Methane in your Yard?

 

Does it sound right that methane pops up in your backyard?  Some folks in northeast Ohio don’t think so after a 2018 explosion on an XTO energy gas well exploded.  It released a lot of methane to the atmosphere, and may have been the largest methane leak in many years.  This was one of Ohio’s wells (Ohio has over 100,000 gas facilities).  It is a poster child for what is wrong with the oil and gas industry. Today a number of non-profit organizations are trying to monitor methane releases because it contributes over 25% of greenhouse gas emissions.

At the same time, a recent study found that hydropower, a supposedly clean power sources, creates carbon dioxide and methane releases from decaying vegetation in the water (it volatizes as water flows through the dam).  EDF scientist Dr. Ilissa Ocko found 200 facilities that competed with coal power/MW over a 10 years period.  Who would have thought?