Jon Goldstein: Energy Exchange

Utah’s leaders have a challenge on their hands. Unhealthy ozone levels brought on by oil and gas pollution mean counties in the state’s Uinta Basin don’t meet our nation’s clean air standards. Ozone, the main component in smog, is a serious public health risk that causes asthma attacks and respiratory damage especially in children and […]

Much is known about the methane pollution coming from New Mexico’s oil and gas industry. Scientists studying methane emissions have found the nation’s most concentrated cloud of methane shrouding the state’s San Juan Basin. And since methane is the primary components of natural gas, we know the state’s operators are wasting hundreds of millions of […]

A new analysis is taking a closer looking at the scope of New Mexico’s methane problem and the financial impact it’s having on the state’s taxpayers. We have known for some time that New Mexico had a problem with methane waste and pollution from the state’s oil and gas industry. A 2015 report from business […]

Westerners are a hardy bunch. They are used to working through adverse conditions and making the best of what the land provides. That includes fighting to defend requirements from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that are designed to cut wasted natural gas and maximize revenue for community projects. This is despite repeated attempts from […]

An announcement last week from one of the country’s largest natural gas producers may have a major positive impact on revenue and clean air in New Mexico. XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil that made a $6 billion investment in acreage in New Mexico’s Permian Basin earlier this year, has now announced a set of commitments to […]

Ozone pollution — also known as smog — is a growing problem in Utah, both in the state’s urban areas and in largely rural regions where oil and gas development has been directly tied to unhealthy air. That’s why new draft rules for oil and gas emissions released yesterday are a breath of fresh air […]

Be Prepared. It’s not just the Boy Scout motto, it’s also the way most smart businesses try to operate. Better to anticipate future compliance issues today and bake them into your forward planning, than to be caught flatfooted tomorrow. That is a big part of the reason major multinational oil and gas producers like ExxonMobil […]

In 2014, NASA scientists published their discovery of a methane “hot spot” hovering over New Mexico’s San Juan Basin. The 2,500-square-mile methane cloud is the largest area of elevated methane concentration ever measured in the U.S., and is so big scientists can spot it from space. While some have tried to debate the cause of […]

Across the country, oil and gas companies allow massive quantities of natural gas, worth billions of dollars, to leak into the air — and when it happens on federal lands, it’s the American public who loses.  A new interactive tool lets users see, in real time, just how much American-owned gas private companies waste every […]

Last month the Bureau of Land Management took a much needed step to prevent the oil and gas industry from needlessly wasting American energy resources. For oil and gas companies operating on public and tribal lands, the new standards will reduce the amount of methane that operators can leak, vent or burn into the atmosphere. […]

It’s unfortunate that a partisan group of Congressional representatives recently tried to turn back the clock on new rules from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that can protect taxpayers and local communities from the needless waste of our natural gas resources and methane pollution. It was a disappointing move, considering that a bipartisan group […]

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management should do more to protect taxpayers from unnecessary waste of their natural gas resources. That’s the main takeaway from a new report from the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office.  Its findings again underline the urgent need for BLM to finalize strong new standards to reduce methane waste. Methane is […]

Over the past few months, hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. have spoken out in support of action on one very important topic: methane. Methane is the main ingredient of natural gas.  It helps heat our homes and power our economy.  But when leaked or vented into the atmosphere, methane is also a […]

By Jon Goldstein

What do Farmington, NM, Oklahoma City, Lakewood, CO and Dickinson, ND have in common? These cities are in the heart of oil and gas country, and – most importantly – were locations in which the BLM heard overwhelming support for strong efforts to reduce wasteful venting, flaring and leaks from the oil and gas industry at a series of public meetings in recent weeks.

Methane is a potent climate pollutant and the main constituent of natural gas, so when oil and gas companies on public land allow methane to be leaked, burned or vented to the atmosphere, it not only impacts air quality and our climate, it also represents an economic loss to taxpayers.

Individually at each hearing, and collectively across all four, voices supporting strong BLM methane waste and pollution rules far outweighed the opposition. In the final tally, supportive statements outnumbered negative ones by more than three-to-one. This fits with recent polling that found that a bipartisan majority (fully 80 percent) of Westerners support commonsense rules to cut oil and gas waste on BLM managed lands.

To put this in political terms during this  primary season, strong BLM action won the West by a landslide.

And like a winning candidate, BLM now has a strong mandate to strengthen and finalize their rule without delay. More delays, such as the two, three or even six month extensions some in industry requested at the hearings will only lead to more waste of taxpayer and tribal revenue.

In this case, time really is money. For instance, a three month delay will mean another $82.5 million dollars of our natural gas would be wasted from venting, flaring and leaks on federal and tribal lands according to a recent report.

BLM doesn’t collect royalty payments on natural gas that escapes to the atmosphere before being sold; therefore local communities lose out on funding that could have gone to improve schools, roads and other needed infrastructure. In fact, according to a recent report, taxpayers could lose out on $800 million over the next decade as a result of the wasteful venting and flaring of natural gas.

This was a point that BLM heard loud and clear at their Lakewood, CO hearing on Super Tuesday last week.

“The BLM proposal is a step in the right direction to make sure that our nation’s public natural gas resources located within taxpayer-owned federal lands are not being wasted. Every year oil and gas companies waste hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of natural gas through unchecked leaks and the careless practice of venting and flaring,” Maite Arce, president of the Hispanic Access Foundation, said in a statement to the BLM panel in Colorado.

Clean air issues were also raised in the Colorado hearing by Linda Johnson, a Board Member of Breath Utah, who travelled all the way from the Salt Lake City to testify.

“The final form of the BLM rule is out for comment. We think it’s very good for people in the Uinta Basin, and everywhere oil and gas mining happens. It could be even stronger. To capture every bit of wasted gas, there could be more frequent leak detection and other inspections, but it’s an important step in the right direction. Breathe Utah thinks it’s a very good, very necessary rule, that closes a lot of gaps — regulatory gaps and literal leaky gaps.”

Meanwhile a similar set of robust, diverse voices spoke up in the BLM hearing Dickinson, ND last Thursday.

“This rule is an important step towards ensuring that taxpayers and owners receive fair compensation for all resources extracted from BLM land,” — Ryan Alexander, the president of national budget watchdog organization Taxpayers for Common Sense, told the BLM in North Dakota.

Tribal communities also weighed in, a crucial constituency for a rule designed to reduce waste and pollution on both federal and tribal lands.

“I want BLM to know that tribal mineral owners like myself value safe and clean air on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation,” said Theodora Bird Bear, a tribal member of the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota.

Next Up

BLM’s proposal is a strong step toward better management of our energy resources. But there’s room for improvement especially to provisions that could and should require oil and gas companies to inspect sites for methane leaks on at least a quarterly basis as leading states require.

Join us in getting the strongest possible BLM methane rule across the finish line by filing comments before the BLM deadline on April 8.

By Jon Goldstein

These numbers don’t lie. They represent the strong support new methane waste and pollution reduction rules from the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management enjoy across the west. Methane is a potent climate pollutant and the main constituent of natural gas, so when oil and gas companies on public land allow  methane to be leaked, burned or vented to the atmosphere, it not only impacts air quality and our climate, it also represents an economic loss to taxpayers.

Here’s how this math adds up to a win for taxpayers, public health and the climate.

Two (or Three) are Better Than One

Last week the BLM kicked off its public comment process for important new rules designed to limit methane waste from oil and gas operations on Federal and Tribal lands.  The agency held hearings in Farmington, New Mexico and Oklahoma City seeking input from the public on the proposal. Despite the fact that both New Mexico and Oklahoma  are in the heart of oil and gas country, comments in support of these new rules outweighed opposing viewpoints by significant margins in both locations. More than twice as many concerned citizens in Farmington and three times as many in Oklahoma City testified in support of BLM taking action on methane.

At these hearings, Latino and Tribal voices joined public health professionals, veterans, taxpayer groups, and environmental advocates in voicing strong support for the BLM proposal. Last week, 40 current and former local elected officials representing diverse constituencies from across New Mexico also issued a letter in support of strong BLM methane rules.

Supporters out-commenting the opposition two- and three- to-one in the oil and gas patch, and dozens of elected officials endorsing sensible rules in a major oil and gas producing state are indicative of the strong, broad and diverse support that BLM’s proposal is garnering across the West. It’s not surprising then that a recent poll found that a bipartisan majority (fully 80 percent) of Westerners support commonsense rules to cut oil and gas waste on BLM managed lands.

A big reason for this support: Westerners understand that wasting our natural gas through venting, flaring and leaks not only pollutes our air and damages our climate; it shortchanges taxpayers by millions of dollars each year. BLM doesn’t collect royalty payments on natural gas that escapes to the atmosphere before being sold; therefore local communities lose out on funding that could have gone to better schools, roads and other needed infrastructure. In fact, according to a recent report, taxpayers could lose out on $800 million over the next decade as a result of the wasteful venting and flaring of natural gas.

Next Up

BLM’s proposal is a strong step toward better management of our energy resources. But there’s room for improvement especially to provisions that could and should require oil and gas companies to inspect sites for methane leaks on at least a quarterly basis as leading states require.

While some are asking for more delays, we think the time to act is now. Join us in getting the strongest possible BLM methane rule across the finish line by filing comments before the BLM deadline on April 8 and offering public testimony at the BLM’s final two public hearings in Lakewood, CO on March 1 and Dickinson, ND on March 3rd. We’ll be there, joining the fight for better climate protections, reduced waste, and cleaner air.

By Jon Goldstein

The west is rightly known for mountain views and desert vistas. Many of these landscapes are managed by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on behalf of all Americans. But something else is a major part of the region as well – tens of thousands of oil and gas wells and their associated infrastructure.

More than 90 percent of oil and gas production on BLM lands comes from the Western U.S. The tax and royalty revenue generated by this production is used to fund local infrastructure needs –schools, roads and other improvements — in rural and tribal communities. But due to outdated policies (they have not been significantly revised in 30 years), too much of our natural gas has been going to waste.  That means these communities, and American taxpayers in general, are losing out.

In fact, in 2013, oil and gas companies threw away $330 million worth of the public’s gas according to a recent report – shortchanging the communities that rely on the revenue from these resources most.

A Big Step Forward

Just last month, in an effort to more responsibly manage this public resource, the BLM began a process to update these three-decades-old oil and gas policies. Now, the public has a chance to have a voice in this process as well. Once adopted, BLM’s proposal will make significant reductions in the amount of methane that the industry is currently allowed to flare, leak, or vent into the atmosphere in massive quantities.

The proposal is a positive step for taxpayers, air quality, and our climate. Because natural gas essentially is methane, delivering gas to market (instead of the atmosphere) delivers significant royalty payments back to American taxpayers. According to a recent report, without action, the public could lose out on $800 million over the next decade as a result of wasteful venting and flaring practices. These efforts also will significantly reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas responsible for about a quarter of global warming we are experiencing today.

Covering Existing Sources

One aspect of the proposal that’s particularly powerful is its commitment to address pollution and waste occurring now. The BLM’s proposed rules will set an important precedent for the Environmental Protection Agency who so far has declined to regulate existing oil and gas wells. The BLM rule targets new as well as existing sources, the wells and equipment in use today that are contributing to the more than 7 million metric tons of methane pollution emitted by the industry nationwide each year.

BLM’s proposal is a strong step toward better management of our energy resources and tackling the issue of climate change. But there’s room for improvement. Over the next two months, BLM will solicit public comments on the proposal and we encourage the agency to consider these key elements as they finalize their rules:

1. More frequent leak inspections. Requiring operators to check their facilities for leaks on a quarterly basis will make a big dent in industry’s emissions. Colorado and Wyoming have successfully enacted similar policies on leak inspections, setting a strong precedent for BLM to level the playing field.

1. Limit the waste of federal resources due to gas flaring. The BLM proposal places a presumptive ban on venting and some restrictions on flaring of natural gas from oil wells. But the rule should make gas capture planning mandatory and binding and should place time limits on the wasteful practice.

BLM can and should act to limit methane waste and pollution from federal and tribal lands. In fact 80 percent of Westerners support commonsense rules that can cut oil and gas waste on publically owned lands. Fortunately, those voices can be heard in coming weeks as the BLM accepts public comment on the proposal and in hearings across the west. We’ll be there and we hope you will join us to fight for better climate protections, reduced waste, and cleaner air.

Photo source: Earthworks

By Jon Goldstein

When operators pull oil out of the ground, it often comes up with copious amounts of natural gas.  This “associated gas” can be captured and brought to market, creating an additional revenue source for operators.  But if no gathering infrastructure or other methods of capture are deployed, operators either vent the gas to the atmosphere or burn it off with controlled flares. Venting results in the release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Flaring results in troublesome emissions as well, including CO2 and hazardous air pollutants.

According to the Wyoming Oil and gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC), Wyoming’s oil and gas operators vented and flared more than five billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2014.  Five billion cubic feet of gas that could be sold to generate taxes and royalties, heat homes and power machinery across the country, instead was wasted.

This waste is due, in part, to lax rules in Wyoming that allow more than 90 percent of operators to vent and flare significant amounts of gas without having to apply for a permit or demonstrate an economic justification to regulators.

It makes sense, therefore, that the WOGCC would want to address this wasteful practice by placing meaningful limits on the discretion of operators to flare and vent natural gas in the Cowboy State.  Unfortunately, a new draft rule proposed by WOGCC last week falls well short of the “meaningful” benchmark.

It is important to note that in some circumstances flaring, and, to some extent, venting, are necessary in order to operate oil and gas facilities safely.   However, both practices waste an important domestic energy resource and result in air and climate pollution.  Therefore, venting and flaring should be limited to the extraordinary circumstances in which safety dictates the burning off or releasing of produced gas or in which no alternatives are economically feasible.

Under the proposal announced by WOGCC last Tuesday, operators flaring up to 60,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day (94 percent of the wells in Wyoming reporting flared or vented gas) need not even apply for a permit to do so.  And operators venting up to 30,000 cubic feet of gas per day likewise need not seek permission.  The proposal imposes no time limits on venting and flaring at these rates and it does not require operators to demonstrate economic necessity in order to get a permit for flaring above the thresholds.

While there are some good measures in the state’s proposal, such as requiring operators to submit gas capture plans with their applications to vent or flare, it is simply not strong enough to address the magnitude of the problem of venting and flaring in Wyoming and belies the state’s reputation as a leader on smart, sensible regulation of the oil and gas sector.

This has left some, like Chris Saeger of the Western Values Project to observe, "Every year, taxpayers lose tens of millions of dollars in royalties thanks to this wasteful practice, and this rule does little to nothing to address that problem."

Other states have done a better job on the issue of flaring.  In North Dakota for instance, state regulations flatly prohibit the venting of natural gas and require operators to meet the state’s gas capture goals or face oil production curtailment.

Wyoming and other jurisdictions seeking to address venting and flaring need to include the following provisions:

1. A prohibition on venting except in certain narrowly defined emergency circumstances.
2. A requirement that all flaring may be conducted only pursuant to a permit and that such permits should only be good for a finite amount of time to ensure that flaring is a temporary process, not a permeant source of waste.
3. A requirement that best flaring technologies are used (such as auto-ignitors and a 98 percent destructive rate efficiency requirement) to minimize waste and protect air quality.
4. Gas capture planning requirements that include an economic analysis to examine if flaring is necessary and if so, for how long.
5. Improve record keeping and reporting requirements to ensure vented and flared volumes are reported separately.

As Wyoming leaders look at a tough budget picture, sensible efforts to curtail flaring and end venting, while also quickly finding and fixing leaks at oil and gas production sites statewide are smart measures that can both recover more revenue from the state’s oil and gas resources as well as keep the air clean.

 

By Jon Goldstein

In case you missed it, PBS NewsHour recently took a close look at an issue EDF has been deeply involved in: oil and gas methane emissions.

PBS captured what many across the country have experienced for years – frustration with a significant waste and pollution problem. U.S. oil and gas drillers emit millions of tons of methane into the air every year. This pollution increases global warming and deteriorates air quality. As impacted rancher Don Schreiber in Gobernador, New Mexico told the reporter, the problem is “sobering.”

The climate and health impacts of unchecked methane pollution are very real, and so is another component: waste.

Methane essentially is natural gas. It’s a finite and valuable energy resource. Letting it go to waste through leaks, venting and flaring is no different than wasting money. These are real dollars we’re talking about. The market value of the gas that drillers waste each year is valued at over a billion dollars – yet it costs less than a penny per unit of gas to implement technologies and pollution controls that keep more gas in the pipeline rather than in the atmosphere. And once captured, this methane could generate tax and royalty revenue to offset impacts in the local communities that are feeling the brunt of new drilling.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules regulating emissions at new oil and gas facilities, a positive step in the right direction toward more responsible resource development. But rules on the thousands of wells already out there — so called “existing sources” — are needed as well. And now is the time to act. As reported by PBS, “natural gas production in the U.S. is on the upswing, and is expected to grow more than 50 percent over the next 25 years. That means emissions are likely to increase too, unless measures are taken to reduce them.”

The Bureau of Land Management which oversees oil and gas development on the Schreiber’s ranch and across hundreds of thousands of acres on the western U.S. is also drafting rules to reduce methane waste on federal and tribal lands. Strong action by BLM that includes sensible measures like quarterly leak inspections and addresses both new and existing wells on federal and tribal lands would go a long way toward solving this problem. Approximately 14 percent of U.S. gas production and eight percent of the oil production occurs on federal or tribal-owned lands – and a recent report found that gas wasted there is valued at more than $330 million dollars a year.

And a new, home-grown industry is standing by with solutions to this methane waste problem. As profiled by PBS, companies like Albuquerque-based Quantigy are part of a growing economic sector — the businesses that develop, manufacture and implement the technologies that increase efficiency in the oil and gas industry and reduce waste. A recent report found 76 companies nationwide that manufacture, sell, and support the proven and cost effective methane control technologies that are available today to tackle this problem. The report details a robust and diverse industry, with over 500 different U.S. locations across 46 states. And more than half of the companies in this industry are small businesses. As sensible federal rules come into place, the methane mitigation industry is poised to grow and create more of these job across the country.

As reported by PBS, we have the tools and technologies to cost-effectively reduce methane pollution – it’s time to put them to work. Families like the Schreibers deserve it.

By Jon Goldstein

Wyoming has worked to build a reputation as a leader on strong, sensible requirements to limit air pollution from oil and gas development. The state was among the first to require measures to limit pollution from newly drilled oil and gas wells (so-called “green completions”) and has been diligent in recent years to create one of the nation’s best leak detection and repair programs in the Upper Green River Basin (UGRB), a portion of the state that had been plagued with unhealthy levels of air pollution. Historically, Wyoming hasn’t waited for federal regulations, it has helped blaze the trail and let others follow.

That is what makes the state’s proposal for new statewide oil and gas air quality requirements disappointing. Wyoming is now looking at ways to reduce oil and gas emissions statewide and the state’s Air Quality Advisory Board will consider new requirements at a hearing in Cheyenne tomorrow—but frequent inspections to find and fix leaks are completely absent from the proposal. This is a problem we hope the state will quickly solve.

A growing body of scientific data and empirical evidence demonstrate that equipment malfunctions and poor maintenance are some of the leading causes of emissions from oil and gas sites. According to data reported by the oil and gas producers themselves, leaks are in the top three in Wyoming as sources of emissions of both volatile organic compounds that lead to smog formation and methane, a very potent greenhouse gas.  Frequent site inspections are the most straight-forward and effective way to reduce these emissions.

This is what the state has done in the UGRB — and it worked. In 2011, small, rural Pinedale, Wyoming made national headlines with smog concentrations on par with Los Angeles. Emissions from nearby oil and gas activity produced an uptick in ozone levels – deteriorating local air quality and putting local resident’s health at risk.

Fortunately state leaders worked fast to fix the problem. The Department of Environmental Quality put forward a smart set of policies to ensure drillers reduced their emissions. Chief among these policies was the requirement that operators check their equipment for leaks on a quarterly basis, a practice known as Leak Detection and Repair or LDAR.

The regional policy is having a positive impact. Smog levels in the basin have declined and local producers have praised the program for both its positive impact on air quality and its cost effectiveness.

Today 80 percent of drilling in Wyoming takes place outside of the UGRB – in areas of the state with the weakest air quality protections. The policies that the AQAB will consider tomorrow (such as requirements to reduce emissions from tanks, as well as during truck loading and the completion of new wells) are a step in the right direction. But they will only be a step until the state also puts in place a similar quarterly LDAR program to find and fix leaks across Wyoming.

Wyoming shouldn’t give up its role as a leader on air quality and Wyoming families living near the oil and gas fields shouldn’t have to wait for sensible leak detection and repair requirements. It’s time we get to work to ensure all residents have equal access to clean air.

 

By Jon Goldstein

It’s report card time for air quality in the U.S. and, unfortunately, several western states are getting grades of “needs improvement.” That’s the take-away from the American Lung Association’s (ALA) annual “State of the Air” report released today. When it comes to unhealthy ozone pollution (commonly referred to as “smog”), several western states are simply not making the grade.

Once mainly seen in major urban areas, smog pollution is now becoming more and more of an issue in the rural mountain west. This is bad news for local residents as smog can cause serious health impacts like aggravated asthma, chronic bronchitis, and heart attacks. At times, areas like the Upper Green River Basin in Wyoming have experienced smog levels that rival Los Angeles.

One of the main culprits?  Air pollution from oil and gas development. Ozone pollution is created by an interaction between two different sorts of air pollutants, oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).  Oil and gas development provides a significant source of both of these air contaminants across many parts of the West.

In the report released today, 14 counties across the Rocky Mountain region (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) received failing grades from the ALA due to unhealthy levels of ozone pollution and an additional six counties received “D” grades. Uintah and Duchesne counties in Utah have the dubious distinction of being ranked as the 7th and 15th most polluted counties in the nation for ozone (the only non-California and Texas counties in the top 15). These counties are also the two biggest oil producers in Utah.

Report Card Blues: ALA Report Shows Western Air Needs Improvement
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Fortunately, sensible and cost-effective measures exist to fix this problem and several states in the region are moving to put these measures into place. Specifically, Colorado passed a statewide, nationally-leading rule to substantially reduce emissions of methane and volatile organic compounds from oil and gas production. And, while more statewide action is warranted in Wyoming to address new problem areas, the Cowboy State is also at the forefront of smart air regulations finalizing requirements to reduce pollution from oil and gas sources in its Upper Green River Basin through regular leak detection inspections and other requirements. New federal rules expected this summer from the BLM and EPA will also help solve this problem.  But much work remains to be done.

As today’s report card shows, more action across the region is needed to clean up the air. It’s now time for regulators across the region to hit the books and for the region’s oil and gas operators to button up their facilities to improve the air quality for all Westerners.