Posted on 11/26/2022 5:18:04 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A catastrophic leak from a natural gas storage field in Cambria County likely released over one billion cubic feet of the potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. The incident demonstrates the importance of tracking — and punishing — methane emissions, a priority recently moved forward by both Congress and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
It also shows the urgency of implementing state-level regulations to control methane emissions from Pennsylvania’s oil and gas industry.
Methane is the primary component of natural gas, and is fifty times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. While CO2 grabs the headlines, CH4 is thought to be responsible for about a quarter of human-caused climate change.
This year, the federal government has attacked excess methane emissions on two fronts. First, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress passed charges for methane leaks that begin at $900 per metric ton in 2024 and rise to $1500 per metric ton in 2027.
Second, on November 11, the EPA announced a supplemental rule expanding on last year’s regulatory action on methane. It’s a 500-page rule, but the upshot is that it closes several loopholes in the current methane regulation regime. For the purposes of western Pennsylvania, most notable is the expansion of regulatory coverage to all methane emitters, including small and independently-owned oil and gas sites.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Biden and Shapiro will make the Marcellus Shale look like the wastelands of Colorado in Atlas Shrugged.
if only we could plug the volcanoes in the ocean........
The PPG needs some regulation. Everyone at the PPG farts. They need to be eliminated.
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I haven't done one of these in a while.
Why? Are PPG’s offices full of cattle?
(Maybe they’re full of sheep, but that’s another story.)
But yes, it IS OUR FAULT!
The Holy Earth Mother is MAD AT US because we MISTREAT HER SO!!
A million new regs and a $2 Trillion will do for starters.
And 'Enders' for that matter.
The Moronic Eco-Tyrants (METs™) are intent upon ENDING the human race.
There no longer can be any doubt of this.
This year, the federal government has attacked excess methane emissions on two fronts. First, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress passed charges for methane leaks that begin at $900 per metric ton in 2024 and rise to $1500 per metric ton in 2027.Uh huh.
I guess the irony of the NATURAL GAS part escapes them.
Oh….about like a small volcano…surprised I’m able to breathe in TN this am…
I don’t want to see another liberal behind the wheel of a vehicle or on a plane of any sort.
If there were an economical way of capturing a leak like that, they would do it, and the stuff would get burned off into CO2 and water.
They routinely misrepresent the greenhouse effect of methane. In a controlled laboratory atmosphere, like in a bell jar, totally devoid of water vapor then yes methane has a greenhouse gas effect. In the open air, where the atmosphere has saturation levels of water vapor, itself the most important greenhouse gas, methane effect shrinks to nothing. Why? because the absorption frequency for methane is the same as the frequency for water vapor, and the superabundance of water vapor, relatively speaking, swamps and wipes out any measurable effect of methane.
The researchers driving this drivel know this, but they don’t tell the writers, who just uncritically suck down everything the “climate experts” tell them. Being not only ignorant but enthusiastic, as only true believers can be, they routinely repeat the nonsense, like the guy who wrote this editorial.
Water vapor accounts for 95% of the heat retention by “greenhouse gases.” 0.001% of atmospheric water vapor is from human activity.
Carbon dioxide accounts for 3.186% of the heat retention by “greenhouse gases.” 0.117% of atmospheric carbon dioxide is from human activity.
Methane accounts for 0.360% of the heat retention by ‘greenhouse gases.” 0.066% of atmospheric methane is from human activity.
If you include nitrous oxide, CFCs, and all other trace gases, 0.28% of heat retention by the atmosphere is due to human activity.
When you put it that way, what we’re attempting to do is to drop a nuke on a city to resolve a hangnail.
It’s funny that a catastrophic leak occurred and nobody heard about it until now. You would expect earthquake or hurricane levels of damage but apparently nothing like that has happened.
The thing about methane is that it is lighter than oxygen, nitrogen or carbon dioxide and it floats up into space where it is carried away by the solar wind.
How about harvesting the methane for power production? Under the oceans are vast deposits of Methyl Hydrate, a frozen form of methane formed under pressure and cold. The combustion of it is as close to pollution free as can be. It will burn up the methane, and it doesn’t become the “super pollutant” the insane say it is.
They should bring the actual cows into the courtroom. Hundreds of cows in the courtrooms should tie the government in knots for some time.
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