A simple fix with a big benefit: California lawmakers consider closing loophole to curb gas leaks

On Breaking Energy, August 16, 2016  After passing the State Assembly Appropriations committee on Wednesday, a little known bill – SB 1441 – is headed for the assembly floor, which is slated to deliver big benefits for consumers and the environment. Not only will the bill create a strong market driver for utilities to operate tighter infrastructure and save California consumers tens …

Methane hotspots turn out to be from gas infrastructure leaks

From the Deseret News, Aug 2016 DENVER — A puzzling concentration of the greenhouse gas methane over the southwestern United States appears to come mostly from leaks in natural gas production, scientists said Monday. Researchers identified more than 250 sources of a methane hot spot over the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. They include gas …

Nation leaking methane in massive quantities, according to geophysical research

“An explosive paper” published last month in Geophysical Research Letters,”concluded that the nation as a whole is leaking methane in massive quantities.”  Bill McKibben comments, below: Global warming is, in the end, not about the noisy political battles here on the planet’s surface. It actually happens in constant, silent interactions in the atmosphere, where the molecular structure of certain gases traps …

Satellite data tells that methane emissions have been rising in the US

Global methane emissions have risen and fallen several times since the 1980s, Turner said, but they’ve been rising continuously since 2007. “The causes for this renewed growth are currently unknown,” he said, In the US, the government tally of the country’s annual human-caused methane emissions between 2002 and 2012 shows that emissions have been about 29 million metric tons annually, without …

TransCanada sues US as another corporation thinks it has the right to profit at everyone’s expense

What’s the matter with a system that encourages transnational corporations to think they can sue countries?  See this Grist article. TransCanada isn’t taking no for an answer. In November, President Obama rejected the company’s plans to build the Keystone XL pipeline. Now the company is fighting that decision, just as it had threatened to do: It’s suing America and seeking $15 …

Biggest disaster since BP: California methane leak has released the equivalent of burning 700 million gallons of gas so far

A methane leak in Southern California could be the worst environmental disaster since the BP oil spill, Gizmodo reports. The leak was discovered outside Los Angeles in late October, at a natural gas storage site owned by Southern California Gas Co. It has been bleeding methane at a rate of up to 110,000 pounds per hour for the past two months. That much methane in …

Nearly half of the world’s top 100 global companies are trying to subvert climate policies by lobbying, advertising, and influence-peddling but BP tops the list in Europe

Re-posted from The Guardian Company emerges as Europe’s worst climate policy wrecker, according to a new table ranking firms by their records on lobbying and opposition Nearly half of the world’s top 100 global companies are trying to subvert climate policies by lobbying, advertising, and influence-peddling, said the UK-based non-profit, Influence Map. But while all the major fossil fuel firms …

Methane explosion 1000 ft. from fracking well burns man and family

Cody Murray, 38, and his father, wife, and four-year-old daughter were all burned by a “fireball” after methane built up in his pump house and exploded when Murray entered the shed to check on a water issue. The lawsuit, filed last week against EOG Resources, Fairway Resources LLC, and three subsidiaries of Fairway, alleges the methane was from the defendants’ …