Permian Basin wells leak huge amounts of methane; plugging them could help slow climate change

A tank battery near Big Spring, Texas, spews methane through an open hatch, visible only with infrared cameras. (Photo and video by Sharon Wilson; image on right is a screenshot of the video, in which the gas emission is more apparent.)

A recent United Nations climate report stressed the need to cut back fossil-fuels emissions to stave off the worst effects of climate change. A Harvard University postdoctoral student's research found that one measure could go a long way toward doing that: find and plug methane leaks in hydraulic fracturing wells in Texas and New Mexico, Zachary Mider reports for Bloomberg Businessweek.

Yuzhong Zhang, now at Westlake University in China, found that fracking operations in the Permian Basin were dumping 2.9 million metric tons of methane into the air each year, enough to negate most of the environmental gain from burning natural gas instead of coal. "By one measure, that cloud of gas is contributing as much to global warming as Florida—every power plant, motorboat, and minivan in the state," Mider reports. "Identifying and plugging these leaks could do more to slow climate change than almost any other single measure. Unlike carbon, methane breaks down relatively quickly in the atmosphere. That means efforts to curtail it can pay off within a generation."

Permian Basin (Bloomberg map)

One recent estimate found that reducing human-caused methane emissions could stave off nearly one-third of the global warming expected in the next few decades without having to cut overall consumption or invent new technology. That would involve plugging leaky wells and reducing emissions from other sources such as landfills and cattle feedlots, Mider reports. But plugging Permian oil and gas wells could offer the biggest payoff for the least money.

Though companies such as BP have significantly reduced their emissions, state and federal laws haven't really forced drillers to take action. That's changing, little by little. A federal methane rule, which applied to a limited number of oil facilities, was restored this year after being gutted by the Trump administration. "Now the Environmental Protection Agency is crafting a rule that would apply to more wells," Mider reports. 

And "Senate Democrats plan to include a 'methane polluter fee' in their $3.5 trillion budget resolution that would hit energy producers that vent or burn off excess methane and compressors used to pressurize and transport natural gas," Ximena Bustillo reports for Politico's Weekly Agriculture.

At the state level, the New Mexico Environment Department is phasing in limits on flaring and methane. Texas has not taken significant action on either front, Mider reports.

And, as Inside Climate News notes, Texas is diverting one-third of the money meant for clean-air initiatives to widening highways in order to reduce congestion. Vehicle licensing and sales fees and surcharges generate as much as $250 million a year for that fund. The state has about $2 billion in unspent funds meant to mitigate air pollution.