‘Catastrophe’ Claim Adds Fuel to Methane Debate (via Climate Central)
By Bobby Magill Follow @bobbymagill A Cornell University scientist’s claims that oil and gas development is so harmful to the climate that methane emissions and oil and gas production in general need to be cut back immediately to avoid a “global catastrophe…
This post was republished using Repost. Please read it on Informed Comment directly: https://www.juancole.com/2014/05/actually-cornell-scientist.html
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Related video:
The Intersection Between Hydraulic Fracturing and Climate Change: 6 min video
But… But… Energy Independence! Jobs! Leveraged Profits! No personal consequences for pesky externalities that won’t likely hit until after I’m dead! What’s not to go all in for?
interconnects for high voltage electrical are also lossy. Energy should be generated at the point of use wherever feasible.
I blogged this, as one of many issues, in 2011, in a post titled:
Your Infrastructure Will Be Your Undoing. The estimates at that time was a 30% gas loss-to-the-atmosphere between ‘regeneration’ (re-pressurization etc) stations. Also, as added bonus those regeneration stations will be ubiquitous and as seen with the investigation into the San Bruno ‘blowout’ , the infrastructure is decrepit by design b/c corruption and the cost-control requisite lax inspection standards… from pipe speccing and manufacture to any given point in it’s (as the recent building blow up in NY demonstrates) century or more of usage.
Jesus, we really are running out of places to run. I can’t believe that the natural gas industry wastes so much product – but then I recall the nature of their game: drill, deplete, move on very rapidly, while pretending in the media that it’s a steady, durable flow. Waste doesn’t matter when the money is in appearing attractive to new investors.
I saw an article in Scientific American about how brine, the liquid in gas wells, holds methane in solution, and researchers were trying to figure out how to remove the methane, burn it for electricity, and put the CO2 back into the brine solution all in one process. I wonder if all this could be done deep underground, connecting the electricity to the grids already being extended nearby for wind turbines in TX.
The Russians are planning big increases in gas exploration and production. One can imagine how sensitive they are to arguments about methane leaks, etc.