The upside of reducing methane emissions: New jobs, a more secure future.

As PennFuture has been urging for quite a while now, industry and government must act soon to limit methane leakage from natural gas wells and pipelines.

As important as it is to crack down on CO2 pollution from coal-burning power plants (which is why we are such strong supporters of the Presidents' Clean Power Plan Rule), if we don't simultaneously stop methane leaking from natural gas infrastructure, we'll still be off course for slowing climate change.

What has us scratching our heads is why the natural gas industry hasn't already voluntarily stopped the leaks. Since methane is indeed natural gas, all that leaky methane entering that atmosphere is simply wasteful on industry's part, since they could sell that captured methane and help offset the cost of implementation. Why let potential revenue vanish into thin air?

An encouraging new report prepared for the Environmental Defense Fund shows that fixing the leaks can be a win-win proposition: Dozens of American companies now manufacture, sell and support methane control technology that works.

Pennsylvania, with so much natural gas infrastructure, should see many new jobs from the commercial deployment of this technology—if the natgas industry would start using it. (Explore this cool interactive map to see what's already happening here.)

And since we can't rely on the industry to do the right thing voluntarily, we need our governments—state and federal—to require them to do this.

Why should this be a fight? How can we resist technology that creates new jobs for Pennsylvania families and helps stabilize climate change?

There's no reason that we can see for industry not to jump on this technology.

Joy Bergey is federal policy director for PennFuture and is based in Philadelphia. She tweets @joybergey.

First Energy deactivating two coal-fired power plants--the future of energy in the U.S.?

On Tuesday, First Energy Corp. announced plans to deactivate two coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania. The Hatfield's Ferry Power Station in Masontown, Pa., and Mitchell Power Station in Courtney, Pa., will not be active after October 9. First Energy cites the cost of compliance with new and future environmental standards such as the Environmental Protection Agency's Mercury Air Toxic Standards, and the declining cost of electricity due to cheap and plentiful natural gas, as the reasons for the shut downs. There could be another issue at play, however. As reported by Anya Litvak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, persons familiar with the electricity market believe the reason for the closures is a general lack of demand for electricity.

Both facilities had previously been under consideration for retrofits to turn them into coal and natural gas powered plants but, instead, will join the nine other facilities First Energy plans to close. 

There is little doubt that the Hatfield's Ferry and Mitchell power stations are contributors of harmful pollution in southwest Pennsylvania, and nearby residents will breathe easier after the closures. In 2006, PennFuture filed a lawsuit involving the Hatfield's Ferry Power Station due to its inability to comply with federal standards for particulate pollution. The suit was successfully settled, and the facility was ordered to take aggressive action to come into compliance.

First Energy claims that after the shut downs, nearly 100 percent of its power generation will come from non- or low-emitting sources, with 13 percent from renewables. Hopefully, we'll see them bump up that 13 percent as the country's appetite for coal continues to decline.