Colorado Plateau Advocate magazine, Spring 2015
In October, NASA released stunning infrared imagery of a methane cloud the size of Connecticut hovering over the Southwest, with the Four Corners in its crosshairs.
Never has there been a more visceral visual depiction of the Colorado Plateau as a bull’s-eye for the effects of climate change.
Randy Udall once described climate work as “dozens, hundreds of people chipping away at the iron glacier.” And while images like the NASA methane cloud and the unnerving environmental changes that we see on the Colorado Plateau can, occasionally, make us want to hide under the covers as William deBuys describes (see Sticking It Out) , we’re lucky to have the tools here at the Trust to chip away at some of the West’s key climate problems.
The oil and gas boom has resounded across the West, including in Utah’s Uinta Basin – one of the epicenters of oil and gas development in the West. Proponents of natural gas tout it as a “bridge fuel” leading the way to a low-carbon energy future because electricity produced with gas has significantly less carbon dioxide emissions than coal power.
However, when natural gas isn’t burned to produce power and instead is vented or flared into the atmosphere, it harms the climate. This is because the primary constituent of natural gas is methane – a powerful greenhouse gas that is 84 times as potent as CO2 in the first two decades after its release. Methane also directly threatens human health by contributing to ground level ozone, which is associated with higher rates of asthma and birth defects. Recent improvements in camera technology have literally brought this issue to light by providing visual imagery of otherwise invisible methane clouds escaping from pipelines and storage tanks. Across the Colorado Plateau, recent scientific investigations reveal alarming amounts of methane emissions attributed to the energy industry.
Preventing methane waste by minimizing leaks and strictly limiting venting and flaring protects our climate future, improves air quality, and reduces the need for more drilling by keeping valuable fuel - and associated royalties - from going to waste. That is why industry and environmentalists came together in 2014 to enact a groundbreaking methane waste rule in Colorado. And it is why President Obama prioritized methane in his 2014 Climate Action Plan, prompting federal agencies to revise and update antiquated methane waste rules. Methane waste is one of the low-hanging fruits of the West’s climate struggle, a soft spot in the iron glacier. And the Trust will be chipping away at this issue in Utah in the coming years, building relationships across party lines and doing our part to curb greenhouse gas emissions on the Colorado Plateau.
"The primary constituent of natural gas is methane – a powerful greenhouse gas that is 84 times as potent as CO2 in the first two decades after its release."
BY WILLIAM DEBUYS
In a West transformed by climate change, there will be boomers, busters, and stickers. Which are you? READ ›
