Energy Exchange: Methane
Pipeline damage prevention: A win-win for safety and the environment
4 years 8 months ago
By Mishal Thadani, Director of Market Development and Policy, Urbint Every year in the United States, 400,000 excavation projects damage underground infrastructure like water and gas pipes and electric and cable lines. A strategic mix of best practices, good policy and artificial intelligence will drive that number down. One of the advantages of burying critical […]
EDF Blogs
New analysis shows golden opportunity for New Mexico to dramatically reduce oil and gas methane pollution
4 years 9 months ago
By Jon Goldstein and Hillary Hull A new EDF analysis reveals that, over the next five years, New Mexico policymakers have the opportunity to eliminate up to 60% of methane emissions stemming from the oil and gas industry by implementing a suite of nationally leading controls. Methane is a potent climate pollutant and the main […]
EDF Blogs
Can fossil fuel companies find a place in a climate-friendly world?
4 years 9 months ago
We have to transform our energy system to avert the worst impacts of climate change. And if oil and gas companies want a place in that future, they must transform themselves—or else be consigned to history. Is it realistic to think fossil fuel companies could be part of the solution? Plenty of reasonable people say […]
Fred Krupp
Trump’s EPA moves one step closer to dangerous proposal to eliminate methane pollution standards
4 years 10 months ago
By Rosalie Winn Over the last several weeks, widespread reporting has documented the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change. Recent reports have shown White House attempts to block a senior state department official’s testimony on climate change, and documents that EDF recently obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests show […]
EDF Blogs
Industrial methane emissions are underreported, study finds
4 years 10 months ago
By Amanda Garris Emissions of methane from the industrial sector have been vastly underestimated, researchers from Cornell and Environmental Defense Fund have found. Using a Google Street View car equipped with a high-precision methane sensor, the researchers discovered that methane emissions from ammonia fertilizer plants were 100 times higher than the fertilizer industry’s self-reported estimate. They […]
EDF Blogs
Three key questions for EU policymakers considering the sustainability of gas
4 years 10 months ago
In response to DG Energy’s invitation that the European gas industry investigate the ways it can contribute to the reduction of methane, a powerful climate pollutant, two prominent trade groups issued a new report to inform policy discussions around the 2020 gas package – also touted as the decarbonisation package – ahead of the 32nd […]
Poppy Kalesi
Industry’s shift on methane must continue
4 years 11 months ago
Put aside any notion that oil and gas industry leaders might be growing less focused about methane. Whether motivated by economics or pressure from major investors, the overwhelming impression we’ve had at major industry gatherings this year has been just how deeply methane emissions have permeated the conversation. At some moments, this year’s CERAWeek felt […]
Mark Brownstein
The Oil & Gas Methane Partnership is a valuable forum for companies aiming to earn public trust
4 years 11 months ago
Once considered a niche environmental concern, methane emissions have emerged as a strategic issue for oil and gas companies around the world. The reason is simple: methane emissions from human activities account for over one quarter of our planetary warming today, and the global oil and gas industry is responsible for nearly 30% of this. […]
Mark Brownstein
Does new NOAA study really show that methane emissions have been overestimated? No.
4 years 11 months ago
By David Lyon and Stefan Schwietzke A new study published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters sheds useful light on some of the technical challenges involved in understanding past trends in methane emissions, but the reporting by industry groups and some media outlets describes conclusions that are at odds with what the researchers […]
EDF Blogs
New Mexico’s million-ton methane problem
5 years ago
By Jon Goldstein and David Lyon You can’t see what you don’t look for. That axiom is at the heart of the problem with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) methane emission estimates. It is also why a new analysis based on empirical data and cutting-edge science finds a far larger methane emissions problem in New […]
EDF Blogs
What the world’s largest provider of oilfield services has to say about innovation and regulation
5 years ago
Here is something you don’t hear every day: oil and gas methane regulations can reinforce innovation and leadership. Numerous new methods to reduce oil and gas methane emissions are being developed; and regulators, environmentalists, oil companies and innovators are working together to craft a new way for innovation to be recognized and rewarded. I interviewed […]
Aileen Nowlan
Investors urge companies to support methane regulations. Are they listening?
5 years ago
Over the past few weeks, companies like BP, Equinor, Exxon and Shell have publicly stated their support for direct federal regulation of methane. It is not every day that a company asks for more rules rather than less. What’s one of the driving forces behind these public position reversals? Investors. Investors have been an important […]
Kate Gaumond
Momentum building on methane, Europe’s climate blind spot
5 years 1 month ago
In a new resolution on the European Union’s (EU) net-zero strategy, the European Parliament once again acknowledged the political urgency for legislation on what has, to date, been Europe’s climate blind spot: methane emissions. This vote on March 14, is the fourth significant development in the space of the last six months, raising expectations that […]
Poppy Kalesi
Report reveals heavy burden of energy waste, methane emissions on Navajo communities
5 years 1 month ago
By Matt Miccioli, EDF Stanford Schneider Fellow A recent study of oil and gas methane emissions on the Navajo Nation reveals companies operating on tribal lands pollute 65 percent more than the national average, wasting millions in tribal resources every year and underscoring the opportunity for tribal leaders to reduce emissions. The analysis, conducted by […]
EDF Blogs
Industry momentum builds for nationwide methane regulation
5 years 1 month ago
Oil and gas companies in the United States are the latest to add their voices to the broad set of stakeholders supporting federal regulation of methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector. These companies have a major responsibility to reduce methane emissions, a key step in the energy transition. This week in Houston, […]
Ben Ratner
EDF and ExxonMobil discuss technology and regulation to reduce methane emissions
5 years 1 month ago
Since 2017, ExxonMobil has expanded its U.S. methane leak detection program, committed to its first global methane target, supported methane monitoring technology innovation and encouraged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate methane emissions at new and existing sources. Although Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and ExxonMobil are not always aligned on certain important issues, […]
Ben Ratner
Challenge, opportunity as China begins to tackle fossil fuel methane emissions
5 years 1 month ago
By Hanling Yang and Stefan Schwietzke Even as China races to reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and conventional air pollutants from across its growing economy, new concerns are arising over methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. The latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC) Special Report confirms that deep reductions in […]
EDF Blogs
Fixing regulatory pitfalls could reduce methane emissions
5 years 1 month ago
A version of this piece originally ran in Scientific American. Methane has long been recognized as a potent greenhouse gas, but preventing its escape from industrial facilities has only recently become a prominent goal. The oil and gas industry, for example, is a large emitter, and research (including some by scientists at the Environmental Defense Fund) […]
Aileen Nowlan
API attacks on methane safeguards contradict science and drag the industry backwards
5 years 2 months ago
By Rosalie Winn Methane is a powerful pollutant responsible for more than 25 percent of climate change we experience today—and the oil and gas sector is the largest industrial source of methane emissions. Recent scientific evidence only underscores the importance of addressing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. Unfortunately, at the request of […]
EDF Blogs
Satellites become valuable new tool for governments, industry to cut emissions
5 years 2 months ago
For years, people used satellites to observe the Earth’s climate. Now, orbital sensing offers a crucial new way to protect it, by giving us new abilities to identify, measure, and ultimately verify cuts in emissions of methane – a highly potent greenhouse gas. Two new pieces of research led by EDF scientists demonstrate the growing […]
Mark Brownstein
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