Air Quality

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    Wireless Device Monitors Abandoned PA Wells for Fugitive Methane

    What if there was a small device, about the size of a paperback novel, that could sniff the air and detect fugitive methane, escaping into the atmosphere? And what if that small device was operated with rechargeable batteries, and the batteries recharged every day using solar energy? And what if that device could also then transmit data about the air quality via the internet to servers back at HQ? And what if it could operate remotely, like at an abandoned well site? Dream no more. Such a device exists. We first heard about PixController’s Optical Methane Emissions Detection System (OMEDS) when it won a $25,000 prize from the 2015 Shale Gas Innovation Contest (see Winners of $100K for 2015 Shale Gas Innovation Contest Announced). The OMEDS has just won a second prize, the Global “Internet of Things” Challenge for Innovation, a contest held in Barcelona Spain. Seems innovations happening in the Marcellus are making international headlines… Read More “Wireless Device Monitors Abandoned PA Wells for Fugitive Methane”

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    Study Finds Fugitive Methane from O&G 97% Less than EPA Estimates

    The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the Obama/McCarthy reign of terror, far overstepped its charter by seizing power that doesn’t belong to it. Last May the EPA issued new methane rules in a back-door way to try and regulate the oil and gas industry (see EPA Does it Again: Tries to Destroy O&G with New Methane Rule). In pretty short order several states sued to stop the order, which eventually turned into 15 states (see 15 States File Lawsuits to Block EPA O&G Methane Rule). The EPA claimed, at that time, that methane is leaking out of bore holes, pipelines, valves–just about everywhere on a well pad. And methane (as the fairy tale goes) is a gajillion times more “potent” than carbon dioxide when it comes to causing man-made global warming. The problem is, the EPA used estimates, calculations, algorithms, spreadsheets as their “evidence.” They never went into the field and actually measured anything. Such a field study has now been done–by the EPA–in the Uinta Shale Basin in Colorado (full copy below). And guess what the researchers have found? While there is some methane leakage here and there, the EPA previously OVERESTIMATED the leakage–by 97%! Yes, “EPA researchers found methane emissions from intermittent bleed devices were 97 percent lower than the standard emission factor for intermittent pneumatic control devices EPA uses for estimates in its Greenhouse Gas Inventory(GHGI).” In other words, the entire methane rule the EPA forced on the industry was based on lies…a foundation of sand…a house of cards. Why does that not surprise us?…
    Read More “Study Finds Fugitive Methane from O&G 97% Less than EPA Estimates”

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    Fed Court Strikes Major Blow to Obama Clean Power Plan

    An important breakthrough in our long struggle to overthrow the odious and misnamed Obama Clean Power Plan–a plan that assassinates coal and mortally wounds natural gas (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). On Friday, a federal court granted the Trump administration’s request to suspend a myriad of lawsuits against the CPP. Essentially what the court has done is to push the pause button on the CPP for the next 60 days to allow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the agency that perpetrated the CPP crime on the country, an opportunity to figure out how to repeal it and just be done with it. None other than the mouthpiece of the establishment–the Washington Post–says the court ruling signals “the likely end of President Barack Obama’s signature climate policy.” They’re in mourning over at the Post. Here’s the good news that the CPP is on life support, waiting for Scott Pruitt to pull the plug and finally kill it…
    Read More “Fed Court Strikes Major Blow to Obama Clean Power Plan”

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    PA DEP Sec McDonnell Defends Overreach of GP-5/5A

    At last week’s Oil & Gas Awards’ 2017 Northeast Industry Summit, MDN editor Jim Willis heard former Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary, Michael Krancer, say that the DEP’s proposed changes to General Permit (GP) 5 and 5A are “a big deal” and that the permits, as drafted, have the potential to stop PA natural gas production for 12-18 months while new regulations get sorted out (see Big News from the O&G Awards Northeast Industry Summit). We’ve written a fair bit about GP-5/5A, most recently in December (see PA DEP Extends Public Comment Period for Methane Regs). Our take on GP-5/5A is that it will target a reduction in fugitive methane. However, Krancer said the new rule would also stop any new pipeline construction through wetlands (virtually any and all new pipelines) until new permitting procedures are hashed out–hence his startling statement about production stopping for more than a year. Krancer also said GP-5/5A will regulate small gathering lines. PA’s legislators are very concerned about GP-5/5A and submitted a letter to DEP Acting Secretary Pat McDonnell in February with 21 questions about the new rule change. McDonnell met with several Senators and subsequently responded, in writing, by addressing each of the 21 questions. We have McDonnell’s letter and responses below…
    Read More “PA DEP Sec McDonnell Defends Overreach of GP-5/5A”

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    “Thousands” in PA Healthcare Send Ltr re Methane Regulations

    AFTERNOON UPDATE: We now have a copy of the so-called “open letter” as it was posted from the Scribd website to share with you (see it below). In viewing the properties of the document (image below) you will find that the the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and DC-based Smoot Tewes firm–started by two former Obama campaigners–were behind the letter. Kelsey Robinson, an EDF communications person in Austin, was the author. None of the signatories on the letter are from the EDF. In other words, this was a sham, made-up piece of anti-drilling propaganda from the beginning–and the Post-Gazette reporter played along. Just another example of fake news from a mainstream newspaper.

    A small group of anti-drilling healthcare workers (i.e. doctors, nurses, etc.) are, once again, trying to stop Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania. Their latest angle of attack is a publicity stunt using one of their favorite tools–the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Post-Gazette runs a story today that opens this way: “Thousands of Pennsylvania doctors, nurses and other health care professionals have sent a letter to the Marcellus Shale Coalition, requesting that it stop legal challenges and lobbying against regulations aimed at controlling drilling air emissions and safeguarding public health.” Several paragraphs later we read this: “The letter, scheduled for release Monday, is signed by about 40 individual doctors, nurses and health care workers, and organizations representing more than 40,000 doctors, nurses, researchers, and health professionals.” In other words, “thousands” did not send a letter, but in reality, “about 40 individuals” did. That’s called fake news. And it’s being pedaled by the same rabidly radical antis (who happen to work in the healthcare industry) we’ve heard from before. They are committed to irrationally ending the use of fossil fuels, and they’ve apparently enlisted the help of a sympathetic “reporter” to do it…
    Read More ““Thousands” in PA Healthcare Send Ltr re Methane Regulations”

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    PA DEP Extends Public Comment Period for Methane Regs

    In December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled new regulations to clamp down on methane emissions and other other air pollution that allegedly comes from shale drilling sites (see PA DEP Releases New Regs re Methane & Air Pollution at Drill Sites). The onerous new regulations, not in effect yet, were originally prompted by bullying from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Even though EPA pressure has disappeared under President Trump, PA Gov. Wolf still intends to push forward with these regulations. According to the DEP, the proposed General Permit 5A (GP-5A) and the revised General Permit 5 (GP-5), “establish updated Best Available Technology (BAT) requirements for the industry regarding air emission limits, source testing, leak detection and repair, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements for the applicable air pollution sources.” After some final tweaks, the DEP released draft versions of the new permits (i.e. regulations) earlier this month (see PA DEP Seeks Public Comment on Regs for Methane, Compressor Stns). The original public comment period was slated to last 45 days, ending in March. The new news is that, for no stated reason, the DEP has extended the comment period until June 5th…
    Read More “PA DEP Extends Public Comment Period for Methane Regs”

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    Drexel Study Claims Fugitive Methane Increasing in the Marcellus

    For those of us in a certain generation, you will recognize this: Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, Velma…and of course, Scooby-Doo! If you were raised watching cartoons on Saturday morning, and you watched Scooby-Doo, do you remember the name of the van they traveled around in? That’s right, the Mystery Machine! An image of the Mystery Machine is what floated through our brain as we read about the latest venture in researching air quality in Pennsylvania near drilling sites. Researchers from Drexel University (in Philadelphia) set out across Marcellus territory in “Drexel’s Mobile Laboratory, a Ford cargo van equipped with all the equipment necessary for measuring concentrations of chemicals and particles in the air at 1-10 second intervals while driving.” The Mystery Machine! And what, pray tell, did our intrepid Marcellus sleuths find be-bopping around the countryside? In the recently published study, “Analysis of local-scale background concentrations of methane and other gas-phase species in the Marcellus Shale” (full copy below), researchers say they found that even though the number of Marcellus wells being drilled has slowed quite a bit over the past few years, the amount of fugitive methane in the air has increased. And the increase can’t be explained by a general global increase in fugitive methane. The increase in fugitive methane in the Marcellus is due, our methane sleuths say, to the “increased production of natural gas from the region which has increased significantly over the 2012 to 2015 period.” The researchers conclude that “because everybody knows how evil and nasty fugitive methane is for global warming” (our words), this study is yet more evidence that Marcellus shale drilling (and pipelines, etc.) leak so much methane as to make any benefits we get from extracting and burning methane, over say coal, muted–even lost. Because we can’t put a cork in it, by extracting and using methane we’re making poor old Mom Earth even sicker. Which is, of course, total bunkum…
    Read More “Drexel Study Claims Fugitive Methane Increasing in the Marcellus”

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    PA DEP Seeks Public Comment on Regs for Methane, Compressor Stns

    In December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled new regulations to clamp down on methane emissions and other other air pollution that allegedly comes from shale drilling sites (see PA DEP Releases New Regs re Methane & Air Pollution at Drill Sites). The onerous new regulations, not in effect yet (to be published “soon”) were originally prompted by bullying from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Even though EPA pressure is likely to disappear under President Trump, PA Gov. Wolf still intends to push forward with these regulations. According to the DEP, the proposed General Permit 5A (GP-5A) and the revised General Permit 5 (GP-5), “establish updated Best Available Technology (BAT) requirements for the industry regarding air emission limits, source testing, leak detection and repair, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements for the applicable air pollution sources.” After some final tweaks, the DEP has just released draft versions of the new permits (i.e. regulations), opening them up for public comment over the next 45 days. At the end of that time, we expect it will take a month or so and then the DEP will publish the revised permits and they will become (in essence) the law. Below we have the DEP’s announcement in releasing the draft permits, along with copies of the draft permits and associated documentation…
    Read More “PA DEP Seeks Public Comment on Regs for Methane, Compressor Stns”

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    Penn State Study: NatGas Power Plants Pose No Radon Risk

    A bright and enterprising graduate student at Penn State University cooked up an interesting research project for her graduate thesis. With all this talk about “fracked gas” having boatloads of radon in it, would using such radon-laden gas as the source fuel for a gas-fired electric plant pose a risk to those who live near it? In particular, could the gas-fired plants on Penn State’s own campus be posing a danger to students, faculty and staff that live and work on campus? Alison Stidworthy, a former graduate student in the Department of Meteorology at Penn State (and now employed as a site manager for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection), led the research effort, which was the topic of her master’s degree thesis (copy below). What did Alison find? High levels of radon do not leak from the plants and pose no health issues to those living and working nearby. Which makes perfect sense. How do you get rid of radon in your basement when it’s present? You vent it to the outside, where it quickly dissipates and becomes inert. Alison, along with several of her professors, recently published her work as a study in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association...
    Read More “Penn State Study: NatGas Power Plants Pose No Radon Risk”

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    Journal ‘Science’ Pimps Itself to the Democrat Party with Op-Ed

    Science, as in the storied journal, is supposed to be about, well, science. Instead, they’ve opened up their pages to politics. Not that Science hasn’t long been bastardized by and riddled with politics. But just like mainstream media was unmasked during this last election as being TOTALLY biased and willing to “shade” the truth (i.e. lie), Science is now unmasked. Barack Hussein Obama submitted an article to the journal about global warming, as an exercise in mass propaganda, to try and create the meme that he actually achieved great things related to energy while in office–i.e., his “legacy.” The opposite is true. In the Science article (below) Obama alludes to the rise of fracking as lowering carbon emissions, but he can’t even bring himself to actually refer to fracking or hydraulic fracturing in the article itself. That would tick off his radical base. The entire article is about global warming and how mankind is causing it–pure rubbish and non-science. But there you go. Our point is that it is now only too obvious that Science is to the scientific world what the National Enquirer is to the “news” world…
    Read More “Journal ‘Science’ Pimps Itself to the Democrat Party with Op-Ed”

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    Obama EPA Files to List NatGas Plants as “Toxic” Polluters

    In January 2015 a gang of nine far-left anti-drilling “environmental” organizations sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claiming the agency doesn’t require the oil and gas industry to spend big bucks to fill out reams of paperwork to prove it’s not polluting Precious Mother Earth with nasty chemicals (see 9 Anti-Drilling Groups Sue EPA Hoping to Damage the O&G Industry). The lawsuit was filed by the Environmental Integrity Project (better called the Environmental Dishonesty Project), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Center for Effective Government, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), the Clean Air Council, THE Delaware Riverkeeper Network (i.e. Maya van Rossum), the Responsible Drilling Alliance, and Texas Campaign for the Environment. The lawsuit by the litigious gang of nine, as we said at the time, will provide cover and an excuse for the EPA. This is all scripted out and done in collusion with the Obama EPA. In October last year, the EPA announced that natural gas plants do qualify to be included in their so-called Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), a system that will require processing plants to fill out several trees’ worth of paperwork on an annual basis. The EPA decision made the antis orgasmic with delight (see PA Big Green Groups Elated: Latest EPA Sue-and-Settle Scam Worked). The Obama EPA, in a parting shot at the natural gas industry, just filed the official proposed rule (last Friday, copy below) that will make it happen. Fortunately the rule won’t go into effect until March 7, giving incoming EPA chief Scott Pruitt the opportunity to stop this nonsense…
    Read More “Obama EPA Files to List NatGas Plants as “Toxic” Polluters”

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    Shell Seeks to Horse Trade Air Pollution Credits for Cracker Plant

    In June 2015, a full year ahead of Shell’s final investment decision (FID) to build a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant complex in Beaver County, PA, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection issued the project air quality permits–which was a “critical” requirement for Shell before making their decision (see Shell Receives Air Quality Permit from PA DEP for Cracker Plant). Two months later, two litigious Big Green environmental groups with deep pockets–the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council and the Washington, DC-based Environmental Integrity Project–tried to scuttle the project by appealing the DEP’s issuance of the air quality permits (see Big Green Groups File to Block Shell Cracker Air Quality Permit). Fortunately the DEP blew off the Big Green appeal. However, the issue of air pollution is not yet totally resolved. In order for Shell to build the plant–a plant that will have a fair amount of emissions–they need to buy pollution credits from other plants. That is, if other plants are installing new air pollution controls, or shutting down, Shell can buy their emissions allotments, and use them for the cracker project. In the end, it’s all about controlling how much of the nasty stuff, like volatile organic compounds (VOCs) gets pumped into the air in a given region. But there’s a problem. Shell can’t find enough VOC credits to buy, so they’re proposing a deal with the DEP to buy a different kind of credit instead–NOx or nitrogen oxides. Will the DEP allow Shell to horse trade NOx for VOCs? That’s the billion dollar question…
    Read More “Shell Seeks to Horse Trade Air Pollution Credits for Cracker Plant”

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    24 States Ask Incoming Trump Admin to Dump CPP on ‘Day One’

    We’ve written plenty about President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP), introduced last summer, a plan to force electric generators to convert to using more “renewable” sources of energy–and less fossil fuels (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). The CPP outright assassinates coal powered generation, and wounds (but doesn’t kill) natural gas. It is Obama’s attempt at picking winners and losers in who and how we get our energy. Earlier this year 29 states and state agencies, including Ohio and West Virgina, filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking an immediate stay of the CPP (see 29 States Ask Supreme Court to Stop Obama Clean Power Plan ASAP). In a shock decision, the Supreme Court did just that. In September, the enormously complex CPP got its day in court–in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (see Obama’s Disastrous Clean Power Plan Goes to Court Today). Last week the attorneys general from 24 of the states opposed to the CPP wrote a letter to President-Elect Trump, RINO Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel and RINO House Speaker Paul Ryan. The letter (copy below) asks Trump to dump the CPP with an Executive Order on Day One when he takes office, and asks Congress to adopt legislation to prevent the EPA from such an egregious overreach ever again…
    Read More “24 States Ask Incoming Trump Admin to Dump CPP on ‘Day One’”

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    PA DEP Releases New Regs re Methane & Air Pollution at Drill Sites

    Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled new regulations to clamp down on methane emissions and other other air pollution that allegedly comes from shale drilling sites. The onerous new regulations, not in effect yet (to be published “soon”) are prompted by bullying from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, an agency which is about to get gutted (see Master Stroke: Trump Selects OK AG Pruitt to Lead EPA). That doesn’t stop the Gov. Wolf’s DEP from plowing forward with new rules (copies below). As an interesting aside, MDN editor Jim Willis attended a conference yesterday in New York City where Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, said more methane leaks from the gas lines under New York City each day than from ALL oil and gas drilling activity across the country! Yet the Wolf DEP, with a plank sticking out of its eye (methane leaking like a sieve from major cities), is going after the sawdust in o&g’s eye (tiny bit of methane escapting at well sites). Go figure. To be fair, DEP’s new regs do more than just try to force every last molecule of methane to be “captured” (nasty fugitive molecules causing Mom Earth to toast)–DEP will also go after a reduction in some other types of air pollution, including VOCs (volatile organic compounds). But capturing fugitive methane in a vain attempt to combat mythical man-made global warming is the main thrust of the effort. Once the DEP publishes the new rules in the Pennsylvania Register, the industry (and radical environmentalists) will have 45 days to comment before the new rules magically become unlegislated laws…
    Read More “PA DEP Releases New Regs re Methane & Air Pollution at Drill Sites”

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    Google’s Privacy-Invading Cars Map “Methane Leaks” in Pittsburgh

    googleWe have to state up front that we are fans of Google’s services. We love the Chrome browser and Chrome OS, Android (for phones), Gmail for email, Google Drive…the list goes on and on. But at the same time, we detest the far-left, in-bed-with-Big-Green-groups leadership of Google. And we don’t like some of their initiatives–including their creepy snooping into every aspect of our lives. We spotted a story about Google’s roaming Street View cars that ride along our roads snapping pictures. Snapping pics isn’t enough for Googlers. In Pittsburgh they’ve added methane sniffers to help detect elevated levels of (they say) global warming causing methane escaping into the atmosphere, like a fugitive. Supposedly the methane sniffers will help People’s Natural Gas (which we suspect was bullied by Google) to identify where People’s 50 year-old natgas pipeline network is experiencing leaks. Look, we’re all for finding and fixing gas leaks–don’t get us wrong. But the motivation here is not the safety of the residents of Pittsburgh. It’s to bow down and worship at the altar of the Global Warming gods. Quick! There goes the Google car–turn off the gas grill…it might mistake your backyard barbecue for a gas leak! All joking aside, what will Google strap onto those cars next? Maybe they’ll snap a pic of a fat customer walking into McDonalds and send it to his friends to shame him. Or maybe they’ll snap a pic of (gasp) someone walking into a Donald Trump campaign office–sending it to that person’s boss. Yeah, that’ll fix ’em. It was no surprise to learn that PA Gov. Wolf also butted in on the Google methane sniffing action, along with the radical anti-drilling Environmental Defense Fund and PA Dept. of Environmental Protection…
    Read More “Google’s Privacy-Invading Cars Map “Methane Leaks” in Pittsburgh”

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    PA Acting DEP Sec. McDonnell Reaffirms Plan to Reduce Methane Leaks

    Patrick McDonnell Acting Secretary, DEP
    Patrick McDonnell Acting Secretary, DEP

    MDN noticed something of interest from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), tucked at the bottom of a press release from the governor’s office about Google’s methane sniffing cars (see today’s companion story)–news that means shale drilling and pipeline infrastructure is about to get more expensive in the Keystone State. The press release was mostly about Google cars kitted out with special equipment that can help identify where methane is leaking from old pipes in cities like Pittsburgh. However, tucked in at the end of that press release was a repeat of an earlier press release announcing Wolf’s 4-point plan to reduce methane emissions. We first reported that plan back in February 2016, revealed by the former (now fired) DEP Secretary John Quigley (see More on Wolf/Quigley 4-Point Plan to Reduce Methane Emissions). Acting DEP Secretary Pat McDonnell reaffirmed the DEP’s 4-point plan as part of the Pittsburgh Google methane sniffing episode…
    Read More “PA Acting DEP Sec. McDonnell Reaffirms Plan to Reduce Methane Leaks”