The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the first-ever federal regulations governing methane emissions by oil and natural gas drillers. Janet McCabe, EPA’s acting assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, estimated that exploration companies would need to invest up to $420 million to stop leaks and capture methane from working wells. But she said the industry could save as much as $550 million from captured gas.
The new rules are part EPA’s broader efforts to cut planet-warming emissions. Methane can trap 25 times more heat than carbon dioxide, but dissipates more rapidly. McCabe said the target for methane emission reduction is 20% to 30%.
The oil and natural gas industries are expected to challenge the rules.
More: New York Times
July Hottest Month on Record, Federal Weather Agencies Say
July’s average global temperature was 61.86 degrees, making it the warmest month on Earth since records have been kept, federal weather officials said. Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the new mark broke previous records set in 1998 and 2010 by a seventh of a degree, the largest margin ever by which an old record was eclipsed.
“It just reaffirms what we already know: that the Earth is warming,” NOAA climate scientist Jake Crouch said. “The warming is accelerating and we’re really seeing it this year.” NOAA records go back to 1880. The findings were confirmed by records kept by NASA and a Japanese weather agency.
More: Associated Press
Union of Concerned Scientists Cites DOE Study Slamming MOX Facility
The Union of Concerned Scientists said that a Department of Energy study concludes that the federal program to convert surplus plutonium to commercial grade nuclear fuel is an expensive and risky disposal method.
The UCS said it has obtained a study written by experts from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the commercial nuclear industry that concludes the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) program under construction in Aiken, S.C., is caught in “difficult, downward spiraling circumstances.”
The report said the cost of the MOX facility has ballooned from $1.6 billion to $30 billion. The report said it would be cheaper and less risky to ship the plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for burial.
More: Union of Concerned Scientists
USDA Awards $46M Loan to North Dakota Co-op
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a $46 million federal loan to North Dakota-based Central Power Electric Cooperative to help finance 51 miles of new power lines and several substations. The funds come from USDA’s Rural Utilities Service electric loan program.
“Demand is the main driver of this,” said Dennis Hill, executive vice president and general manager of the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives. “The little single line with a small transformer just doesn’t work anymore.”
The new lines would be spread throughout the cooperative’s existing 1,300-mile network, according to Hill, who added that the project would commence after a four-year work plan is submitted. CPEC serves nearly 56,000 customers in 25 North Dakota counties.
More: The Bismarck Tribune
FERC Judge Finds BP Manipulated Natgas Market
A FERC administrative law judge has found that BP manipulated the natural gas market in Texas in 2008, and now the company faces millions in penalties and disgorged profits.
“This is a classic case of physical for financial benefits,” Judge Carmen Cintron said. “The evidence in this case shows that the Texas team had hundreds of affirmative acts in furtherance of the manipulative scheme during the investigative period.”
Federal regulators in 2013 proposed that BP pay a $28 million penalty and pay back profits of $800,000 plus interest. The ruling will now go before the full five-member commission for a final ruling. BP has vowed to appeal. “The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrated that BP’s natural gas traders did not engage in any market manipulation,” a company spokesman wrote in an e-mail.
More: Bloomberg
Federal Gulf Oil Leases Attract Low Interest, Prices
A federal auction for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico is attracting the weakest interest since 1986.
Plummeting oil prices and industrial contraction meant that only five companies bid, for a total of $22.7 million. The auction happened on a day when American oil prices fell to about $40/barrel. Last summer prices were $100/barrel. The integrated oil giants ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron didn’t even bother to bid.
“Concerns over the pace of economic growth in emerging markets, continuing (albeit slowing) supply growth, increases in global liquids inventories and the possibility of increasing volumes of Iranian crude entering the market contributed to the changed forecast,” the Department of Energy said.
More: New York Times
DOE Gives $5.2 Million Grant to Duke Algae Uses Study
The Department of Energy has awarded a $5.2 million grant to Duke University to study possible uses of algae for renewable energy.
Zackary Johnson, an assistant professor of molecular biology at Duke, is heading a three-year study called MAGIC, or Marine Algae Industrialization Consortium. There have been efforts to derive fuel from algae, but so far none have been economically viable.
“To make algae a competitive player in this field you have to consider all the things the algae are producing,” Johnson said. “We’re essentially trying to make oil the waste product, so that it can compete with fossil fuels.”