Posted on 08/09/2019 11:52:02 PM PDT by Kaslin
The energy industry is waging war against climate change - and winning.
Last week, the Environmental Partnership, a group of oil and gas firms dedicated to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, released its first annual progress report. The results are impressive -- and showcase what happens when an industry unites to further the public good.
The Environmental Partnership launched in late 2017 with 26 members. Within 12 months, it more than doubled in size to 58 members -- including 32 of America's top 40 oil and gas producers. Today, its members account for nearly half of America's oil and natural gas production.
The group focuses on cutting emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases known as "volatile organic compounds." Without proper monitoring and maintenance, these gases can escape from drilling rigs and pipelines and contribute to global warming.
Even before the partnership formed, firms were spending millions to reduce their carbon footprints. Methane emissions have plummeted in America's largest energy-rich basins, even as oil and gas production has spiked.
Production at the Appalachia Basin, which spans from Alabama to Maine, rose more than 380 percent from 2011 to 2017 -- yet methane emissions dropped 70 percent. Texas's Eagle Ford Basin, meanwhile, produced 130 percent more oil and gas, but released 65 percent less methane. And the Permian Basin, split between Texas and New Mexico, doubled production while decreasing emissions by almost 40 percent.
The energy industry is waging war against climate change - and winning.
Last week, the Environmental Partnership, a group of oil and gas firms dedicated to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, released its first annual progress report. The results are impressive -- and showcase what happens when an industry unites to further the public good.
The Environmental Partnership launched in late 2017 with 26 members. Within 12 months, it more than doubled in size to 58 members -- including 32 of America's top 40 oil and gas producers. Today, its members account for nearly half of America's oil and natural gas production.
The group focuses on cutting emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases known as "volatile organic compounds." Without proper monitoring and maintenance, these gases can escape from drilling rigs and pipelines and contribute to global warming.
Even before the partnership formed, firms were spending millions to reduce their carbon footprints. Methane emissions have plummeted in America's largest energy-rich basins, even as oil and gas production has spiked.
Production at the Appalachia Basin, which spans from Alabama to Maine, rose more than 380 percent from 2011 to 2017 -- yet methane emissions dropped 70 percent. Texas's Eagle Ford Basin, meanwhile, produced 130 percent more oil and gas, but released 65 percent less methane. And the Permian Basin, split between Texas and New Mexico, doubled production while decreasing emissions by almost 40 percent.
But firms in the Environmental Partnership weren't satisfied with that progress. They sought to slash emissions even further.
First, the partnership focused on updating outdated technology like high-bleed pneumatic controllers. Pneumatic controllers regulate temperature, pressure, and liquid levels at natural gas sites by opening or closing valves. To operate these valves, the controllers rely on pressurized natural gas. As their name suggests, high-bleed pneumatic controllers can release relatively large amounts of natural gas, along with methane and VOC byproducts, into the air.
The Environmental Partnership plans to replace all high-bleed pneumatic controllers in five years. And it's well on its way to doing so. It replaced, retrofitted, or removed more than 28,000 prior to 2018 and an additional 3,000 last year. As a result, nearly 40 participating firms don't use high-bleed controllers at all.
Second, the partnership set out to curb methane leaks - which can sometimes happen as firms extract, store, and burn natural gas. Methane is both a potent greenhouse gas and the main ingredient in natural gas. Participating companies conducted more than 156,000 surveys across 78,000 production sites, inspecting more than 56 million individual parts.
After its thorough inspections and repairs, the Environmental Partnership found that just 0.16 percent of industry parts contained leaks -- and member firms repaired 99 percent of those in 60 days or less.
Participating firms also worked to better monitor liquid removal from natural gas wells. When too much liquid, mostly consisting of water, builds up within gas wells, firms manually direct the liquid to vents that bring it to surface. During that process, methane or volatile organic compounds can potentially escape into the atmosphere.
Over the course of 2018, the Environmental Partnership oversaw more than 130,000 manual removals to ensure environmentally safe execution.
In addition to these three initiatives, the Environmental Partnership held numerous conferences and workshops across the country to share best practices and new technologies. These conferences featured energy experts, regulators, and academics.
These meetings amount to more than feel-good powwows. The Environmental Partnership has spurred America's largest energy producers to take a good, hard look at their operations, pinpoint the need for critical changes, and execute those reforms.
Methane emissions from natural gas systems fell over 14 percent between 1990 and 2017. The Environmental Partnership's initiatives will undoubtedly cut these emissions even further. According to the EPA's own estimates, reducing methane leaks and replacing high-bleed controllers can slash emissions by 40 and 60 percent, respectively.
Energy firms are weaponizing their data and tools for the common good. Let's hope they keep up the fight in the war against climate change.
Paul E. Vallely is a retired U.S. Army major general who serves as a senior military analyst for Fox News. Gen. Vallely is the founder and chairman of Stand Up America, a public policy research organization committed to national security and energy independence.
l8r
Totally respect his military commitment, but he proved to be a political jackass long ago.
Ask any left-wing enviro-nut this question: “How many hurricanes would be normal in a season for a post-climate change North America?” or “How many inches should the sea-level rise or fall in how many years to declare victory in the Climate Change threat?”
The real problem with fighting Climate Change is that there is no measurable standard on which to declare victory. Any war that you continue to fight with no achievable goal is a loser for the combatants but a sure winner for those that gain from the conflict.
So is carbon a lagging indicator or a leading causal factor in global warming? And is man’s part in the carbon cycle large enough to make a difference? And is the magnitude of the water vapor as a greenhouse gas...being a couple of orders of magnitudes larger masking any real ability to measure the role of carbon dioxide in a warming/cooling cycle?
DK
Oh, gee - this ‘climate change’ horse sh*t again.
The author of this steaming pile of bs has obviously bought into the man caused global warming lie. If you start with a completely false premise, then nothing in your article is valid. This load should be consigned to the compost heap.
Good article on an under reported story, thanks!
I thought it was too.
This is completely at odds with the scary and speculative stories being published in WSJ and others about an estimated 2.3% of natural gas being released. This story is not being reported outside of Townhall. For most people it will have never happened.
When you admit to a premise that is false, while winning in the game, you still lose.
Nobody should be doing anything about fighting a hoax. To do so is a form of mental illnesses.
The amazing think to me is if someone truly believes this man-made climate hoax then you also by default believe there WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER ICE AGE. Actually I wish that were true because the next ice age will be devastating to humanity.
He is an idiot. How do you fight a war on aa political power grab hoax?
So you bought off on “climate change “ hoax? What exactly are you dog here?
Kaslin, you are a dubious Conservative at best.
Bingo. Like a sword fight with a ghost.
Climate Change explains everything without an explanation.
I think that we are supposed to be good stewards because that was a job God charged humanity with back in the garden, and also because it makes sense. One thing that I have figured out is that the lefty elites are basically causing all of the problems they are saying are man made climate change. It is indeed manmade... by them!
Soros and Harvard have both heavily invested in plantations in the developing world that have been razing the Amazon rainforest and displacing indigenous people. These plantations are not growing food, they are growing palm oil and sugarcane for ethanol.
The cows that they want to get rid of require grassland that acts as a carbon sink. Without it we will be a hotter and more miserable place. Up is down and down is up with these a-holes!
I’m also more than a little disgusted with the stream-of-woke-consciousness reporting that can go an entire article not mentioning a single fact. I am a reader, not their damned therapist!
A good question to pose to these guys would be: “If the Earth is about to enter an extended solar minimum that could turn into a mini-ice age, how quickly could we dump so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that it would fend it off?”
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