{"id":21725,"date":"2016-09-17T15:40:22","date_gmt":"2016-09-17T20:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=21725"},"modified":"2016-09-17T15:40:22","modified_gmt":"2016-09-17T20:40:22","slug":"us-study-confirms-rapid-increase-of-methane-emissions-by-oil-and-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=21725","title":{"rendered":"US Study Confirms Rapid Increase of Methane Emissions by Oil and Gas"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article__header\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__header\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<h3 data-bind=\"title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2016\/09\/16\/Oil-Gas-Methane-Emissions\/\">US Study Confirms Rapid Increase of Methane Emissions by Oil and Gas<\/a><\/h3>\n<h4 data-bind=\"teaser\">Spike corresponds with timing of shale gas boom.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"featured-media\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"02-organisms\/article\/featured-media\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<figure class=\"figure \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-img\" src=\"http:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2016\/09\/15\/xFourCornersRegion_page_thumb_.jpg.pagespeed.ic.KprFZzbTg3.jpg\" alt=\"960px version of FourCornersRegion.jpg\" width=\"960\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">The Four Corners region of New Mexico and Colorado. Light-coloured spots are sites of gas and oil development. Credit: Flickr user Doc Searls, Creative Commons licensed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<article class=\"article__body main-col-container\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__body\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid clearfix \">\n<p class=\"lead-in\">Another U.S.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/113\/35\/9734.full\">scientific study<\/a>\u00a0has confirmed that methane emissions from oil and gas activity are increasing more rapidly than previously estimated, and that these increases were happening at the same time that the North American shale gas boom and related fracking frenzy took off.<\/p>\n<p>The latest study, one of several major scientific papers on growing global methane emissions published this past year, found that methane venting and leaks from oil and gas activity stabilized in the early 1980s and \u201890s and then dramatically escalated between 2000 and 2008.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"aside hide-on-narrow-vp\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/aside\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"fact-box\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/fact-box\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<h4 class=\"title\">BC Methane Leakage Likely Underreported<\/h4>\n<p>According to a 2012\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www2.gov.bc.ca\/assets\/gov\/environment\/climate-change\/reports-and-data\/provincial-ghg-inventory-report-bcs-pir\/pir-2012-full-report.pdf\">British Columbia Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report<\/a>\u00a0the province\u2019s natural gas industry leaked only 78,000 tonnes of methane while mining 41 billion cubic metres of gas in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>That suggests that the province\u2019s industry has a leakage rate of only 0.28 per cent, an estimate many critics find\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2014\/08\/02\/Minister-Leaky-Well-Comments\/\">inaccurate<\/a>\u00a0if not\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.corporateknights.com\/channels\/utilities-energy\/b-c-lowballing-fugitive-methane-emissions-from-natural-gas-industry-14429880\/\">unbelievable<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca\/050\/documents\/p80060\/109301E.pdf\">estimates<\/a>\u00a0the industry leaks about 1.33 per cent of its product, or five times more than what B.C.\u2019s industry currently reports.<\/p>\n<p>Recent\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/112\/7\/1941\">studies<\/a>\u00a0consistently find that fugitive emissions \u201cfrom natural gas are found to be two to three times larger than predicted by existing inventory methodologies and industry reports.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u00a0<em>Andrew Nikiforuk<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cOverall fossil fuel emissions didn\u2019t change a lot until 2000, and then it really ramps up,\u201d reported Andrew Rice, a climate scientist at Portland State University.<\/p>\n<p>Although the timing corresponds with the shale gas and fracking boom, the study did not identify shale gas sources or distinguish emissions from hydraulic fracturing in North America from other fugitive fossil fuel sources.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"aside \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/aside\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<section class=\"messaging-block messaging-block--ask\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/messaging-block--ask\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<h3><\/h3>\n<\/section>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"ad-box ad-box--bigbox\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/ad-box\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\"><\/aside>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Study Confirms Rapid Increase of Methane Emissions by Oil and Gas Spike corresponds with timing of shale gas boom. The Four Corners region of New Mexico and Colorado. Light-coloured spots are sites of gas and oil development. Credit: Flickr user Doc Searls, Creative Commons licensed. Another U.S.\u00a0scientific study\u00a0has confirmed that methane emissions from oil [&hellip;]<\/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":[4],"tags":[5549,14317,328,7437,1729,14316,5499],"class_list":["post-21725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-andrew-nikiforuk","tag-fossil-fuel-emissions","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-methane-emissions","tag-oil-and-gas-industry","tag-shale-gas-boom","tag-the-tyee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21725","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=21725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21726,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21725\/revisions\/21726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}