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A POSSIBILITY FOR BIPARTISANSHIP? Energy Secretary
Jennifer Granholm is touting major spending on carbon capture as key to finding agreement with Republicans on infrastructure.
Granholm, taking questions at a roundtable event yesterday, suggested she was unfazed by
remarks by Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell that Republicans won t go above $600 billion on infrastructure and don t want to revisit the GOP tax cut bill to pay for it.
Investing in Natural Gas Pipelines Said to Move U.S. to Net Zero Faster
A new report by Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy has found that investing in the U.S. natural gas pipeline network could be crucial to helping the United States reach its 2050 net-zero emission goals.
“Fortifying and upgrading the system could prepare the existing infrastructure to transport zero-carbon fuels as they become available and, in the meantime, reduce harmful methane leaks from natural gas,” the report’s authors Erin Blanton, Melissa Lott and Kirsten Smith said.
The authors recommended new regulation around detecting and repairing methane leaks. They also recommended pipeline upgrades that would fortify the pipeline network and allow for the blended use of other compatible fuels on the natural gas grid.
Appalachian Natural Gas, Coal Produce Most Methane in U.S., Kayrros Says
New measurements released last week by Kayrros quantifying emissions across the Appalachian Basin show the region is the biggest source of methane in the United States.
Kayrros, which uses satellites and other methods to track emissions, said methane from Appalachia exceeds even the country’s most active oil and gas fields in the Permian Basin. But Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky are home to prolific natural gas and coal production. Methane emissions from the resources combine to outweigh those from other extraction states.
Kayrros said recent data show emissions from fossil fuel production in the Appalachian Basin hit 3 million tons (Mt) in 2019 and 2.4 Mt in 2020.
PERSPECTIVE: Biden administration and industry alike see hydrogen as Swiss Army knife for eliminating emissions gazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Natural Gas Said ‘Part of the Solution’ as Biden Pledges to Halve US GHG Emissions
Energy stakeholders endorsed President Biden’s strengthening of U.S. climate change commitments on Thursday, but they also stressed the importance of natural gas in achieving deep decarbonization of the economy.
Biden said Thursday the United States will target a 50-52% reduction in economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by 2030 versus 2005 levels.
The announcement, made during the virtually held Leaders Summit on Climate, doubles a previous U.S. commitment of a 26-28% reduction under the 2015 United Nations (UN) Climate Agreement, aka the Paris Agreement.
Each country’s commitment, submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, is known formally as the country’s nationally determined contribution or NDC.