For many years, pure gasoline has been touted as a safer local weather different to fossil fuels reminiscent of coal. Even the phrase “pure” suggests its alignment with sustainability targets — a misnomer that has, till just lately, largely flown underneath the radar of public scrutiny. However factoring in methane releases from unintentional leaks and intentional venting all through the pure gasoline provide chain rapidly calls these local weather protected credentials into query.

Proponents of pure gasoline usually cite that it emits 50 p.c much less of the local weather pollutant carbon dioxide (CO2) than coal, based mostly on its end-use combustion alone. That CO2 calculation provides rise to the Environmental Safety Company’s (EPA) 2021 report that US greenhouse gasoline (GHG) emissions “continued downward largely because of the rising use of pure gasoline and renewables to generate electrical energy rather than extra carbon-intensive fuels.”

The Actuality

Pure gasoline and coal have important life-cycle emissions of CO2 and different local weather pollution like methane all through their provide chains from extraction to finish use. Many coal-to-natural gasoline comparisons think about solely end-use combustion, factoring in emissions from an influence plant or dwelling furnace. This leaves out complete GHG life-cycle emissions created by extracting, transport, and processing pure gasoline and coal. In actuality, methane leakages drive emissions parity between gasoline and coal, particularly via the gasoline provide chain.

Why methane is low-hanging fruit

Methane contains roughly 70 to 90 p.c of gasoline. So, when pure gasoline leaks, largely methane is launched. As a local weather pollutant, methane is over 80-times stronger than CO2 throughout a 20-year interval.

Whereas CO2 has dominated mainstream conversations about local weather change and emissions discount methods, tackling methane can ship larger reductions, at decrease prices, sooner. In comparison with the extra advanced world methods to slash CO2 emissions for a safer local weather future, slicing methane is low-hanging fruit. To place that chance in perspective, minimizing US methane leakage could be equal to taking all US automobiles off the highway for a yr.

New RMI evaluation has definitively calculated gasoline’s world life-cycle emissions (from extraction all the way in which to finish use) and in contrast these to coal’s world life-cycle emissions. This evaluation provides customers the instruments to meaningfully evaluate coal-gas emissions based mostly on quantitative knowledge somewhat than qualitative assumptions. The article printed within the scientific journal Environmental Analysis Letters concludes that leaky gasoline is as damaging to the local weather as coal. We verify previous research that evaluate gasoline to coal combustion and discover that two p.c methane launch places gasoline’s local weather danger on par with coal. Nonetheless, when contemplating the online emissions from all pure gasoline and coal greenhouse gases (together with CO2, methane, and sulfur dioxide), the local weather danger for pure gasoline and coal is on par at simply 0.2 p.c methane leakage.

Fuel leakage has been documented extensively by the media over the previous couple of years. Ongoing aerial surveys and a rising constellation of satellites are discovering that methane leaks are way more frequent and intense than beforehand assumed. Huge methane plumes make it clear that manufacturing gear alone can persistently leak past that 0.2 p.c threshold. And the 0.2 p.c leakage fee thought of by business and EPA just isn’t low sufficient. Tighter methane detection and reporting shall be crucial to guard the local weather.

The place methane reveals up within the gasoline provide chain

Emissions of methane from the gasoline provide chain fall into two fundamental classes: unintentional and intentional releases.

Unintentional releases of methane into the ambiance come from the malfunctioning of gasoline area gear like properly pads, valves, and compressor stations. Catastrophic failures, like properly blowouts can pump tons of of tons of methane into the ambiance for weeks or months. The identical goes for gasoline pipelines. The September 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosion launched over a half million tons of the local weather pollutant over the course of per week, making entrance web page information. However many methane releases go unnoticed except a methane-detecting satellite tv for pc or sensor occurs to make them seen.

Intentional releases are predominantly linked to venting and flaring. Flaring is the time period used for burning off undesirable gasoline within the oil and gasoline system. Incomplete combustion of that gasoline results in its launch into the ambiance as methane. Current research have proven that unlit or inefficient flares are releasing 5 instances extra methane than beforehand thought.

Stopping methane on the supply: it’s low cost and straightforward

The most recent knowledge replace from RMI’s Oil Local weather Index plus Fuel webtool (OCI+) assessing a majority of worldwide gasoline and oil property from 2015 to 2022 reveals that methane drives one-half of oil and gasoline business GHG emissions. Fortuitously, strategic interventions to chop methane emissions within the pure gasoline provide chain are comparatively easy and value efficient in comparison with the complexity and expense of decarbonizing the worldwide economic system. Prohibiting venting and routine flaring and incorporating routine gear fixes and upgrades into upkeep plans can considerably lower methane emissions from manufacturing websites.

Emissions transparency all through oil and pure gasoline provide chains might help policymakers and business leaders act on particular interventions and emissions discount options to cease methane leakage and wasted gasoline. Business motion may additionally increase earnings by incomes premium pricing for low-emissions pure gasoline and avoiding regulatory fines just like the Inflation Discount Act’s Methane Price.

Pure gasoline produced and delivered for shopper finish use with zero leakage has 30 p.c fewer greenhouse gasoline emissions than coal. So long as this fossil gas stays within the world power combine, it’s important that business management mixed with sturdy coverage, monetary incentives, and know-how innovation are urgently utilized to chop methane throughout the pure gasoline provide chain. On this decisive decade, the place a 50 p.c lower in greenhouse gasoline emissions is required throughout the worldwide economic system to stay on monitor for a safer local weather future, methane cuts are an instantly actionable step to stop waste and keep away from disaster.

By Deborah Gordon, Shannon Hughes

© Rocky Mountain Institute. Printed with permission. Initially posted on RMI.

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