Fracking and Shale Drilling Caused Spike in Climate-Warming Methane Pollution, Says New Study

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Climate-changing pollution reached unprecedented levels in 2018. That’s both judged against the last 60 years of modern measurements and against 800,000 years of data culled from ice cores, according to the U.S. governmentโ€™s State of the Climate report, which wasย published this week with the American Meteorologicalย Society.

That pollutionย creates a greenhouse effect that is over 42 percent stronger than it was in 1990, the reportย added.

And while carbon dioxide hit a new level last year, it isn’tย the only climate-changing gas thatโ€™s on the rise globally. Pollution of the powerful but short-lived greenhouse gas methane also climbed in 2018, showing an increase โ€œhigher than the average growth rate over the past decade,โ€ the reportย adds.

A new Cornell University study published today in theย scientific journal Biogeosciences helps to explain what sparked the surge in those methane concentrations, both here in the U.S. and around theย world.

One big culprit: shale drilling andย fracking.

โ€œThis recent increase in methane is massive,โ€ said Cornell professor Robert Howarth, who authored that study. โ€œItโ€™s globally significant. Itโ€™s contributed to some of the increase in global warming weโ€™ve seen and shale gas is a majorย player.โ€

The new Cornell paper relies on โ€œchemical fingerprintsโ€ of the methane pollution in the Earthโ€™s atmosphere. It describes how methane molecules from shale gas and oil production carry different kindsย of carbon than methane from either conventional natural gas drilling or coal beds. The methane moleculesย from shale drilling containย less of the carbon-13 isotope versusย carbon-12, the study suggests, using this ratio as one way to hone in on the source of the naturalย gas.

That chemical fingerprint led the Cornell researchers to point to the shale industry as the major source of theย leaks.

Earlier studies โ€œerroneously concludedโ€ that the cause of rising methane pollution was โ€œbiological,โ€ Howarth said in a statement on the new paper. But methane from cows or wetlands can also be distinguished from methane from fossil fuels based on its carbon-13 content โ€” allowing the Cornell researchers to conclude that the rise in methane pollution we see now did not come from biological sources but instead came from the frackingย rush.

The vast majority of new naturalย gas production over the past decade has come from shale drilling and fracking in North America. The climate impacts, however, spreadย worldwide.

Understanding the source of that natural gas allows policy-makers to take the most effective actions possible โ€” if thereโ€™s the political will toย act.

And the good news is that methane pollution, while extraordinarily powerful compared to CO2,ย also breaks down in the atmosphere much faster, Howarthย said.

โ€œReducing methane now can provide an instant way to slow global warming and meet the United Nationsโ€™ target of keeping the planet well below a 2-degree Celsius average rise,โ€ Howarth said, referring to the 2015 Parisย Agreement.

Permianย Pollution

permian shale oil and gas fields near Midland, Texas
Oil and gas fields
ย pock the land around Midland, Texas, in the Permian shale.ย 
Credit: EcoFlight,ย CCย BYย 2.0

Named after a geologic period that ended in the worst mass extinction in global history, the Permian basin today is a place where oil and gas drillers routinely and deliberately allow methane โ€” also known as natural gas or shale gas โ€” to leak into the air, a practice called โ€œventingโ€ in theย industry.

This year saw record-smashing levels of venting, as well as flaring โ€” when drillers light the methane leaks on fire in an attempt toย turn methane into CO2 by burning it, somewhat reducing the greenhouse gasย pollution.

Every day, drillers flared and vented up to 661 million cubic feet of methane a day in the Permian, a study published this summer by Rystad Energyย concluded.

โ€œWhile oil production in the Permian dipped at the beginning of the year, gas production in the basin has remained healthy, with steadily increasing production as the driving force behind increased venting and flaring,โ€ said Artem Abramov, head of shale research at Rystad, adding that levels were unlikely to fall until at least October of thisย year.

The Bakken shale, however, was not far behind the Permian in methane pollution, spewing out 500 million cubic feet of methane a day in the first three months ofย 2019.

Thatโ€™s about 12 billion cubic feet of wasted natural gas per year โ€” enough to have supplied entire nations for a year, the report adds, listing Israel, Romania,ย and Colombia as examples. In 2018, drillers flared off enough natural gas to meet the demand of every household in Texas โ€” but instead, that natural gas was burned as a wasteย product.

Among the worst offenders areย the worldโ€™s largest oil and gas drilling companies. While the average driller flared off roughly 5 percent of its gas, ExxonMobil flared roughly 8 percent, Rystadย found.

Oil giant BP racked up an even worse record. โ€œAbout 18 percentย of the gas produced on BPโ€™s acreage in the Permian was either flared or released directly into the air during this yearโ€™s first quarter, compared with an average of 5 percent across the region, according to a Rystad Energy analysis of public data,โ€ the Wall Street Journal reported lastย week.

Even shale executives have called forย action.

โ€œItโ€™s a black eye for the Permian basin,โ€ Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield said at an energy conference at Columbia Universityย in April. โ€œThe state, the pipeline companies, and the producers โ€” we all need to come together to figure out a way to stop theย flaring.โ€

But the Texas Railroad Commission โ€” the stateโ€™s oil and gas regulator, charged with protecting the environment โ€” has continued to allow companies that say they have no gas pipeline access to vent or flare away their methane so they can drill forย oil.

โ€œFlaring is a critical part of the well construction process and it is important companies be able to continue to use this tool,โ€ Railroad Commission Chairman Wayne Christian said in a statement this week. His comments came in response toย the commission’s rulingย that oil driller EXCOย Resources would be allowed to continue drilling over the objection of the pipeline company, Williams, that sought to carry that gas to market. EXCOย had argued to the commission that it lacked pipeline access because it was cheaper to flare the natural gas than to buy space on theย pipeline.

โ€œThe railroad commission routinely approves thousands of uncontested flaring permits a year after energy companies state thereโ€™s no available pipeline,โ€ the Journal of Petroleum Technology, which covered the EXCOย case, found.

Reports on the ground suggest that methane leaks in Texas may be even worse than the industry hasย reported.

โ€œNobodyโ€™s watching, so they [the companies] can take all the shortcuts they want to,โ€ Earthworks organizer Sharon Wilson told the Wall Street Journal in July. Of the over 100 methane leak complaints Earthworks filed in Texas and New Mexico since 2018, state regulators had by July fined drillers or required repairs in less than 10 percent of cases, Earthworks estimated to theย Journal.

Climate Continues toย Warm

National Guard carries a girl through floodwaters
Soldiers carry a young girl through deep water to load her onto a light multi-terrain vehicle during severe flooding in Wharton, Texas, April 21, 2016.ย Credit: Texas Army National Guard/1st Lt. Zachary West,ย publicย domain

With the oil and gas business moving ahead as usual, the global climate has continued to warmย rapidly.

In 2018, the U.S. experienced 14 separate weather and climate disasters that each caused over $1 billion in damage, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And that has beenย followed this year by six additional billion-dollar disasters on the same scale, as of Julyย 9.

Artic sea ice has continued to melt, reaching โ€œa new record lowโ€ in July, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and has included particularly strong melting of the Greenland iceย sheet.

For residents of Greenland, the warm weather has caused fear and anxiety, according to a surveyย led by University of Copenhagen social scientist Kelton Minor and published on Augustย 11.

โ€œMy father is a fisher and hunter, and it is hard for our family that he cannot hunt animals like when I was little, and I miss that. I miss dog sledding and fishing on the ice, and just like our culture, the animals that we hunt are disappearing slowly, and now I cannot teach my son like my father taught me,โ€ one survey respondent told theย researchers.

Others say that, when it comes to communicating about climate change, itโ€™s important to bear in mind that there is still time to act to prevent the worst potentialย impacts.

โ€œClimate change cannot become yet another doomsday narrative,โ€ Sheril Kirshenbaum, executive director of Science Debate, wrote in a recent Scientific American op-ed. Kirshenbaum’s piece appeared in a column pushing back against an interpretation of the United Nationsโ€™ย dire warnings that just over a decade remains for taking decisive action to slow the climate crisis (misleadingly interpreted in some circles as โ€œ12 years until weโ€™re doomed,โ€ in the words of Foxย News).

โ€œIt’s far too important and deadly serious. Climate change deserves to be addressed with a level of gravity that spurs informed policies, thoughtful planning, and dedicated leadership at the local, national, and global scale,โ€ย wroteย Kirshenbaum.

With that in mind, scientists say that one of the fastest and most effective ways to act is to slash methane releases โ€” both accidental leaks and deliberate flaring and venting โ€” into theย air.

โ€œIf we can stop pouring methane into the atmosphere, it will dissipate,โ€ Howarth said. โ€œIt goes away pretty quickly, compared to carbon dioxide. Itโ€™s the low-hanging fruit to slow globalย warming.โ€

Main image: A gas flare in the Permian basin near Midland, Texas. Credit: ยฉ 2017 Lauraย Evangelisto

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Sharon Kelly is an attorney and investigative reporter based in Pennsylvania. She was previously a senior correspondent at The Capitol Forum and, prior to that, she reported for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Earth Island Journal, and a variety of other print and online publications.

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