Headlines from COP28 and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s final methane emissions rule have the public laser-focused on reducing methane from the natural gas industry. But there’s a little-known fact behind all this news coverage: Appalachia’s natural gas industry is already the world leader in methane emission intensity, due to the implementation of best practices for years.
As regulations change and the sector drives further methane reductions, it’s vitally important to highlight the noteworthy work being done by the industry across the region.
Consider, last year, Appalachia’s GHG emissions overall intensity dropped 22%. Specific to methane, the basin reduced its nation-leading low intensity by a considerable 11%, primarily driven “by a reduction of reported emissions from pneumatic controllers,” according to the 2022 Clean Air Task Force and Ceres benchmarking report.
Appalachia is America’s largest natural gas producing region, and third largest in the world, and despite this, when development across Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia increased 13% between 2018-2020, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity declined 20%, the report cites.
Equally impressive, since 2005, power generation emissions have plummeted. VOC emissions dropped 40%, CO2 emissions fell nearly 40%, and NOx emissions declined 81% as natural gas makes up an increasingly larger share of power generation.
These efforts are in addition to the voluntary measures adopted by operators to implement new technology to help reduce unwanted emissions. Consider, companies of all sizes in the basin are using satellite, fixed wing, and on the ground monitoring to catalog, analyze and prevent methane emissions across their operations. These activities complement cooperative activities with third parties to certify low emission operations.
But there is work to be done.
Policymakers have been hindering the development of necessary infrastructure critical to the industry’s ability to meet growing consumer demand. Pennsylvania’s upstream and midstream segments are eager to add vitally necessary infrastructure to provide affordable and reliable energy across the nation but cannot do so without predictable permitting processes in place.
It’s clear that what’s best for our shared environment is increased use of natural gas both at home and globally, facilitated by a reasonable regulatory structure that allows private sector innovations to continue to drive operational excellence and a sustainable energy future.
