There are plenty of people in the environmental community and movement that wants this to happen. There will be independent businesses that will roll out this initiative to find and mitigate the leaks. The petroleum industry has been grossly negligent in all aspect of the climate that began decades ago with lies to the public. This effort will work and methane will be controlled to end it's very severe threat to our Earth's climate.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) (click here) today announced nearly $47 million in funding for 22 research projects to advance the development of new and innovative measurement, monitoring, and mitigation technologies to help detect, quantify, and reduce methane emissions across oil and natural gas producing regions of the United States. Methane emissions are the second largest contributor to climate change—only carbon dioxide ranks ahead of methane as a greenhouse gas source. The selected projects will help to ensure an efficient, resilient, and leak-tight U.S. natural gas infrastructure and support President Biden’s U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan and the Biden-Harris Administration climate goal of a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
“Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, making methane reduction a critical part of our nation’s long-term climate solution,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The projects announced today will help DOE accelerate the deployment of technology that detects and reduces methane emissions across the oil and gas sector—our largest source of industrial methane—leading to long-lasting health and environmental benefits for communities across the country.”...
Using data from a satellite that monitors the entire planet for methane leaks and emissions, the study estimated that a gas well in Powhatan Point, damaged during a drilling operation in February 2018, leaked methane at a rate of 120 metric tons an hour for nearly 20 days. The emission rate of the Ohio leak was twice that of a widely reported 2015 gas leak at Aliso Canyon in California, and the amount of methane released was estimated to be more than some European countries emit in a typical year, according to the study....
This is also negligence of the natural resources of the United States of America. These natural resources of the USA belong to the people. The leases provided to industry to use our country's natural resources aren't strong enough to end the negligence allowed for the sake of profiteering. Why are leaks allowed to occur? Because no one says they can't. This level of negligence of the people's natural resources must end and companies held responsible in the very place they covet, the leases. The restrictions on methane leaks, all the nasty toxins of oil wells, dangerous explosions that kill employees and filthy water used by fracking can be stopped with simple words in leases and the strength of the rule of law to punish lawbreakers and jail their responsible parties including CEOs. If the rule of law was exercised and made to be vigilant over these abuses, the abuses would stop. This is all a part of environmental justice. Giving companies free reign over our nation's natural resources is wrong!
By Sid Perkins
Natural gas, long touted as a cleaner burning alternative to coal, has a leakage problem. (click here) A new study has found that leaks of methane, the main ingredient in natural gas and itself a potent greenhouse gas, are twice as big as official tallies suggest in major cities along the U.S. eastern seaboard. The study suggests many of these fugitive leaks come from homes and businesses—and could represent a far bigger problem than leaks from the industrial extraction of the fossil fuel itself.
"This is an issue that people tend to ignore when trying to estimate methane emissions," says Kathryn McKain, an atmospheric scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, who wasn't involved in the new research. When compared with the global amount of natural and human-driven methane emissions, she notes, "These emissions are small, but they're preventable."...
