by Bob Ciesielski, Atlantic Chapter Energy Committee Co-Chair
More than 10 years ago, before New York State’s ban on high-volume horizontal fracking for methane gas, Professors Anthony Ingraffea and Robert W. Howarth of Cornell University continually warned of the danger of fracked gas as a cause of global warming and climate change. These brave men published a series of their studies estimating that any release of methane into the atmosphere above 1.7% was a greater threat to global warming than burning coal. This is because the methane molecule (CH4) is 86 times more potent a greenhouse gas in retaining heat than is carbon dioxide (CO2) in the first 20 years of release to the atmosphere. Ingraffea and Howarth also estimated methane gas release from drilling, burning, and transportation of methane at 3% of the amount extracted by the high-volume horizontal fracking (HVHF) industry.
In a typical fossil fuel industry campaign of misinformation, the professors’ findings were ridiculed. Industry propaganda stated that based on its industry-wide survey of “natural gas” (the industry’s softer, more gentle description of methane) the leakage was very low. The industry accused the professors of fear mongering.
In a policy decision that aided the fracking industry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted the industry’s self-serving conclusions and determined methane leakage to be approximately 1% of the amount drilled. In another pro-industry determination, the EPA also fatefully adopted the standard that methane gas was only 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2, conveniently using the figure for methane’s potency over a 100-year time period.
As early as 2016, a worldwide independent study of methane in the atmosphere was conducted by Harvard University and many other educational institutions, utilizing satellite imagery and ground measurements. This study found that in the 12 years after the commencement of high-volume horizontal fracking for methane in the U.S., the amount of methane gas in the global atmosphere had increased by 30%. ¹
Despite this warning, methane leakage was ignored by the Trump Administration and its EPA, which operated under the falsehood that global warming and climate change is a “hoax.” The Biden Administration, acknowledging climate change is real, announced at the UN Climate Conference (COP28) in December 2023 that it would adopt policies to require gas companies to reduce methane gas leakage.
Studies and findings over the past year have fully justified the work and concerns of Professors Ingraffea and Howarth. An Environmental Defense Fund Analysis estimated U.S. pipelines leak between 1.2 million and 2.6 million tons of methane per year or 3.75 to 8 times more than EPA estimates. ²
Pipeline mishaps released 9.7 billion cubic feet of gas into the atmosphere between 2019 and 2023, according to a Reuter News Agency examination of incident report data prepared by the US Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration. These accidents are not counted by the EPA in determining methane gas leakage. ³
Aerial site measurements show American oil and natural gas, wells, pipelines and compressors are spewing three times the amount of methane gas that the federal government reports. About 3% of the US gas production is emitted into the air, compared to the EPA’s calculations of 1%. This causes $9.3 billion in yearly climate damage.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported in their March 2024 “Global Methane Tracker 2024” that large methane gas releases detected by satellites grew 50% between 2022 and 2023. With this growth in methane releases, the length of methane’s potency in the atmosphere becomes irrelevant. In 100 years, the Earth will have surpassed the chance to recover from climate change.
The importance of Professors Ingraffea and Howarth directing our energy path away from fracked methane AKA natural gas cannot be underestimated. It is up to us to continue their work and achieve the goals of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 85% by 2050. As the Climate Action Council reported, the best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to electrify our transportation, heating, and cooling systems. Please look into the many federal, state and utility financial incentives to electrify – and take action.
Footnotes:
1. “A large increase in U.S. methane emissions over the past decade inferred from satellite data and surface observation”, (Advanced Earth and Space Sciences: Geographical Research Letters, A.J. Turner et al., February 2016)
2. “Methane emissions from U.S. Gas Pipeline Leaks”, (Environmental Defense Fund, R. McVay et. Al., August 2023)
3. “U.S. natural gas pipeline accidents pose big, unreported climate threat”, (Renters, Nicholas Groom, March 8, 2024)
4. “U.S. oil and gas system emissions from nearly one million aerial site measurements”, (Nature, E.D. Sherwin, et al. March 2024); reported by Associated Press “U.S. Energy Industry Methane Emissions are Triple What Government Thinks, Study Finds”, Seth Borenstein, March 13, 2024.
5. “Global Methane Tracker 2024”, (International Energy Agency, March 2024)