Cartoon: “Fracked gas is not a bridge fuel. It’s a gangplank to more warming.”
Anthony Ingraffea
Oil and gas GHG emissions rise amid climate pollution cuts by Jean Chemnick, Oct 15, 2024, E&E News
Oil and gas systems are producing more climate pollution even as other U.S. economic sectors decarbonize.
That’s the takeaway from EPA’s 2023 emissions data released Tuesday, which tracks pollution from 8,100 of the country’s largest industrial sources.
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But the U.S. oil and gas supply chain — the economy’s second-largest source of heat-trapping pollution after power generation — continues to increase emissions. The sector’s 2023 emissions were 1.4 percent higher than in 2022 and 16.4 percent higher than in 2016.
EPA noted in a press release that there are several policies on the horizon designed to crack down on petroleum sector emissions — but none are reflected in last year’s data. Clean Air Act rules finalized last year will require new and existing sources to take steps to prevent, find and repair gas leaks. Those are already in effect for new facilities but existing sources will be covered by state plans.
And starting in 2025, oil and gas operators also will face stricter reporting rules that are likely to increase both the number of facilities required to submit annual emissions tallies to EPA, and the scope of the greenhouse gas emissions they report. Those emissions could trigger fees if they top certain methane-intensity thresholds.
Not if Americans are stupid enough to vote Trump back into power.
Tuesday’s data covers sources responsible for about half of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to EPA’s press release. Overall emissions from those sources fell approximately 4 percent from 2022 to 2023.
EPA submits a more complete greenhouse gas inventory to the United Nations each spring as part of its membership in a global climate treaty. The 2022 greenhouse gas accounting EPA finalized last April showed U.S. emissions down 17 percent compared with 2015 levels — and not on course to meet its 2030 climate targets.
