Why the concern over fugitive methane emissions?

Methane is the biggest component of natural gas, which we burn to heat our buildings, generate our power, and even move some of our vehicles.

So what is fugitive methane, and why do we care about it? The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has a new infographic that's helpful in grasping the problem.

Fugitive methane is what inadvertently escapes into the atmosphere during the process of getting natural gas from where it lies underground to the point at which it's burned for heat or power.

Although carbon dioxide is the biggest source of climate-disrupting, heat-trapping emissions (due to all the fossil fuels we burn, including natural gas), molecule for molecule, methane is far more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere, perhaps 25 times more potent, according to the UCS.

Up to 9 percent of the natural gas we remove from the ground escapes as fugitive methane and has very significant heat-trapping ability, so this issue really is an 800-pound gorilla that society needs to wrestle with.

The methane leaks at many points: drilling sites, storage facilities, pipelines, etc. Our power grid is aging -- and old pipes tend to leak more than new ones.

It's worrisome to note that the UCS finds that fugitive methane emissions are higher for the drilling of shale gas than for conventional natural gas drilling.

Another problem: It's quite difficult to measure the actual leakage rates, or make any reliable projections about overall leakage, from our energy infrastructure since amounts of leakage can vary largely from site to site depending on geology, specific technology employed, etc.

As UCS says, we need more research to be done. But even as the science around methane evolves, we know enough to start fixing the problem in places now.

So what's a concerned society to do? Advocate for proven, cost-effective technologies where possible to reduce the amount of fugitive emissions. We need to be squeaky wheels to make sure the feds and states are monitoring what's going on in the field, and to hold polluters accountable.


And, of course, the most serious and appropriate response is for society to move away from dependence on all fossil fuels -- including methane -- as quickly as possible, and to move to a cleaner, more efficient economy that relies on truly renewable energy. 

There's no such thing as "fugitive" emissions from solar panels, wind turbines, or geothermal heating/cooling systems.

Now we have another reason to leave fossil fuels behind. As if we needed one.

Joy Bergey is PennFuture's federal policy director and is based in Philadephia. She tweets @joybergey.

Could China Save the Day?

In February, China announced plans to implement a carbon tax as part of a broader effort to improve its environment. China later decided to wait another year before implementing the carbon tax and recently refused to pay for CO2 emissions caused by Chinese airlines flying within Europe. It is confusing to understand China's position on the issue, but perhaps the country's leadership would help the U.S. to act? Well, China's new president, Xi Jinping, is in California this week to talk to President Obama about climate change, trade protectionism, cyber security and a host of other issues. Let's hope some real progress can be made.