{"id":10747,"date":"2015-08-05T06:31:22","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T11:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10747"},"modified":"2015-08-05T06:31:22","modified_gmt":"2015-08-05T11:31:22","slug":"key-greenhouse-gas-study-may-have-systematically-understated-methane-leaks-new-research-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10747","title":{"rendered":"Key Greenhouse Gas Study May Have “Systematically Understated” Methane Leaks, New Research Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Key Greenhouse Gas Study May Have “Systematically Understated” Methane Leaks, New Research Shows<\/a><\/h3>\n

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A widely cited study on the amount of methane leaking from oil and gas sites, including fracked wells, shows signs of a major flaw, a newly published peer-reviewed paper\u00a0concludes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University of Texas reported on a campaign to measure methane emissions from United States natural gas production sites as part of an improved national inventory,\u201d researcher Touch\u00e9 Howard wrote in a\u00a0paper<\/a>published today in the journal\u00a0Energy Science\u00a0&<\/span>\u00a0Engineering<\/em>. \u201cUnfortunately, their study appears to have systematically underestimated\u00a0emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The University of Texas study, the first in a 16-part research series\u00a0backed by<\/a>\u00a0the oil and gas industry and the Environmental Defense Fund , had been\u00a0hailed<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cunprecedented\u201d when it was published in October 2013.\u00a0 The drilling industry and its supporters cited it as clear-cut evidence that methane leaks were lower than previously believed and falling further due to new technology.<\/p>\n

The study’s key contribution to the science on methane leaks was that researchers were allowed to access to oil and gas wells, including 27 wells where fracking was underway, and test individual pieces of equipment. \u201cThis is actual data, and it\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve had the opportunity to get actual data from unconventional natural gas development,\u201d Mark Brownstein, an Environmental Defense Fund associate vice president,\u00a0told FuelFix<\/a>\u00a0when the\u00a0UT<\/span>\u00a0study was\u00a0published.<\/p>\n

But the problem stems from the tool that the University of Texas study used to collect its data \u2013 which can malfunction when leaks are spewing at high rates. The \u201cUniversity of Texas study underestimates national methane emissions at natural gas production sites due to instrument sensor failure,\u201d Mr. Howard, who invented the basic technology used by that instrument,\u00a0wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Key Greenhouse Gas Study May Have “Systematically Understated” Methane Leaks, New Research Shows A widely cited study on the amount of methane leaking from oil and gas sites, including fracked wells, shows signs of a major flaw, a newly published peer-reviewed paper\u00a0concludes. \u201cThe University of Texas reported on a campaign to measure methane emissions from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[141,5317,7436,328,369,5316,2614,1729],"class_list":["post-10747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-desmog-blog","tag-environmental-defense-fund","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-global-warming","tag-methane","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-oil-and-gas-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10748,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10747\/revisions\/10748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}