Sunday, January 12, 2025

Appalachia Likely Largest Source of Methane Emission in US

If it were its own country, Appalachia would be the third-largest producer of natural gas in the world, behind only Russia and the rest of the United States. And, as new measurements reveal, Appalachia is likely the source of more system-wide fossil fuel methane emissions than any other region in the United States.

Posted by LampLighter at 11:31 AM | 8 COMMENTS | permalink

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Natural gas is mostly methane and it is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a one-hundred-year period (and more than 86 times as potent over the first two decades), which presents a serious threat to climate stability.

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More from the article ...

... Methane escapes from both natural gas wells and underground coal mines, even those that have been long out of service. The estimates come from Kayrros, a global assets observation platform that monitors and measures energy and natural resource activity worldwide using advanced mathematics and data gathered by satellites.

Worrisome as they are, the findings may actually understate Appalachia's role in methane emissions as they pre-date a November 2022 "super-emitting" event in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, when a natural gas storage well was discovered to be gushing methane into the environment.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection estimated that the site allowed a staggering 1.29 billion cubic feet of gas, equivalent to roughly 20,000 metric tons of methane, to escape into the air. The single leak effectively erased emissions gains from about half of the 656,000 electric vehicles sold in the US last year. ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-01-10 08:13 PM

That's Mar-A-Lardo.

#2 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2025-01-10 11:25 PM

Appalachia has this to crow about in addition to leading the country in deaths of despair.

#3 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2025-01-12 03:40 PM

@#3 ... Appalachia has this to crow about ...

Not just Appalachia, but also the GOP which seems to have been purchased by Big Oil regarding climate change.


#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-01-12 07:25 PM

Reagan and Big Oil (1981)
newrepublic.com

... The big oil companies finally have a friend in the White House. Ronald Reagan has already sped decontrol of crude oil prices and set the wheels in motion for a new natural as deregulation effort.

A president who genuinely believes that pro-industry policies will cure the nation's energy ills comes as a welcome relief to the industry after four years of Jimmy Carter's strident assaults.

But both Reagan and big oil should bear in mind that their cozy relationship is full of political peril. ... ...


#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-01-12 07:32 PM

Methane bleeds out of the atmosphere and into space in 10-12 years. It's why it rarely comes up. CO2 takes a very long time to bleed out of the atmosphere which is why it's the greenhouse gas that is the focus.

#6 | Posted by BellRinger at 2025-01-12 10:01 PM

@#6 ... Methane bleeds out of the atmosphere and into space in 10-12 years. ...

But what happens before it "bleeds out into space?"

That "bleeds out" comment seems to imply that there is a build-up of methane in the atmosphere because it takes methinae 10-12 years to dissipate.

Good to know.


#7 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-01-12 10:08 PM

Methane doesn't bleed out into space. It converts to CO2

gml.noaa.gov

#8 | Posted by Miranda7 at 2025-01-12 11:22 PM

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