Stop Emitting High GWP Methane And It Will Stop Heating World
Methane, the main component of natural gas and cow burps, is a very potent greenhouse gas, but only stays around a couple of decades
Methane is so hot right now. Well, it’s making the world a lot hotter, because it’s a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and we’ve been increasing the amount we’re dumping into the air. That’s not a good kind of hot. The United States is the worst emitter of methane in the world, especially from its oil and gas industry.
Recently, I looked at the overlapping mixture of US industry greed, LNG exports shooting upward, domestic energy prices increasing, the Biden administration pause on new LNG terminals, and how that impacted an LNG exports levelized carbon assessment by a well known scientist, Robert Howarth of Cornell. The industry and some unexpected odd bedfellows were taking umbrage with his numbers.
Just prior to assessing that, I spent 90 minutes talking with Rob Jackson, another US scientist focused strongly on the methane problem. He’s spent time with instruments measuring emissions from gas stoves and furnaces in people’s homes, driving along US city streets with methane detection gear festooning his car and flying in helicopters over the Permian…
