New satellites alone won’t stop the methane climate crisis
New regulations and satellites like MethaneSat are unlikely to reduce methane emissions; instead, the economics of the natural gas industry will continue to delay needed reductions.
Flames rising from a flare stack at an oil refinery in Kentucky, USA
Bloomberg Creative/Getty Images
In March, a SpaceX rocket launched MethaneSat, a joint US-New Zealand project. Satellite Network The new satellite will orbit Earth, already detecting methane emissions from oil and gas production on the planet. 15 times a dayDetect greenhouse gas emissions from drilling sites and pipelines around the world.
But the Texas oil fields on the ground show that the technology’s promise falls short of the rapid reductions in methane emissions needed to slow climate change.
The United States leads the world in natural gas use, nearly 2 times Natural gas is 85-90% methane and is produced primarily through hydraulic fracturing, a process that breaks open shale rocks deep underground to release the gas. The success of hydraulic fracturing has made the United States the world’s largest producer of natural gas. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) ExportsBut there are drawbacks: not only does it release carbon dioxide when burned, but methane itself is a much more potent greenhouse gas, producing 80 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide (albeit with a much shorter atmospheric lifetime). Methane is a contributor at least 30 percent Global Warming in General The Industrial Revolution began. The U.S. oil and gas industry Top Emitter Methane is the main cause of global warming. Methane emergency.
Supporting science journalism
If you enjoyed this article, please support our award-winning journalism. Subscribe. By purchasing a subscription, you help ensure a future of influential stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping the world today.
In response, the United States implemented new federal regulations this year to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas. Unfortunately, these new regulations and promises made by satellites like MethaneSat will not translate into emissions reductions, but rather will delay the start of the phase-out of fossil fuels, which is the only practical way to limit methane emissions.
The tools now available to track large sources of methane emissions from oil and gas production are already in place in parts of the Permian oil region of Texas and New Mexico. 86,000 square miles Stretching from Big Spring, Texas to Carlsbad, New Mexico Primary Source Reducing methane emissions. We have been tracking ground-based emissions with optical gas imaging cameras for years. We know that despite significant improvements in our ability to track and identify emissions sources, industry practices that emit methane into the atmosphere have not stopped. Unfortunately, powerful economic incentives are prolonging this process.
During a visit to the Permian near Midland, Texas, in mid-March, natural gas prices were negative, meaning that a basic supply-demand problem meant oil and gas producers were having to pay to take the gas away instead of selling it.Increased gas volume, The amount of gas produced there is greater than customers want to buy. Mass Emissions Event Oil and gas production facilities were emitting methane gas that at the time had negative economic value: it was cheaper for the companies to release it than to sell it, meaning we all ended up paying the cost of their pollution.
This is a serious, and perhaps fatal, flaw in efforts to reduce and stop methane emissions and flaring in the Permian. If industry invested in new equipment, it could potentially capture up to 40% of methane emissions, the report said. International Energy Agency The IEA also estimated that revenues from selling captured methane could fund infrastructure investments for industry around the world. Consistently low gas prices In the Permian, this incentive does not exist in Texas and New Mexico.
Such a solution is unlikely to come to fruition, as the oil industry is a profit-driven industry and has no economic incentive to capture methane, a finding confirmed in a study published in the journal Nature in July 2023. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Satellite observation of methane emissions and When will emissions increase sharply? It correlates with a “sharp drop” in local natural gas prices.
In theory, regulations could curb this behavior, but history shows that enforcement of regulations against the powerful oil and gas industry is rarely successful. In 2021, New Mexico passed methane regulations that ban the routine flaring and venting of natural gas, a measure that in theory would have eliminated most methane emissions. Analysis by Capital & Main It showed that methane emissions have gotten significantly worse since the regulations were implemented.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico Department of Environmental Quality The results were announced The company conducted joint inspections of 124 oil and gas facilities in New Mexico and found violations at 60 percent of the facilities, including those owned by Exxon subsidiary XTO and oil giant Chevron.
“Federal and state oil and gas survey results are only 40 percent [percent] “Improving compliance is a major challenge for the state,” New Mexico Environment Cabinet Secretary James Kenney said in a statement. “As the impacts of climate change hit our state and our air quality worsens, we have no choice but to increase penalties on polluters until we see a commitment to change behavior.”
The oil and gas industry has proven that it’s business as usual when it comes to methane emissions, continuing to pollute in exchange for bigger profits. While the public is finally getting access to satellite data on methane emissions, the oil and gas industry has been getting information from private companies for years. Instead of using that information to work with governments to stop the pollution, the industry Support the lawsuit Challenge new regulations.
You don’t need a satellite to see the problem. What we saw during multiple visits to the Permian this year was worse than usual conditions. We fear that current plans and policies to address this problem are set up to fail, and with the world’s climate in crisis, that’s an unacceptable outcome. It’s clear that the only viable way to address methane emissions is strong, courageous government intervention to rapidly build clean energy resources while phasing out oil and gas production.
This is an opinion and analysis article and the views of the author are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
