Week in Review 6.10.22
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee newsletter! The SST Newsletter highlights the goings on of the Committee, the hard work of our Members, and a look ahead.
Majority Staff Report Finds Oil and Gas Sector Fail to Quantify and Address Super-Emitting Methane Leaks
On Wednesday, Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) gaveled in a Full Committee hearing titled, “Detecting and Quantifying Methane Emissions from the Oil and Gas Sector” to assess the challenge of oil and gas sector methane leaks. Members and witnesses discussed recent advances in innovative leak detection and repair technologies, as well as the importance of deploying such technologies broadly throughout oil and gas sector operations to achieve large-scale reductions in methane emissions.
Hear from our witnesses:
“Reducing methane emissions from the U.S. O&G supply chain is an urgent and achievable solution that will benefit numerous stakeholders including O&G companies, workers, consumers, communities, and the environment.”
Dr. David Lyon, Senior Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund
“Given expanding demand for US natural gas exports, managing methane emissions from the oil and gas supply chain is also becoming increasingly critical for national security and global competitiveness.”
Mr. Riley Duren, Chief Executive Officer, Carbon Mapper
“Methane mitigation has an immediate impact due to methane’s especially large short-term warming impacts, with a long-term pathway to unlocking technologies for other GHG management beyond the fossil sector.”
Dr. Brian Anderson, Director, National Energy Technology Laboratory
“Powerful new technologies exist that can help us not just understand emissions, but give companies the kind of immediate feedback they need to control them, at a cost that is not prohibitive to oil and gas operations.”
Dr. Greg Rieker, Co-Founder and CTO, LongPath Technologies, Inc.
Read the witnesses’ full testimonies and watch the hearing here.
During the hearing, a Majority staff report titled, “Seeing CH4 Clearly: Science-Based Approaches to Methane Monitoring in the Oil and Gas Sector,” was submitted for the record.
The report has three key findings:
1. Oil and gas companies are failing to address super-emitting leaks.
2. Oil and gas companies are failing to use quantification data to mitigate methane leak emissions.
3. Oil and gas companies are deploying innovative LDAR technologies in a limited and inconsistent manner.
“We simply cannot achieve our emission reduction goals if we do not address methane leaks happening within our own country. The oil and gas companies have a key opportunity — and a responsibility — to be a part of the solution as the we work to meet our emission reduction targets under the Global Methane Pledge. To address the climate crisis, we must push forward with solutions rooted in science.”
- Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
In The News
Washington Post: Oil and gas companies underreported methane leaks, new study shows
CNN: Oil and gas companies likely underreporting methane emissions leaks, new investigation shows
Houston Chronicle: Oil companies ‘likely’ underreporting methane leaks, House committee finds
The Hill: Democrats find that oil and gas industry is ‘failing’ to address methane leaks
Coming up in Committee
Subcommittee on Environment Hearing
Subject: “What’s the Forecast: A Look at the Future of Weather Research”
Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Time: 10:00 a.m. ET
Place: 2318 Rayburn House Office Building and Online via Zoom
Witnesses:
- Dr. Bradley Colman, President-Elect of the American Meteorological Society; Director of Weather-Strategy, Bayer & The Climate Corporation
- Dr. Kevin R. Petty, VP, Weather and Earth Intelligence, Spire Global, Inc.
- Dr. Fred Carr, Professor Emeritus, School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma
- Dr. Scott Glenn, Board of Governors Professor Center for Ocean Observing Leadership of the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University
