The big excuse I use for my blogging absence these days is: I’m gone a lot. I was gone on my son’s 21st birthday because I was in the San Juan Basin under the mysterious cloud of methane with my boss, Bruce Baizel, and Kathleen McCleery, Special Correspondent, PBS NewsHour.
It was my second trip to Don and Jane Schreiber’s Devil’s Spring Ranch with the FLIR camera. You can see videos from my previous trip HERE. That was back before NASA discovered the San Juan Basin methane plume.
Watch the NewsHour story Why capping methane leaks is a win-win goal for industry and environmentalists and tell me if your takeaway from industry is different from mine.
Industry: Try to blame the gas on the dog not the elephant.
EDF: It’s so easy to solve this problem and rocket scientists are looking at solutions.
Note from me: Rocket scientists have been looking at solutions to this problem for over 10 years. Using those solutions to solve the problem should start any time now because our planet is burning. A couple of years ago, I started to doubt that solving this problem is as easy as they claim, or even possible.
Industry: We are hunting for and fixing leaks. But, really, it costs too much to fix them so…
Industry: To be economical, we have to leak methane.
Am I wrong?
When I took my FLIR training, I learned that industry does not allow their FLIR camera operators to record the video so there is no record of any leaks they find when they are hunting for and fixing leaks. Why do you suppose that is?
Update: this from Don Schribner made me laugh:
Thanks, Mike.And I would also like to thank Mullins for: 1) making the tax argument for us and, 2) whining about the cost of parts and then nailing the argument that the leaks are caused by failure to replace old parts and, 3) causing people to think that executives create so much in salary and overhead that a producing well could only net $800.
And also to thank Wally Dragmeister for saying, “…so people don’t only blame us.”
Here are the videos I took under the San Juan Basin methane plume at Devil’s Spring Ranch.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
- Web |
- More Posts(5121)
A good post. I am aware that the TCEQ in Texas does not prohibit, or limit, the emissions of methane to the air. Also when this methane if from raw gas sources, the “methane” may include all kinds of toxins such of H2S, mercury compounds and/or other toxic stuff.
Does the TCEQ prohibit anything?