REPORT EXAMINES GHG EMISSIONS FROM SHALE GAS BOOM

Karen Frantz
GHG Monitor
12/13/13

New projects for large oil and gas compressors or pipelines, chemical plants and refineries using shale gas that have been proposed over the last two years could represent a 91 million ton increase in greenhouse gas emissions—equal to the emissions from 20 coal-fired power plants—according to a report from the Environmental Integrity Project released last week. That estimate does not include GHG emissions from proposed gas-fired power plants. “It’s important that we understand the full climate change picture when it comes to America’s shale gas boom and the related tradeoffs,” said EIP Director Eric Shaeffer. “As natural gas replaces coal as the fuel of choice for electric power plants, greenhouse gas emissions from that sector will [decline], since gas releases less than half as much carbon as coal per kilowatt of electricity generated. But the data suggest that declining CO2 emissions from the electric power sector will be partially offset by higher emissions from other industries cashing in on cheap and abundant supplies of oil and gas from shale deposits.”

Companies have proposed or obtained Clean Air Act permits for 95 large projects since Jan. 1, 2012, with the majority located in Louisiana and Texas, according to the report. The oil and gas sector represent 39 of those new projects, with an expected increase in GHG emissions by nearly 41 million tons per year and large LNG export terminals in Maryland, Oregon, Louisiana and Texas making up most of the growth. Moreover, the U.S. exported five times the number of barrels of natural gas and refinery liquids in 2012 as in 2007, at 115 million. The chemical manufacturing sector, on the other hand, accounted for an estimated 45.8 million ton per year increase in greenhouse gas emissions, and the proposed expansion of nitric acid production for making fertilizer—a process that releases large amounts of nitrous oxide, with potent global warming effects—would increase GHG emissions by about 17 million tons. And finally, expansions in the petroleum refinery sector could increase greenhouse gas emissions by 4.3 million tons per year, with the number of barrels outputted 40 percent higher in 2010 and 2012 than in the early 1980s.

Minimizing Impacts

The report underlines a number of methods companies can use to cut emissions, including taking corrective action when exit gas temperatures from new heaters at refineries exceed 350 F, “which will reduce fuel consumption by minimizing heat loss,” as Flint Hills Resources has agreed to do at its Pine Bend refinery in Minnesota. The report says that this measure could reduce emissions “by more than 200,000 tons below permitted levels” for the refinery. Other suggestions include installing flare gas recovery systems at refineries and using tighter seals and vapor recovery systems for oil and gas storage tanks to halt leaks of methane.

The report also recommends that the Environmental Protection Agency and states require the oil, gas and chemical sectors to establish and maintain “protocols to help plant managers identify and eliminate waste at multiple points throughout the manufacturing process” through permitting. And it urges the EPA to set limits on greenhouse gas pollution under the Clean Air Act. “EPA has published rules that require new or modified sources that will significantly increase emissions to obtain permits and meet ‘best available technology’ requirements… But case by case permitting is not a substitute for the national greenhouse gas emission standards that EPA must establish for each of the industrial categories subject to Clean Air Act regulation in the wake of Massachusetts v. EPA,” the report says.