog Blog, March 20, 2017

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”).

The scientists measured air emissions at three natural gas-fired power plants and three refineries in Utah, Indiana, and Illinois using Purdue’s flying chemistry lab, the Airborne Laboratory for Atmospheric Research (ALAR). They compared their results to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program.

“Power plants currently use more than one third of natural gas consumed in the U.S. and the volume used is expected to increase as market forces drive the replacement of coal with cheaper natural gas,” the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) said in a press release. The nonprofit commissioned and funded the study with a grant from the Afred P. Sloan Foundation.

“But if natural gas is going to deliver on its promise, methane emissions due to leaks, venting, and flaring need to be kept to a minimum.”

Methane Leaks Major Source of Emissions

Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide but hangs around the atmosphere for a shorter time, with a global warming effect 84–87 times that of CO2 over a 20-year period, according to the EPA.

“[Methane is] a better fuel all around as long as you don’t spill it,” Paul Shepson, an atmospheric chemistry professor at Purdue, said in a press release. “But it doesn’t take much methane leakage to ruin your whole day if you care about climate change.”

The researchers were careful to differentiate between emissions related to natural gas combustion versus leakage, with the latter found to be the primary source of methane emissions in this small, preliminary study. Previous estimates of methane emissions were reported to the EPA from the facilities themselves and were restricted to what came out of the smokestack, which means they excluded leaks from equipment such as steam turbines and compressors.

The study was done as part of EDF’s ongoing series of studies measuring methane emissions and leakage throughout the U.S. natural gas supply chain. EDF said in its press release that the Purdue scientists plan to follow up with research at additional oil refineries and power plants. Purdue stated in a press release that support for the research also came from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Natural gas recently eclipsed coal as a power source feeding the U.S. electric grid, according to data published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

“For decades, coal has been the dominant energy source for generating electricity in the United States. EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) is now forecasting that 2016 will be the first year that natural gas-fired generation exceeds coal generation in the United States on an annual basis,” explained the EIA in March 2016. “Natural gas generation first surpassed coal generation on a monthly basis in April 2015, and the generation shares for coal and natural gas were nearly identical in 2015, each providing about one-third of all electricity generation.”

Trump Admininstration Dismantling Methane Regulations

The Purdue-EDF research results were published the same week President Donald Trump proposed massive cuts to the EPA, which would include a 23 percent cut to the enforcement division tasked with overseeing emissions at gas-fired power plants and oil refineries. The Trump administration has also announced its intentions to halt former President Barack Obama’s proposed methane emissions rule for gas situated on U.S. public lands and has already reversed the Obama EPA’s information request for methane emissions data from U.S. domestic oil and gas producers.

As DeSmog previously reported, Carl Icahn, the business tycoon who interviewed and vetted current EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, owns petrochemical refineries with a documented history of exceeding allowable emissions rates set by the EPA. In addition to being a major donor to Trump’s campaign, Icahn also serves as an adviser on regulatory issues to the Trump White House, a position set to benefit his extensive business holdings and raising concerns about conflicts of interest.

Icahn, however, has dismissed these concerns, telling Bloomberg Businessweek, “It may sound corny to you, but I think doing certain things helps the country a lot. And yeah, it helps me. I’m not apologizing for that.”

Methane Emissions from Arctic Tundra are Alarming

Duane Nichols — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 16:19:31 +0000

Methane (CH4) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Escape into the Atmosphere

Arctic Methane Emissions Persist in Winter

From an Article by Alex Kirby, Climate News Network, December 30, 2015

The quantity of methane leaking from the frozen soil during the long Arctic winters is probably much greater than climate models estimate, scientists have found.

They say at least half of annual methane emissions occur in the cold months from September to May, and that drier, upland tundra can emit more methane than wetlands.

The multinational team, led by San Diego State University (SDSU) in the US and including colleagues from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of Sheffield and the Open University in the UK, have published their conclusion, which challenges critical assumptions in current global climate models, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is about 25 times more powerful per molecule than carbon dioxide over a century, but more than 84 times over 20 years. The methane in the Arctic tundra comes primarily from organic matter trapped in soil which thaws seasonally and is decomposed by microbes.

It seeps naturally from the soil over the course of the year, but climate change can warm the soil enough to release more methane from organic matter that is currently stable in the permafrost.

Scientists have for some years been accurately measuring Arctic methane emissions and incorporating the results into their climate models. But crucially, the SDSU team says, almost all of these measurements have been obtained during the Arctic’s short summer.

Its long cold period has been largely “overlooked and ignored,” according to Walter Oechel of SDSU, with most researchers thinking that, because the ground is frozen solid during the cold months, methane emissions practically shut down for the winter.

“Virtually all the climate models assume there’s no or very little emission of methane when the ground is frozen,” he says. “That assumption is incorrect.”

The authors say the water trapped in the soil doesn’t freeze completely at 0°C. The top layer of the ground – known as the active layer – thaws in the summer and refreezes in the winter, and it experiences a kind of sandwiching effect as it freezes.

When temperatures are around 0°C (called “the zero curtain”) the top and bottom of the active layer begin to freeze, but the middle remains insulated. Micro-organisms in this unfrozen layer continue to break down organic matter and emit methane many months into the Arctic winter.

Dual Approach

To find out how much methane is emitted during the winter, the researchers used both ground-based and airborne methods.

The ground-based researchers recorded methane emissions from five sampling towers in Alaska over two summer-autumn-winter cycles between June 2013 and January 2015 and found that a major part of winter emissions was recorded when temperatures hovered near the zero curtain.

“This is extremely relevant for the Arctic ecosystem, as the zero curtain period continues from September until the end of December, lasting as long as or longer than the entire summer season,” said Donatella Zona, the study’s lead author.

“These results are the opposite of what modellers have been assuming, which is that the majority of the methane emissions occur during the warm summer months while the cold-season methane contribution is nearly zero.”

Data Confirmed

The researchers also found that during the cold season methane emissions were higher at the drier, upland tundra sites than in the wetlands. Upland tundra had previously been assumed to contribute a negligible amount of methane, Zona said.

To test whether the site-specific sampling was typical of methane emissions across the Arctic, the researchers compared their results with measurements recorded during flights made by NASA’s Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE).

The data from the ground-based sites proved well-matched with the larger-scale aircraft measurements, which showed that large areas of Arctic tundra and boreal forest continued to emit high levels of methane to the atmosphere long after the surface soil had frozen.

The team also used satellite microwave sensor measurements to develop regional maps of surface water cover, including the timing, extent and duration of seasonal flooding and drying of the region’s wetlands. This showed that the big methane-emitting areas were in the drier tundra.

Note: As the average temperature of the Earth increases, the emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases from tundra, soils and the oceans will be increasing. The cyclic feedback effect will accelerate these processes. Thus, global warming and climate change will be very very severe! These effects cannot be avoided completely; but, these effects can be significantly reduced if mankind will reduce the contributions of carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere. Clearly, a carbon fee on coal, oil and natural gas would be a tremendous help in this situation! And, a carbon fee would raise needed funds for our State. DGN