Methane Leaks Could Negate Climate Benefits of US Natural Gas Boom: Report

Reduction in carbon emissions triggered by America's shift from coal to gas is being offset by a sharp rise in methane.

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Methane leaks could undo the climate change benefits of America's natural gas boom, a new report said on Tuesday.

The report, produced by the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), said America's shift from coal to gas had produced important climate gains.

Carbon dioxide emissions fell last year to their lowest point since 1994, according to the Department of Energy. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were 12% below 2005 levels.

But the report said those reductions were not enough, on their own, to escape the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.

To keep reading, click here.

http://climatedesk.org/2013/06/methane-leaks-could-negate-climate-bene

United Airlines Buys Big Into Biofuels

Could the move help clean up a notoriously dirty industry?

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United Airlines is taking a significant step forward in its use of biofuel with a plan to buy 15 million gallons of the stuff during the next three years.

The airline signed an agreement with AltAir Fuels to buy fuel it will use on flights departing Los Angeles beginning next year. United says the renewable jet fuel is "price competitive" with the fuel now used by airlines and should, on a lifecycle basis, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent.

"This is a great day for United and the aviation biofuels industry," Jimmy Samartzis, the airline's director of environmental issues, said in a statement.

The news comes after a period of relative quiet about the use of aviation biofuel. There was a flurry of activity in the time between 2009 and 2011 as airlines around the world announced demonstration flights and passenger flights using a variety of biofuels. Even the military was burning biofuel in fighter jets. But the high cost of alternative fuels at the time made it unlikely cost-conscious airlines would embrace them for the long term.

To keep reading, click here.

http://climatedesk.org/2013/06/united-airlines-buys-big-into-biofuels

Gulf Oil Wells Have Been Leaking Since 2004 Hurricane

Why isn't anything being done about it?

NASA Goddard Photo and Video/Flickr

Oil has been gushing from a group of wells south of New Orleans since a platform at the site was wiped out by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and it appears that nothing is being done to staunch or control the leaking.

Efforts to cap the ruptures appear to have been abandoned in 2011. Instead of working to clean up or stop the spill, driller Taylor Energy Company is now providing the government with daily updates about the resultant slick.

Even those updates appear to be half-baked. A long ribbon of oil can clearly be seen spilling out from the site, but Taylor Energy claims its much smaller than does NOAA.

To keep reading, click here.

http://climatedesk.org/2013/06/gulf-oil-wells-have-been-leaking-since-

Carbon Bubble Will Plunge the World Into Another Financial Crisis - Report

Trillions of dollars at risk as stock markets inflate value of fossil fuels that may have to remain buried forever, experts warn.

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The world could be heading for a major economic crisis as stock markets inflate an investment bubble in fossil fuels to the tune of trillions of dollars, according to leading economists.

"The financial crisis has shown what happens when risks accumulate unnoticed," said Lord (Nicholas) Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics. He said the risk was "very big indeed" and that almost all investors and regulators were failing to address it.

The so-called "carbon bubble" is the result of an over-valuation of oil, coal and gas reserves held by fossil fuel companies. According to a report published on Friday, at least two-thirds of these reserves will have to remain underground if the world is to meet existing internationally agreed targets to avoid the threshold for "dangerous" climate change. If the agreements hold, these reserves will be in effect unburnable and so worthless - leading to massive market losses. But the stock markets are betting on countries' inaction on climate change.

To keep reading, click here.

http://climatedesk.org/2013/04/carbon-bubble-will-plunge-the-world-int

America's Most Obvious Tax Reform Idea: Kill the Oil and Gas Subsidies

In a world where $100-a-barrel oil is here to stay, there's no need to pad the industry's bottom line.

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When Saudi Arabia's longtime oil minister, Ali Al-Naimi, opens his mouth, the world listens. Yesterday, during a speech in Hong Kong, he delivered a message that U.S. policy makers in particular would do well to take note of. The days of $100-a-barrel crude, he told the crowd, are here "for the foreseeable future."

If he's right, one thing that shouldn't be around for the foreseeable future are the outdated tax credits that protect oil and gas companies, which will be plenty profitable in a world of $100-a-barrel oil. If Democrats and Republicans are looking for safe ground to set up camp for the budget negotiations, let's start with these $7 billion-a-year subsidies.

To keep reading, click here.

http://climatedesk.org/2013/03/americas-most-obvious-tax-reform-idea-k

Why the Fracking Boom May Actually be an Economic Bubble

It might be too soon to put all our eggs in the fracking basket.

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Fracking proponents like to use an evocative economic metaphor in talking about their industry: boom. The natural gas boom. Drilling is exploding in North Dakota and Texas and Pennsylvania. Only figuratively so far, but who knows what the future holds.

The Post Carbon Institute, however, suggests in a new report [PDF] that another metaphor would be more apt: a bubble, like the bubbles of methane that seep into water wells and then burst.

PCI presents the argument in its most basic form at ShaleBubble.org:

[T]he so-called shale revolution is nothing more than a bubble, driven by record levels of drilling, speculative lease & flip practices on the part of shale energy companies, fee-driven promotion by the same investment banks that fomented the housing bubble, and by unsustainably low natural gas prices. Geological and economic constraints - not to mention the very serious environmental and health impacts of drilling - mean that shale gas and shale oil (tight oil) are far from the solution to our energy woes.

To keep reading, click here.

http://climatedesk.org/2013/02/why-the-fracking-boom-may-actually-be-a

The Surprising Connection Between Food and Fracking

Synthetic fertilizer operations have a huge appetite for natural gas.

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In a recent Nation piece, the wonderful Elizabeth Royte teased out the direct links between hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the food supply. In short, extracting natural gas from rock formations by bombarding them with chemical-spiked fluid leaves behind fouled water-and that fouled water can make it into the crops and animals we eat.

But there's another, emerging food-fracking connection that few are aware of. US agriculture is highly reliant on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, and nitrogen fertilizer is synthesized in a process fueled by natural gas. As more and more of the US natural gas supply comes from fracking, more and more of the nitrogen fertilizer farmers use will come from fracked natural gas. If Big Ag becomes hooked on cheap fracked gas to meet its fertilizer needs, then the fossil fuel industry will have gained a powerful ally in its effort to steamroll regulation and fight back opposition to fracking projects.

To keep reading, click here.

http://climatedesk.org/2013/01/the-surprising-connection-between-food-

Sierra Club Turns to Civil Disobedience to Stop Keystone Pipeline

Director Michael Brune on his historic decision for the enviro group.

Rainforest Action Network/Flickr

Earlier this week, the Sierra Club announced that it is lifting its long-standing institutional prohibition on civil disobedience so that it can protest the development of the tar sands. The club's board of directors approved the change, which executive director Michael Brune made public on Tuesday. While staff and board members have previously participated in acts of civil disobedience in a personal capacity, this is the first time that the organization will take part.

The group has been mum on exactly what sort of civil disobedience it is planning. It is cosponsoring an anti-Keystone XL rally on the National Mall on February 17 with 350.org and the Hip-Hop Caucus, but says that the civil disobedience will be a separate event.

I caught up with Brune on Thursday to talk about what this means for the 120-year-old environmental organization.

Mother Jones: So is this only allowing civil disobedience related to the tar sands, or does it open it up the possibility to use it for other issues as well?

Michael Brune: Right now the board has authorized us to do this singular action on tar sands and climate. It will have a broad frame of wanting the president to be as muscular in his approach to fighting climate change as he can, with a particular focus on the tar sands pipeline.

To keep reading, click here.

http://climatedesk.org/2013/01/sierra-club-turns-to-civil-disobedience

How To Make Gasoline from Tar Sands

In six simple steps.

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Ever wonder about the future of energy? Will it be wind? Solar? Geothermal? No wait, I got it, tar sands! (Let's try that again - tar sands!) They've got everything oil does, but they're harder to get, crappier when you get them, and leave a much bigger mark on the climate. Sounds like a winner. Let's look a little closer, shall we?

First off, what are tar sands? Tar sands are deposits of about 90 percent sand or sandstone, water, and clay mixed with only about 10 percent high-sulfur bitumen, a viscous black petroleum sludge rich in hydrocarbons, also known as "natural asphalt."

To keep reading, click here.

http://climatedesk.org/2013/01/how-to-make-gasoline-from-tar-sands