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Salton Sea could meet nation’s lithium demand for decades, study finds

The potential of geothermal brine extraction dwarfs the deposits at Thacker Pass in Nevada.

This story was originally published by the Nevada Current. A federal analysis released Tuesday confirmed Southern California’s Salton Sea contains enough lithium to meet the nation’s needs for decades. Salton Sea has the potential to produce an estimated 375 million lithium batteries for electric vehicles — more than the total number of vehicles currently on U.S. roads, according to the analysis commissioned by the Department of Energy. Those numbers dwarf the estimated lithium deposits available in Nevada’s Thacker Pass, long touted as the largest known source of lithium in the nation.  The long-awaited analysis was conducted by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It’s the most comprehensive analysis to date quantifying the domestic lithium resources in California’s Salton Sea region.  If the Salton Sea lithium can be extracted, it could give the U.S. the ability to produce domestically sourced lithium, ending the nation’s dependence on rival countries for a supply of the metal. “Lithium is vital to decarbonizing the economy and meeting President Biden’s goals of 50 percent electric vehicle adoption by 2030,” said Jeff Marootian, DOE secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy. “This report confirms the once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a domestic lithium industry at home while also expanding clean, flexible electricity generation.”  Read Next Construction begins on controversial lithium mine in Nevada Gabriela Aoun Angueira But that opportunity hinges on whether emerging technologies can make extracting lithium from brine cost-effective on a commercial scale. Over the last 12 months, the price of lithium has plummeted from roughly $85,000 per metric ton to less than $19,000, a plunge attributed to increased global production and unexpectedly soft demand.  Generating electricity from the Salton Sea, a geothermal hot spot, requires extracting hot brine from underground aquifers to produce steam that drives turbines. Brine used for geothermal energy also happens to be rich in lithium that can theoretically be extracted in a more environmentally friendly closed system.  The Salton Sea is believed to have the highest concentration of lithium, contained in geothermal brines, in the world. Some researchers say integrating lithium extraction into geothermal operations can minimize the environmental impact of conventional lithium mining practices, like open-pit mining or evaporation ponds. Three companies — Berkshire Hathaway Energy, EnergySource, and Controlled Thermal Resources — have been working for years on plans to extract lithium by taking advantage of the Salton Sea’s rich geothermal resources.  Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the sprawling holding company with multiple subsidiaries, including NVEnergy, already operates 10 geothermal power generating plants on the southern shore of the Salton Sea, and recently commissioned a pilot facility to test the feasibility of extracting lithium from brine.  Estimates for lithium in the Salton Sea were modeled using the average annual brine production from existing geothermal plants in the region and the concentration of lithium in the brine, according to the report.  However, the DOE warns that those findings are based on existing companies’ ability to access the entire Salton Sea geothermal reservoir for electricity production, and their ability to fully extract lithium resources from geothermal brines.  Read Next A government program hopes to find critical minerals right beneath our feet Maddie Stone In recent years, the federal government has invested in brine lithium extraction, providing $11 million in DOE funding to develop and accelerate technologies for extracting and converting battery-grade lithium from geothermal brines. The state of California is also leaning into the development of lithium extraction in the Salton Sea. In 2020, the California State Legislature established a commission to investigate and analyze lithium extraction in California, including recommendations to expand lithium extraction from geothermal brines in the region.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom has referred to the Salton Sea as “the Saudi Arabia of lithium production,” and the state last year established a lithium extraction tax of up to $800 a ton. Residents of Niland, California — the closest community to a geothermal plant — said they believed a combined lithium extraction and geothermal energy production facility would have a  positive impact on the local community, with slightly higher scores for geothermal compared to lithium extraction, according to a survey conducted by the DOE. However, surrounding communities in additional surveys did express concern about environmental impacts and air quality. Lithium extraction in the Salton Sea may represent a rare consensus among conservationists, local populations, and industry, as mining projects face substantial community concern and backlash in Nevada and other parts of the country.  In Nevada, several Native American tribes have filed lawsuits against the proposed Thacker Pass mine, arguing the mine would desecrate a sacred site and violate federal preservation law and land policy.  Conservation groups have also fiercely opposed a planned lithium mine at Rhyolite Ridge in Esmeralda County, overlapping the only known population of the Tiehm’s buckwheat plant, a rare wildflower listed as endangered by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service last year. This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Salton Sea could meet nation’s lithium demand for decades, study finds on Dec 2, 2023.

Conservation
Energy
Government

Oil and gas producers pledge to cut methane emissions at UN climate talks

A group of 50 major oil and gas companies signed a pledge to cut methane emissions during the Dubai COP28 climate summit on Saturday, in a move that some climate activists are downplaying as a “smokescreen.” The coalition of oil producers includes the largest state-owned operations, including Saudi Aramco, alongside major American companies like ExxonMobil....

A group of 50 major oil and gas companies signed a pledge to cut methane emissions during the Dubai COP28 climate summit on Saturday, in a move that some climate activists are downplaying as a “smokescreen.” The coalition of oil producers includes the largest state-owned operations, including Saudi Aramco, alongside major American companies like ExxonMobil. The agreement pledges that the companies will cut their greenhouse gas emission to net-zero by 2050, and cut methane emissions to near-zero level by 2030. Climate scientists have cited methane as one of the most immediate climate dangers. "If we want to accelerate progress across the climate agenda, we must bring everyone in to be accountable and responsible for climate action," COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber said. "We must all focus on reducing emissions and apply a positive can-do vision to drive climate action and get everyone to take action. We need a clear action plan, and I am determined to deliver one." Jaber is also the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, bringing the event scrutiny. Reports before the summit began alleged that Jaber and UAE interests sought to use the venue to strike backroom oil production deals, which he denied. The 50 oil and gas giants account for about 40 percent of global oil production, the UAE said. Major oil interests in Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Qatar and China did not sign on to the agreement. Specifically, the deal agrees to reduce methane emissions to 0.2 percent of oil and natural gas production by 2030, and to end routine emissions flaring.The United Nations, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and International Energy Agency, will be tracking the progress, a first for any similar agreement. EDF President Fred Krupp called the 0.2 percent target “ambitious but absolutely achievable,” adding that the deal “could reduce methane emissions by each company signing by as much as 80 to 90 percent.” “This will be the single most impactful day I’ve seen at any COP in 30 years in terms of slowing the rate of warming,” he said in a statement. “The industry must do more than methane reductions; business as usual will not meet this moment.” Methane has been a frequent target of climate activists in recent years, as it is one of the most potent greenhouses gases for climate change. The gas is about 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is responsible for about 25 percent of global warming. The Biden administration announced new Environmental Protection Agency rules to limit methane emissions earlier Saturday, alongside the COP28 deal.

Climate
Activism
CO2

At UN Climate Talks, Oil Companies Pledge to Combat Methane; Environmentalists Call It 'Smokescreen'

Fifty oil companies representing nearly half of global production have pledged to reach near-zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in their operations by 2030, the president of this year’s U_N_ climate talks said Saturday, a move that environmental groups called a “smokescreen.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Fifty oil companies representing nearly half of global production have pledged to reach near-zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in their operations by 2030, the president of this year's United Nations climate talks said Saturday, a move that environmental groups called a “smokescreen."The announcement by Sultan al-Jaber, president of the climate summit known as COP28 and head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., comes as he and others have insisted his background would allow him to bring oil companies to the negotiating table. Al-Jaber has maintained that having the industry's buy-in is crucial to drastically slashing the world’s greenhouse emissions by nearly half in seven years to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times.The pledge included major national oil companies such as Saudi Aramco, Brazil's Petrobras and Sonangol, from Angola, and multi-nationals like Shell, TotalEnergies and BP.“The world does not work without energy,” said al-Jaber. “Yet the world will break down if we do not fix energies we use today, mitigate their emissions at a gigaton scale, and rapidly transition to zero carbon alternatives.”Methane can be released at several points along the operation of an oil and gas company, from fracking to when natural gas is produced, transported or stored. Over a shorter period, it’s more than 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas most responsible for climate change.For months leading up to COP28, there has been talk that one of the biggest outcomes could be on methane. Not only do methane leaks, along with flaring, which is burning of excess methane, and venting of the gas all contribute to climate change, but these problems can largely solved with current technologies and changes to operations. Indeed, oil and gas companies could have taken such measures years ago but largely have not, instead focusing more on expanding production than focusing on the byproduct of it. In that way, the methane deal represented a potentially significant contribution to combatting climate change that largely maintained the status quo for the oil and gas industry. Environmental groups were quick to criticize it. The pledge is a “smokescreen to hide the reality that we need to phase out oil, gas and coal,” said a letter signed by more than 300 civil society groups. Marcelo Mena, CEO of Global Methane Hub, rejected that the notion that having near-zero methane emission commitments was a way to delay a phase out of fossil fuels.“We wouldn’t let oil companies leak into the ocean until phase out, so why would we let them leak out methane to super charge climate change?” said Mena, a former environment minister in Chile. Still, Mena said that self-reporting didn't go far enough to push oil and gas companies to make changes. Instead, he said putting a price on pollution, or companies finding themselves shut out of markets that require high standards with leaks, would force change. High regulations are beginning to happen. Earlier this year, European Union negotiators reached a deal to reduce methane emissions from the energy industry across the 27-member bloc. The agreement bans routine venting and flaring, and mandates strict reporting. By 2027, it will expand those norms to oil and gas exporters outside the bloc. Saturday's announcement did not address the oil and natural gas being burned off by the end users, whether motorists in their cars or by plants powering cities. That burning off creates the greenhouse gases fueling climate change.The Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter is backed by both the United Arab Emirates and neighboring Saudi Arabia, two OPEC heavyweights. Saudi Arabia’s vast oil resources, located close to the surface of its desert expanse, makes it one of the world’s least expensive places to produce crude. Both Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC and Saudi Aramco, the world’s third-most-valuable company, have signed onto the pledge.Separately, organizers said 110 countries have signed onto a pledge to triple the world’s installed renewable energy capacity by 2030, something pledged in September by leaders of the so-called Group of 20. Their countries emit 80% of all planet-warming gases.Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Climate
CO2
Pollution

US outlines measures to cut methane emissions by 80% in next 15 years

Regulations would also cut 1.5bn metric tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2038, head of EPA says at Cop28Cop28 live – latest updatesThe United States has announced a major crackdown on methane emissions as part of a new effort by several countries at the Cop28 summit to curb the “super pollutant” that is responsible for turbocharging the climate crisis.The US has used the climate conference, which is administered by the UN and being held in Dubai, to unveil new regulations it estimates will cut methane emissions from its vast oil and gas industry by 80% from levels that would be expected without the rule, a total of 58 million tonnes by 2038. Continue reading...

The United States has announced a major crackdown on methane emissions as part of a new effort by several countries at the Cop28 summit to curb the “super pollutant” that is responsible for turbocharging the climate crisis.The US has used the climate conference, which is administered by the UN and being held in Dubai, to unveil new regulations it estimates will cut methane emissions from its vast oil and gas industry by 80% from levels that would be expected without the rule, a total of 58 million tonnes by 2038.The rule is the centrepiece of a series of actions by countries at Cop28 to limit methane, which is much shorter-lived in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide but up to 80 times more powerful in heating the Earth. Methane is responsible for about a third of the warming already experienced by the planet and the US is one of the world’s largest emitters.“Sharp cuts in methane emissions are among the most critical actions the United States can take in the short-term to slow the rate of climate change,” said Michael Regan, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, which has created the rule.Regan said the new regulations would cut the equivalent of 1.5 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is nearly the amount of pollution emitted by the US’s entire power sector, or 28 million fossil fuel-powered cars, over the next 15 years. The rule will require oil and gas companies to plug leaks from existing facilities, eliminate routine flaring of gas from wells and to better monitor escaping methane.“The impact of this historic rule can’t be overstated,” Regan said. “This is what global climate leadership looks like.”Countries, businesses and donors have raised $1bn in funding to help reduce methane emissions around the world, an update at Cop28 revealed. Angola, Kenya, Romania, Kenya, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have also joined the Global Methane Pledge, an initiative set up by the US and European Union in Scotland at Cop26 with the aim of slashing methane emissions 30% by 2030. More than 150 countries have now signed up.The inclusion of Turkmenistan in the pledge is particularly significant. The Guardian revealed Turkmenistan’s “mind boggling” methane emissions in May, a move sources said was instrumental in pushing the country to act. The country’s super-emitting leaks are seen as some of the easiest to fix if the country repairs its ageing gas infrastructure.John Kerry, the US’s climate envoy, said that countries have until now neglected methane and other climate pollutants in favour of focusing upon carbon dioxide. Action on methane will be the “easiest, quickest, fastest, cheapest way to begin to get gains against the warming,” the former US secretary of state said last week.Progress so far in cutting methane has been mixed, however. French company Kayrros is a data provider for the UN and on Friday released its own open-access map of methane leaks. Since 2019, it has identified more than 5,600 super-emitter events, which can each produce emissions equivalent to millions of car engines.On Friday, Kayrros released data showing there has been no overall reduction in methane emitted by many of the signatories to the Global Methane Pledge. Australia was one of the few countries to have cut methane recently, while in the US emissions are actually increasing.Scrutiny of major methane emitters is increasing rapidly through the use of satellite imaging. The UN’s methane alert and response system is now fully operational and has already notified operators of 127 major methane plumes across four continents.Emissions events will be made public within 75 days of detection from January, effectively naming and shaming the culprits. The system has already had success in Argentina, where 10 methane plumes were spotted near three oil and gas facilities earlier this year. Operators were notified and repaired faulty equipment, stemming the leaks.The action on methane at Cop28 on Saturday came amid another day of speeches by world leaders at the sprawling Expo City site, which featured long queues as a record number of delegates – more than 84,000 people are registered to attend – filed into a venue toasted by the Middle Eastern sun and shrouded by a haze of pollution.Pope Francis, suffering with bronchitis, was not in attendance, with a Vatican official instead delivering his message that harm to the environment is an “offence against God”. He added: “To all of you I make this heartfelt appeal: Let us choose life. Let us choose the future.”Other developments on the third day of Cop28 included the US joining a group of countries that have promised to build no new coal plants, and Colombia becoming the 10th country, and one of the only oil producers, to join a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.More than 100 countries have now signalled support for a fossil fuel phase-out to be part of the Cop28 agreement, although there is some resistance to the idea among major oil and gas extracting nations.The oil and gas industry itself needs to switch to renewable energy or face steep economic decline, the head of the International Energy Agency warned on Saturday. The sector is investing just 2.5% of its capital into renewable energy, a trend that Fatih Birol said was insufficient.“I very much hope we will see a strong signal to energy markets that fossil fuel use needs to decline,” Birol told the Guardian.

Climate
CO2
Crisis

Lula’s bid to style himself climate leader at Cop28 undermined by Opec move

Brazilian president’s plans to approve new fossil fuel projects sit awkwardly with pledge to meet 1.5C targetThe Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has roared into Cop28 with a mega-delegation of more than 2,000 people and grand ambitions to address inequality and protect the world’s tropical forests.Lula, as he is known, said his country was leading by example: “We have adjusted our climate goals, which are now more ambitious than those of many developed countries. We have drastically reduced deforestation in the Amazon and will bring it to zero by 2030,” he said. Continue reading...

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has roared into Cop28 with a mega-delegation of more than 2,000 people and grand ambitions to address inequality and protect the world’s tropical forests.Lula, as he is known, said his country was leading by example: “We have adjusted our climate goals, which are now more ambitious than those of many developed countries. We have drastically reduced deforestation in the Amazon and will bring it to zero by 2030,” he said.But any pretensions he might have had to broader climate leadership on cutting fossil fuels were weakened on Thursday when his energy minister, Alexandre Silveira, chose the opening of the planet’s biggest environmental conference as the moment to announce that Brazil plans to align itself more closely with the world’s biggest oil cartel, Opec.Brazilian climate campaigners said the timing and symbolism were horrendous and a sign of the divisions within a country that has made huge strides to reduce deforestation of the Amazon, even as it has ploughed ahead with oil exploration in ecologically sensitive areas.“This statement is a scandal. Celebrating entry into the oil club in the middle of a climate conference is as if the minister of mines and energy were disavowing President Lula’s own environmental speech,” said Marcio Astrini, the executive secretary of the Brazilian Climate Observatory. “With ministers like this, the president doesn’t need enemies.”At the end of the world’s hottest year on record, scientists, activists and politicians in many affected countries have called on delegates at the UN climate summit to set a goal of phasing out fossil fuels.They had hoped that Brazil, which will host Cop30 in two years’ time, might be an ally. Since taking power in January, Lula - a veteran of the Workers party - has repeatedly declared the climate crisis is a priority and supported measures taken by his environment minister, Marina Silva, to reverse the ecological devastation of the previous administration of his rightwing predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.This has given Lula strong cards to play at the summit. Deforestation, which accounts for about half of Brazil’s carbon discharges, has fallen to the lowest level in five years. His government has strengthened emission-cutting targets, pledging a 53% fall by 2030 compared with 2005, and net zero by mid-century.Brazil deforestation graphicAni Toni, the government’s climate change secretary, told reporters that Brazil had already saved 250m tonnes of carbon this year, equivalent to the total for Argentina. “Brazil arrives at Cop28 with its head held high,” she said.As well as setting a positive example, Brazil organised a conference of Amazon nations earlier this year and tried to build an alliance with other ecological superpowers, such as Indonesia and Congo.At Cop28, it is calling for the establishment of a forest fund that would reward nations for reducing deforestation and provide incentives for forest residents to avoid destructive practices such as logging, ranching and mining. It is hoped that the fund, which would be managed by the World Bank or another multilateral organisation, would start at the relatively low level of $100m and steadily increase to the billions needed to stabilise and recover the world’s great terrestrial carbon sinks, rainfall regulators and homes of biodiversity.A separate loss and damage fund has already been agreed to support the nations and communities most vulnerable to extreme weather, and Brazil is expected to demonstrate leadership among developing nations by pushing for wealthy nations, who bear most responsibility for the climate crisis, to make sizeable contributions.Foreign ministry officials say Brazil will also act as a defender of the world’s most ambitious climate goal, to limit global heating to 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial levels, despite growing scientific evidence that this target may be breached sooner than expected. For there to be even a remote chance of preventing this, emissions have to start declining, and rapidly, which will require a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels.This is where Brazil – like the US, UK, UAE, Norway and a host of other countries – is on shakier ground, because all these countries are planning to approve new oil projects that are incompatible with the 1.5C target. The day after Cop28, Brazil will stage an auction for hundreds of oil drilling blocks, many of them in ecologically sensitive areas such as near the mouth of the Amazon river, according to Carol Pasquali of Greenpeace.“Brazil is caught in contradictions,” she said. “On one hand, it is looking forward and walking in the right direction on forests. But on the other, it carries the weight from the past when it comes to exploring for oil. Brazil needs to be more consistent if it wants to assume a role as a climate leader ahead of Cop30.”Challenges within the government do not help. To get elected, Lula had to call on a broad front of politicians ranging from leftwing climate justice campaigners to rightwing agribusiness advocates.Brazil’s indigenous communities have a stronger voice than before thanks to Lula’s appointment of the country’s first minister of indigenous peoples, Sonia Guajajara. She is one of 15 ministers in Brazil’s delegation, which is more than three times the size of any the country has sent before and reportedly the biggest in the history of UN climate summits. A broad church, it includes civil society activists, businesspeople, academics and Indigenous representatives.“This Cop needs to make Indigenous people feel that they are truly heard and have their rights guaranteed, especially when it comes to demarcation of territory,” said delegate Neidinha Cristóvão Kanindé. Cop28: Can fossil fuel companies transition to clean energy? On Tuesday 5 December, from 8pm to 9.15pm GMT, join Damian Carrington, Christiana Figueres, Tessa Khan and Mike Coffin for a livestreamed discussion on whether fossil fuel companies can transition to clean energy. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

Climate
Forests
Business

US Joins in Other Nations in Swearing off Coal Power to Clean the Climate

The United States is now committed to the idea of phasing out coal power plants, joining 56 other nations in kicking the coal habit

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States committed Saturday to the idea of phasing out coal power plants, joining 56 other nations in kicking the coal habit that's a huge factor in global warming.U.S. Special Envoy John Kerry announced that the U.S. was joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which means the Biden Administration commits to building no new coal plants and phasing out existing plants. No date was given for when the existing plants would have to go, but other Biden regulatory actions and international commitments already in the works had meant no coal by 2035.“We will be working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world, building stronger economies and more resilient communities,” Kerry said in a statement. “The first step is to stop making the problem worse: stop building new unabated coal power plants.”Coal power plants have already been shutting down across the nation due to economics, and no new coal facilities were in the works, so “we were heading to retiring coal by the end of the decade anyway,” said climate analyst Alden Meyer of the European think-tank E3G. That's because natural gas and renewable energy are cheaper, so it was market forces, he said.As of October, just under 20% of the U.S. electricity is powered by coal, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The amount of coal burned in the United States last year is less than half what it was in 2008.Coal produces about 211 pounds (96 kilograms) of heat-trapping carbon dioxide per million BTUs of energy produced, compared to natural gas which produces about 117 pounds (53 kilograms) and gasoline which is about 156 pounds (71 kilograms), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.The U.S. had been pushing other nations, especially China and India which are building new coal plants pell-mell, to get rid of the fuel, which causes more heat-trapping carbon emissions than other power systems.Saturday's action “sends a pretty powerful international signal that the U.S. is putting its money where its mouth is,” Meyer said.The Powering Past Coal Alliance started six years ago and had 50 country members until Saturday when the United States and six others joined, said alliance spokeswoman Anna Drazkiewicz. Others joining Saturday include the Czech Republic and the Dominican Republic.“Energy transition is not an easy task and as such requires strong cooperation and support," said Kosovo environment minister Artane Rizvanolli. "Joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance reiterates Kosovo’s clear commitment and ongoing efforts towards a socially just and clean energy sector.”Follow Seth Borenstein on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @borenbearsAssociated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Climate
CO2
Energy

Biden Rule Aims to Reduce Methane Emissions, Targeting US Oil and Gas Industry for Global Warming

The Biden administration on Saturday issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming as President Joe Biden seeks to advance his climate legacy

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Saturday issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming as President Joe Biden seeks to advance his climate legacy. The Environmental Protection Agency said the new rule will sharply reduce methane and other harmful air pollutants generated by the oil and gas industry, promote use of cutting-edge methane detection technologies and deliver significant public health benefits in the form of reduced hospital visits, lost school days and even deaths. Air pollution from oil and gas operations can cause cancer, harm the nervous and respiratory systems and contribute to birth defects. EPA Administrator Michael Regan and White House Climate adviser Ali Zaidi announced the final rule at the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.Oil and gas operations are the largest industrial source of methane, the main component in natural gas and far more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term. It is responsible for about one-third of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Sharp cuts in methane emissions are a global priority to slow the rate of climate change and are a major topic at the climate conference, known as COP28.Presidents, prime ministers and royals from nations rich and poor have vowed to reduce how much their countries spew heat-trapping gases and asked their colleagues to do better.“On day one, President Biden restored America’s critical role as the global leader in confronting climate change,'' Regan said, referring to Biden's actions returning the U.S. to the Paris climate agreement and ordering an immediate review of environmental regulations rolled back by the previous administration.The rule targets emissions from existing oil and gas wells nationwide, rather than focusing only on new wells as previous EPA regulations have done. It also regulates smaller wells that will be required to find and plug methane leaks. Small wells currently are subject to an initial inspection but are rarely checked again for leaks.Studies have found that smaller wells produce just 6% of the nation’s oil and gas but account for up to half the methane emissions from well sites.The plan also will phase in a requirement for energy companies to eliminate routine flaring of natural gas that is produced by new oil wells.The new methane rule will help ensure that the United States meets a goal set by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels, Regan said.The EPA rule is just one of more than 100 actions the Biden administration has taken to reduce methane emissions, Zaidi added.“From mobilizing billions in investment to plug orphaned wells, patch leaky pipes and reclaim abandoned mines, to setting strong standards that will cut pollution from the oil and gas sector, the Biden-Harris Administration is putting the full throw-weight of the federal government into slashing harmful methane pollution,'' he said.The new methane rule will be coordinated with a methane fee approved in the 2022 climate law. The fee, set to take effect next year, will charge energy producers that exceed a certain level of methane emissions as much as $1,500 per metric ton of methane. The plan marks the first time the U.S. government has directly imposed a fee, or tax, on greenhouse gas emissions.The law allows exemptions for companies that comply with the EPA’s standards or fall below a certain emissions threshold. It also includes $1.5 billon in grants and other spending to help companies and local communities improve monitoring and data collection, and find and repair natural gas leaks.Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association, called the new rule a victory for public health. “EPA heeded the urgent guidance of health experts across the country and finalized a strong methane rule that, when fully implemented, will significantly reduce hazardous air pollutants and climate-warming methane pollution from the oil and gas industry,'' he said in a statement. Methane has been shown to leak into the atmosphere during every stage of oil and gas production, Wimmer said, and "people who live near oil and gas wells are especially vulnerable to these exposure risks. This rule (is) vital to advancing environmental justice commitments.''David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called methane a “super-polluter.” He said in an interview that the Biden plan "takes a very solid whack at climate pollution. I wish this had happened 10 years ago (under the Obama administration), but I'm really happy it's happening now.''Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said the new rule ensures that “the U.S. now has the most protective methane pollution limits on the books. With other countries also zeroing in on methane as a key climate risk, it’s a signal to operators worldwide that clean-up time is here,'' he said.The oil industry has generally welcomed direct federal regulation of methane emissions, preferring a single national standard to a hodgepodge of state rules. Even so, energy companies have asked EPA to exempt hundreds of thousands of the nation’s smallest wells from the pending methane rules.Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Climate
CO2
Government

US Lays Out Plan at COP 28 to Slash Climate 'Super Pollutant' From Oil and Gas

By Nichola Groom and Valerie Volcovici(Reuters) - The Biden administration on Saturday unveiled final rules aimed at cracking down on U.S. oil and...

By Nichola Groom and Valerie Volcovici(Reuters) - The Biden administration on Saturday unveiled final rules aimed at cracking down on U.S. oil and gas industry releases of methane, part of a global plan to rein in emissions that contribute to climate change.The rules, two years in the making, were announced by U.S. officials at the United Nations COP28 climate change conference in Dubai. The United States and other nations attending the summit were expected to detail how they will achieve a 150-country pledge made two years ago to slash methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.Methane tends to leak into the atmosphere undetected from drill sites, gas pipelines and other oil and gas equipment. It has more warming potential than carbon dioxide and breaks down in the atmosphere faster, so reining in methane emissions can have a more immediate impact on limiting climate change."On day one, President Biden restored America's critical role as the global leader in confronting climate change, and today we've backed up that commitment with strong action," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.EPA's new policies would ban routine flaring of natural gas produced by newly drilled oil wells, require oil companies to monitor for leaks from well sites and compressor stations and establishes a program to use third party remote sensing to detect large methane releases from so-called "super emitters," the agency said in a statement.The rules would prevent an estimated 58 million tons of methane from reaching the atmosphere between 2024 and 2038 -- nearly the equivalent of all the carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector in the year 2021, EPA added.Environmental groups praised the rules."Strong methane standards are essential to curb climate pollution and better protect the health and safety of workers and communities living near fossil fuel extraction," Earthjustice's vice president of litigation for climate and energy, Jill Tauber, said in a statement.The rule will produce climate and health benefits of up to $7.6 billion a year through 2038, EPA said. It will also increase recovery of up to $13 billion of natural gas over the time period.The rule differs somewhat from draft proposals EPA released in 2021 and 2022, in part by giving the industry more time to comply.The agency also tweaked the Super Emitter Program so that third parties send information on methane leaks to EPA directly for verification. Previously they would have been able to send the information directly to companies, a provision the oil and gas industry said would put too much power in the hands of environmental groups that search for methane leaks.The American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas industry trade group, said it was reviewing the rule."To be truly effective, this rule must balance emissions reductions with the need to continue meeting rising energy demand," Dustin Meyer, API senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs, said in a statement.(Reporting by Nichola Groom; editing by Diane Craft)Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.

Climate
CO2
Health

Oil companies at center of giant push to cut a potent greenhouse gas

Fossil fuel powerhouses sign onto initiatives to cut methane, as they try to position themselves as part of the fix for climate change.

The world’s leading oil producers, including those in the United States, are rolling out new plans in Dubai on Saturday to significantly reduce methane from their operations — potentially the most consequential action resulting from the first week of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP28.The effort comes as countries and companies face increasing pressure to act on a greenhouse gas that once was largely ignored but which is actually more than 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Negotiations in recent weeks have involved some of the world’s largest oil and industrial companies, banks, and top government officials from the United States and the Middle East pushing for a culmination of deals at the Dubai summit.At COP28 on Saturday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan detailed final standards to limit methane at U.S. oil and gas wells, a precursor to subsequent announcements. In a proposal first made two years ago, the agency had said it would put about 900,000 new and existing wells under more aggressive requirements for preventing and stopping leaks, a move the oil industry once fought for years but which many leading companies have grown to support or accept.The announcements reflect how the oil and gas industry — long vilified by climate activists — has become central to global climate negotiations, and to this summit in particular. UAE leaders see their host status as a chance to argue that fossil fuel producers are key to addressing climate change, even though their past and ongoing emissions are major drivers of rising temperatures.Because methane is so potent, U.S. officials and climate advocates are focusing on it as one of the fastest ways to limit the acceleration of global warming. If successfully implemented, the initiatives could be a historic climate achievement, supporters say.“If you add it all together, what it amounts to is really momentum building at a time when we really need it,” said Gina McCarthy, who once was President Biden’s top climate adviser and was the first to introduce methane limits on oil and gas operations as EPA administrator under President Barack Obama. “People are ready to rally around an answer.”Global efforts on methane have taken off in recent weeks, including a breakthrough at Sunnylands, Calif., in talks between U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, his counterpart from China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. China publicly committed for the first time to curbing methane and other greenhouse gases across its economy by 2035. That followed up on its previous announcement to push for new methane monitoring and controls by 2025.The Sunnylands deal included a planned summit on methane and other gases — those that aren’t carbon dioxide — which is scheduled for Saturday at COP28 with the UAE hosts. Observers and delegates consider it to be among the biggest events of the summit’s opening week, and many are also expecting the UAE will orchestrate a pact of companies committing to cut methane emissions.Former U.S. energy secretary Ernest Moniz, now a COP28 advisory committee member, said society needs large international coalitions to address climate change. Bringing in oil and gas companies is especially helpful to work at the scale required, he added.“I expect that COP28 will deliver,” Moniz said in an email.Methane has turned from an afterthought to a fixation for environmental groups and energy companies over the past 20 years as warming has accelerated and natural gas reshaped global energy markets. Some in both groups initially pitched vast and newly cheap supplies of natural gas as a cleaner alternative to coal, a “bridge fuel” until fully carbon-free sources of energy could supplant fossil fuels. But new science then undercut those claims.Findings, especially from work pursued by the Environmental Defense Fund, showed that millions of leaks from minuscule to massive undid much of gas’s climate benefits by allowing raw methane simply to escape into the atmosphere. It ushered in a wave of regulatory crackdowns and political debates, and led oil and gas companies to spend millions to try to protect their businesses with new technology to detect and stop those leaks.Methane, in its raw form, is one of the most powerful forces at trapping heat. It accounts for more than half of the warming happening now from the greenhouse effect, though it makes up only a quarter of global emissions. Halving human methane emissions by 2030 could slow the rate of global warming by more than 25 percent and start a path to prevent 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100, according to 2021 research by a team of scientists from the Environmental Defense Fund and several U.S. universities.That has led to the U.S. team’s emphasis in talks with Beijing. Kerry has pushed for China and other countries to join the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to cut methane emissions 30 percent by the end of the decade. Further expanding this coalition and producing success at Saturday’s summit are among the top priorities for the delegation at COP28, U.S. officials have saidUAE’s Sultan Al Jaber — the oil executive who is leading the event — has pursued a similar agenda, prodding oil companies to accelerate an industry-wide commitment to reach near-zero methane emissions by 2030. He has said that more than 20 firms across oil and gas and heavy industry have committed, but he has not named them publicly, and questions remain about participation from giant national companies such as Saudi Aramco or the supermajors including ExxonMobil.The British giant BP began trying to limit those emissions as far back as the 1990s, but few others took interest because of low financial returns from the work, said John Browne, the company’s former chief executive. Companies need a combination of incentives and penalties to spur action — and the state-owned companies must be a part of the deal because they produce most of the world’s oil, he added.“It’s not material unless the state companies participate,” said Browne, who now has interest in a company that monitors methane emissions through satellite data. “It’s really important they pledge, and it’s even more important that we monitor it and what is said is done.”JPMorgan Chase — a major funder of energy companies — issued an analysis in the days leading up to COP28 encouraging oil and gas companies to aggressively reduce emissions, calling it an opportunity for both businesses and climate. It cited International Energy Agency estimates that the industry could eliminate more than 75 percent of its methane emissions with existing and well-known technology.Even so, levels of methane in the atmosphere have continued to rise. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded the fourth-largest annual increase last year since measurements began in 1983. Levels are now 2.5 times what they were in preindustrial times.The industry has made strides in producing oil and gas with less emissions, but only limited improvement, according to the IEA. Browne said what the United States is introducing — incentives passed by Congress last year and now the new regulations from the EPA — are the types of policies that can spur progress.Regan said that Biden was taking “strong action” Saturday. “We’ve crafted these technology standards to advance American innovation and account for the industry’s leadership in accelerating methane technology,” he said in a statement.The changes announced by the agency largely match the proposal it rolled out in phases over the past two years, and what environmental groups had asked for from the EPA. They include a phaseout of flaring at new wells; requirements for more leak monitoring with the help of new technology; limits on emissions from vulnerable equipment such as valves, pumps and storage tanks; and a program to spot giant, unintentional releases that are often short-lived but the biggest sources of methane emissions.The agency also will issue first-time guidance to states that will have to set reduction requirements on existing sources of methane. The Clean Air Act places the details of such plans in the hands of state agencies, and the EPA is giving them two years to complete those plans under these new rules, the federal agency said.It estimates the rule will cut methane emissions 80 percent from what would have been expected without the rule. That is an increase over what it had originally projected. That is because it strengthened provisions since then to further limit flaring, among other improvements to its method for analyzing the rule package’s impacts, the agency said.“They’re the strongest methane regulations on the planet,” said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund.

Climate
Activism
CO2

Biden administration issues rule to cut methane emissions from oil and gas 

The Biden administration on Saturday announced new regulations that are expected to deliver significant cuts to the greenhouse gas methane in the oil and gas sector. The rule, finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), tees up emissions reductions for both new oil and wells and, for the first time, existing oil and gas wells....

The Biden administration on Saturday announced new regulations that are expected to deliver significant cuts to the greenhouse gas methane in the oil and gas sector.  The rule, finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), tees up emissions reductions for both new oil and wells and, for the first time, existing oil and gas wells. An EPA press release said the rule is expected to prevent 58 million tons of methane from entering the atmosphere between 2024 and 2038. These emissions savings are the climate equivalent of taking 28 million gas-powered cars off the road for a year. Methane is a planet-warming gas that’s about 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is responsible for about 25 percent of global warming.  It mainly comes from the production and transport of fossil fuels — as well as from livestock and other agriculture and decaying waste in landfills. Natural gas is primarily made up of methane. The announcement was made as the U.S. looks to show that it is tackling the issue and encourage other nations to do the same during the global climate summit known as COP28 being held in Dubai. While President Biden will not go this year’s summit, other officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Special Climate Envoy John Kerry, are attending. The EPA rule would deliver the methane emissions cuts through policies aimed at limiting leaks, such as requiring monitoring and repairs.  The final rule also adds an additional requirement for new wells — to phase in the elimination of the routine burning off of excess gas that’s extracted alongside oil. The practice, known as flaring, occurs when companies opt to burn off gas that comes alongside oil production instead of capturing it for use.  The new requirement on flaring goes further than previous proposals and comes after pressure from Democrats to take further action to address flaring.  The EPA’s rule also includes a program that will require oil and gas companies to investigate large releases of methane when those releases are identified by certified third parties.  In addition to methane, the rule is also expected to reduce pollution, preventing  590,000 tons of toxic air pollutants from being emitted from 2024 to 2038. Methane regulations have been something of a political issue in recent years. The Trump administration rolled back methane regulations.  However, President Biden was able to undo that rule with the help of Congress since a law called the Congressional Review Act allows for the reversal of recently passed rules.  Biden’s latest action received a warm response from at least one player in the oil and gas industry. "BP welcomes the finalization of a federal methane rule for new, modified and - for the first time - existing sources,” said Orlando Alvarez, chairman and president of BP America, in a press release issued by the EPA. “We appreciate the collaborative way EPA, NGOs and industry worked together on this rulemaking.”

Agriculture
Climate
CO2

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