Congress has taken another step backward from reducing pollution, slowing climate change and wasting valuable resources:
For the oil and gas industry, cutting emissions of one of the most potent greenhouse gases was supposed to be relatively straightforward.
But last week Congress voted to roll back the “methane fee,” a penalty on excess methane emissions passed during the Biden administration. The decision removed what was supposed to be an incentive for polluters to reduce their environmental impact, though the fee had not yet gone into effect.Â
In addition, as Trump takes drastic steps to increase oil and gas production, even more methane emissions will result.
Methane is considered a “superpollutant” because it can trap around 80 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide can in the short term, and it’s responsible for about a third of the global temperature rise since the preindustrial era.
Over the last few years, cutting back on energy-sector methane has become a focal point for policymakers looking for the cheapest, fastest and easiest ways to reduce emissions globally. New satellites and cameras can quickly and accurately locate large emissions events, and fixing the problem is sometimes as simple as twisting a knob on a valve.
“It is the single fastest way to reduce temperature in the short term,” said Marcelo Mena, chief executive of the Global Methane Hub, an organization that funds reduction efforts.
Mena said that nearly half of all emissions reductions in the oil and gas sector could be realized at little or no cost to operators, because efforts to plug leaks could pay for themselves.
I have to believe that Congress acted without regard for the progress made recently in detecting and measuring methane emissions and realizing the costs of those emissions.Â
...environmental groups and energy companies have escalated efforts to figure out exactly how much methane is entering the atmosphere, and from where. The 770-pound satellite MethaneSAT, for example, was launched last year to orbit the earth once every 96 minutes and monitor more than 80 percent of global oil and gas production.
According to one publication:
Oil and gas operations across the United States are emitting more than 6 million tons per year of methane...
The value of that methane is huge:
Recapturing gas can create quite a boon to your bottom line. With natural gas prices around $2.50/MMBtu (as of Fall 2024), fixing leaks and keeping gas in the pipeline isn’t just about sustainability—it’s good for business.
Here’s the breakdown: at $2.50 per 1,000 scf (Mcf), that comes out to around $120 per ton of natural gas.Â
At a minimum, that works out to be $720,000,000.
Other sources estimate the losses as much more.
But here´s the main point:
Emissions in some areas were far more than estimated. In the New Mexico portion of the Permian Basin nearly 10% of the volume of methane produced in 2019 went "straight into the atmosphere."
But, in other regions emission rates were lower than previously estimated, suggesting that good industry practices can reduce emissions.
By showing that leaks cost industry more than a billion dollars a year, the researchers hope to gain producers’ attention and motivate them to voluntarily stop emissions at their own facilities as a cost-saving measure.
So, it looks like the carrot and stick approach to reducing methane waste can be effective.Â
Unfortunately, after finally managing to install effective means to measure methane emissions, Congress decided that it is preferable to waste the nation´s natural resources and to increase pollution. Heaven knows why. It´s seems likely that it´s just because the Boss says so.
Very dumb..
Â