Aaron Clark Profile picture
Dec 13 11 tweets 4 min read
While diplomats in Egypt were negotiating the #COP27 agreement last month to help poor nations cope with the crippling impact of a warmer planet, one of the biggest US climate disasters in recent years was unfolding in a rural corner of #Pennsylvania: 1/11
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

A leak from a 1 5/8-inch vent on a natural gas storage well operated by @EquitransMid was discovered on Nov. 6 and lasted for 13 days, during which more than 1 billion cubic feet of the fossil fuel escaped. 2/11
The primary component of natural gas is #methane, which has a devastating impact on the climate if released directly into the atmosphere where it has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in its first two decades. 3/11
That single release effectively erased a year's worth of emissions gains from about half of the 656,000 electric vehicles sold in the US last year. 4/11
The incident is one of the biggest blows to the credibility of the US gas industry since the Aliso Canyon leak in 2015 in California. 5/11
The magnitude of this leak and the operator’s inability to halt it quickly also intensify scrutiny on an industry the @IEA has said must do more to curb deliberate and accidental releases if it wants to play a role in the energy transition. 6/11
Although the well is in a rural part of southwest Pennsylvania, surrounded by forests and rolling hills, the roar of the pressurized gas escaping was so loud that residents living four miles away could hear it, the @AP reported. 7/11
The @PennsylvaniaDEP issued a scathing administrative order and has subpoenaed documents from the operator: files.dep.state.pa.us/RegionalResour…

Federal regulator @PHMSA_DOT is also investigating. 8/11
The release appears to have been seen from space. Here's a satellite observation from @Kayrros that shows a large methane plume observed over Pennsylvania on Nov. 7. 9/11 Image
The question for gas companies is how to prevent such incidents, especially as infrastructure ages but remains in use. 10/11
One thing that's clear is that state regulators are taking action: Kurt Klapkowski, @PennsylvaniaDEP acting deputy secretary for oil and gas management told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he expects a comprehensive review of the state’s gas storage industry. 11/11

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More from @aaronaclark1

Jul 26
Mountains of garbage near #SouthAsia megacities are contributing to some of the world’s strongest and most persistent #methane clouds observed by satellite, highlighting a major challenge in the global climate fight. A 🧵 on my latest for @climate
bloomberg.com/features/2022-… 1/10
Waste sites generate the potent greenhouse gas when organic material like food scraps or cardboard breaks down in the absence of oxygen. 2/10
Failing to curb releases from the waste sector, which is responsible for about 20% of all methane generated from human activity, could derail global climate goals. A good overview on this issue from @RockyMtnInst here: rmi.org/insight/mitiga… 3/10
Read 10 tweets
Apr 13
Methane leaks from ships using liquefied natural gas as fuel make most of the vessels dirtier than ones using diesel or heavy fuel oil, a new analysis shows.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/… 1/5
The findings by @transenv call into question a key plank of the @europeanunion’s proposed regulations aimed at decarbonizing the emissions heavy shipping industry. 2/5
The non-profit also used an infrared camera to document methane leaking from LNG-powered ships in the port of Rotterdam. (Check out the cool video in the story.) 3/5
Read 5 tweets
Feb 4
One of the surprising takeaways revealed by satellites tracking the world's worst methane emissions is just how avoidable so many of them are.

A 🧵 about one of the world's most isolated climate disasters and what can be done about it: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
In western Turkmenistan, scientists have found 29 pieces of oil and gas equipment spewing so much methane that by one measure the climate impact is roughly on par with the annual emissions from all the cars in Alabama. The state has about 4.7 million light duty vehicles. 1/11
Two dozen of the 29 sources are faulty flares that stopped combusting super-potent methane into less harmful carbon dioxide. It's not clear if the flares simply went out and need to be relit — a procedure familiar to most energy operators — or if they had larger glitches. 2/11
Read 12 tweets
Sep 7, 2021
I've been using satellites to report on powerful, invisible greenhouse gases from some of the world's biggest polluters for @business and @climate and I have some thoughts🧵. Image courtesy of @Kayrros.
1/15 All greenhouse gases are bad because they trap heat in the atmosphere, but methane, which is the main component of natural gas, is especially nasty. If released without being burned, it has ~80 times the warming impact of CO2 in the short term.
2/15 Here's a rough history of the biggest methane plumes across North America, Europe, Russia and Central Asia from 2019 to present detected by satellite. You can see oil and gas pipeline routes running through Russia and Canada. All satellite imagery courtesy of @Kayrros. Image courtesy of @Kayrros.Image courtesy of @Kayrros.
Read 19 tweets

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