Pro-Con: Are U.S. oil and gas producers really doing enough to protect the environment?
Yes: Our oil and gas producers lead world in cutting carbon emissions
When it comes to energy, the United States has achieved an unprecedented accomplishment, not just in energy produced here at home but also in environmental progress.
The U.S. currently leads the world in natural gas and oil production, while simultaneously serving as the global leader in cutting energy-related carbon emissions.
This is remarkable because it demonstrates how market forces and technological innovations have helped produce more energy and a cleaner environment. Continued leadership by the U.S. natural gas and oil industry will only help us make further improvements.
This month, the industry launched a new initiative that will continue that trend by accelerating reductions in emissions of methane, the second most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, and reductions in volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
The Environmental Partnership is a voluntary, industry-led program that includes 26 companies of all sizes across the nation. These natural gas and oil producers have agreed to take action, learn and collaborate with one another in order to markedly improve their environmental performance.
At its outset this month, the Environmental Partnership developed three performance programs the companies will implement.
The companies will use advanced monitoring technologies to find and repair leaking equipment, replace or modify higher-emitting equipment and implement best practices to further reduce their methane emissions.
The participants will implement at least one of the performance programs, with the vast majority implementing all three. The companies have also agreed to track their progress and report annually, allowing the program to demonstrate its results to the public.
Importantly, the Environmental Partnership will serve as a collaborative platform in which companies of all sizes can partner and learn collectively on technology deployment and operational adjustments to further improve their environmental performance.
It is this type of leadership that has helped make the United States the gold standard for environmental and energy efficient performance in the energy sector.
Since 1990, the U.S. natural gas and oil industry has invested more than $300 billion to improve its facilities, products and operations from an environmental standpoint, and these investments have led to real results. The air we breathe is the cleanest in the modern era, and we’re doing our part to build on this success, with the EPA reporting that total emissions of six criteria air pollutants have declined 73 percent since 1970 in the United States.
Technological advancements have made it possible to safely reach new sources of natural gas, making energy more affordable and allowing us to use it more cleanly.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, natural gas accounted for nearly one-third of all U.S. electricity generation last year. This is the first time in history that natural gas is the leading source for power generation on an annual basis.
One benefit of the increased use of natural gas is that it emits half the carbon dioxide emissions as compared to coal when used to generate electricity.
So thanks to the growth in natural gas usage, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from power generation have fallen by 25 percent since 2005, helping to bring America’s total greenhouse gas emissions to near 25-year lows.
While there is more work to be done, this is good news for the health of our environment and the health of our economy.
More affordable clean energy means lower bills for American households and American companies, and the natural gas and oil industry is determined to make even greater progress.
Through the Environmental Partnership, our industry will continue to lead as we responsibly develop the essential natural gas and oil resources necessary to meet our nation’s energy demands.
A graduate of Purdue University, Matthew Todd is program director of the Environment Partnership, a coalition of U.S. oil and gas companies committed to improving the industry's environmental performance. Readers may write him at API, 1220 L Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-4070.
No: Oil and gas producers talk a better green game than they play
The oil and gas industry is trying to convince us it is serious about a warming planet. It promises to expand its efforts to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions that are the principal cause of climate change.
This would be terrific news if the industry were indeed committed to such efforts. But there are reasons to doubt that it is.
For years the same industry denied the reality of climate change, sought to diminish public concern over it and lobbied to block or slow government action on it.
Since the Trump administration took office, oil and gas interests have pressed to weaken the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and Interior Department regulations that affect the industry.
These include vehicle fuel economy standards that would help to clean the air in our cities, while also reducing carbon emissions as well as the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan that would have put the nation on a path to cleaner ways of producing electricity.
The industry has urged the Interior Department to open even more federal lands and offshore areas for oil and natural gas exploration and drilling.
Much of the industry has backed Trump administration and congressional efforts to curtail research on climate change science, scrub government websites of climate change data and reports, and reduce modest subsidies for renewable energy while increasing them for fossil fuels.
All of these actions by the industry and its supporters have taken place even as public concern about climate change has soared and the scientific community has produced ever more definitive reports about climate change and its impacts. This includes the recently released National Climate Assessment that pointed to the burning of fossil fuels as the primary driver of climate change.
But suppose that we take the industry at its word. What might it do now and in the near term to alter course?
It could invest heavily in renewable energy technologies and seek to improve them. More than half of electricity generation capacity added to the U.S. grid in 2016 came from renewables. Globally, two-thirds of generating capacity came from renewable sources.
That electricity could be powering our future vehicles. Transportation accounts for a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Within the past year, nearly every major vehicle manufacturer, including Tesla, GM, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, has announced new and expanded production of electrics or hybrids that will be more affordable and practical.
The fossil fuel industry also could foster breakthroughs in battery technology that will be essential to store energy generated by wind and solar power and to enhance driving distance between charges for electric vehicles.
The industry could fund additional research on cost-effective ways to capture and store carbon emissions from power plants. Success there could be monumentally important.
It also could help to educate the public and its elected officials about the economic, public health, environmental, and national security risks of climate change and get behind efforts to deal with it.
The Trump administration, aided by its supporters in the oil and gas industry, continues to argue that taking action on climate change will hurt the economy and cost jobs. It is wrong. With rapidly falling prices for sustainable energy sources, decarbonization creates jobs and helps the economy.
Given this reality, perhaps the oil and gas industry could shift public debate and return the nation to a position of leadership on climate change. For example, it could persuade the Trump administration to get behind the Paris Agreement.
The president’s decision to withdraw from that agreement seriously hurt our standing with allies and harmed national security, the economy, and the environment.
The oil and gas industry could help to reverse that decision. If it were successful, that could go a long way to rebuilding the public respect that it has squandered in recent years.
Michael Kraft is professor emeritus of political science and public and environmental affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Readers may write him at UWGB, 2420 Nicolet Dr., MAC B310, Green Bay, WI 54311 or email him at kraftm@uwgb.edu.
This story was originally published December 14, 2017 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Pro-Con: Are U.S. oil and gas producers really doing enough to protect the environment?."