The Biggest Environmental Catastrophe No One Is Talking About - U.S. oil & gas producers spew more than 9 million metric tons of methane into the atmosphere every year
Oil and gas producers
in the U.S., spew more than nine million metric tons of methane into the
atmosphere every year, according to the EDF. Some of those emissions come from
major leaks. In February, seepage
at the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, near Porter Ranch, California,
released roughly 100,000 tons of methane gas into the atmosphere before it was
plugged. It was the largest
methane leak in U.S. history.
The Aliso Canyon
breach was an extreme example of a problem that affects
natural gas storage facilities across the country, Mark Brownstein,
the vice president of the EDF’s climate and energy program, told HuffPost in
January.
The danger of large
leaks is particularly pronounced at natural gas fields that have been converted
into underground gas storage facilities, like Aliso Canyon, according to
geologist Briana Mordick, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense
Council.
Despite the risks at
large storage facilities, much of the country’s methane emissions come
from small natural gas processing and storage plants, according to
Watson. “This study has shown that you can have super emitter problems at
small facilities,” he said.
The causes of methane
leaks vary. Faulty equipment, shoddy maintenance and infrequent inspections can
create seepages and allow them to persist. “[Inspectors] run across cases
all the time where somebody’s just left a hatch open,” Watson said. “If
you’re not out there looking for these things on a regular basis, you won’t see
or smell these emissions.”
Some states have
stepped up efforts to find and plug leaks. In 2014, Colorado became the first
state to require oil and gas companies to fix seepages at their
facilities. Colorado requires companies to capture 95 percent of their routine
methane emissions. States like California appear to be following Colorado’s lead, as
others race each to adopt stricter measures to prevent leaks, according to
Watson.
But fixing the
country’s scattered methane leaks will require federal laws mandating tougher
and more frequent inspections of oil and gas facilities, Watson said.
“Unfortunately, we have too few participants in the race, which is why,
ultimately, you have to have a federal floor in place,” he said.
The American Petroleum
the oil and gas industry’s main trade association in the U.S., said in a statement last year that the industry is
taking steps to find and fix methane leaks. The API did not respond to a
HuffPost request for comment.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/potent-methane-gas-leaks_us_570d62fce4b0885fb50e9306?section=india