Between 2025 and 2100, EPA’s methane rule would result in a global average temperature reduction of just 0.004 degrees Celsius, four one-thousandths of one degree. Methane emissions ten times larger than what EPA data suggests would still not affect global temperature measurably.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed new rules targeting methane and other emissions from the oil and natural gas industry. The EPA claims these rules are necessary to “combat climate change,” but public data show that the climate impact of reducing methane would be practically non-existent: 0.004 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
Methane emissions from all industries in the United States only constitute about 10 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, which incorporates methane’s relatively high warming potential. According to the EPA and the U.N.…
Environmental groups frequently claim that replacing fossil fuels with renewables will lead to more job opportunities. But according to a study that those same groups frequently cite, it’s not that simple.
According to research compiled by Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson, whose recent study outlines a “roadmap” for transitioning to 100% renewable energy, replacing fossil fuels with renewable technologies like wind and solar would actually cause a net loss of 1.2 million long-term jobs.
Jacobson’s data break out the number of long-term jobs that would be eliminated by sector. In transportation, more than 2.4 million men and women would be put out of work. Over 800,000 people working to produce oil and natural gas would lose their jobs. Nearly 90,000 jobs connected to coal mining would be wiped out.…
“In 2009, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wrote in the Financial Times that increased natural gas use was the ‘first step towards saving our planet and jump-starting our economy.’ Last year, he changed course and called natural gas a ‘catastrophe‘.”
An environmental group that opposes fracking has deleted from its website a page that touted the land use benefits of horizontal drilling, a move that comes as activist groups increasingly focus on surface issues related to development, and as some cities debate whether to ban drilling based on those claims. The attempt to conceal prior support for drilling also reflects a trend among several activist organizations that used to promote natural gas.
The Washington, DC-based Earthworks – an aggressive anti-fracking group that has published or promoted several dubious reports suggesting harm from shale development – used to house a page entitled “Directional Drilling” on its website, which described how directional and horizontal drilling can actually reduce overall surface impacts from oil and gas development.…
