Texas Oil Country Has An Invisible Secret
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ย. 2024
- In West Texas, vast quantities of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, are leaking into the atmosphere. Specialized cameras that can detect the invisible pollutant are helping to expose the problem.
www.bloomberg....
#Storylines #ClimateChange #BloombergQuicktake
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Fossil fuel executive overheard: ""Methane? Yikes! Let's blame cows. No dent in our profits.""
Elon Musk can use the methane for starship
@@MrSimonw58 yea and rest is for the Flame thrower users
Blame “windmills”!
@@MrSimonw58 Ah Yes Elon Musk fan that thinks Elon Musk will solve every single problem on this world.
I mean, its also cows. Just because we need to hang oil executives does not let meat consumers and producers off the hook.
Maybe the lesson here, is never trust petro executives
Doesn't matter if you trust any executives. They've already bought your politicians, legal system, media and regulatory industries... Your trust means nothing, because you have no representation.
ABSOLUTELY never trust oil companies
@@KillDeathRatioDJ yet you still use gas in your car.
the impudence of "petro-execs" is far less relevant (if not expected) than the elected "representation": both local, state and federal ("Second Amendment remedies" is and act of self-defense, if not survival.)
@@Ran-dom1 No I don't
so, the Methane Tax should be around 10.000 Dollars per Ton escaped.
Almost a Trillion Dollars per Year taxed to the US alone.
The scary part is that the fossil fuel producers producers might approach this as just another cost of doing business.
Companies pass the Tax to the customers so basically it only increases price of goods when you tax a company.
And who would get the money to do what with? The government? Yea, right!
taxes dont fixt the environment...it just puts more money into corrupt politician pockets.
@@asandax6 So the demand is going to be lower (since people can't afford it) wich will result in changes of the production sooner or later (no customers = not profitable = either death of a company or major changes in their practices). Additionally that taxes could be (and should) flow into research for renewable sources and other climate change related topics.
I’m honestly surprised this guy didn’t just disappear in the desert.
Stay tuned for part two, the Funerale.
As someone that once worked for TCEQ, I can tell you it is a handful of agents/case workers who get about 4 new cases a week with each case having a work shelf life of 6 months. That means each worker has about 30-40 cases at any given point, with every single gas station and abandoned underground gas tank (farms, etc) in the roll. You have to go bigger, TCEQ won't have the manpower to help.
As a Texan it feels like they handicap TCEQ by design. I live in Houston, and when I drive through the massive refineries to the south you can smell the myriad of chemicals just being spouted into the air. It's not reassuring.
this is very common though. if you cant avoid or stop legislation that hurts your activities then you seak to disrupt the enforcement.
on paper its illegal. in reality you can do what you want.
@@njipods Oh absolutely man. Regulatory capture in this country is pervasive at this point. It’s almost brazen in some instances!
If their men aint corrupt either!
I believe that is by design.
The fact that their flares aren't lit is incredibly concerning. I'm more concerned from a safety perspective. Lol your regulators need to step up, that does not fly in canada.
You should be worried. That is a real problem and your regulators should be more involved. I work in oil & gas and this is nuts. It's not even an expensive or challenging problem to solve.
To be honest it's laughable that nothing has been done. Not ha ha funny, but moreso like *uncomfortably laughing through something clearly not okay*
i’m from the permian basin, flares here are almost always lit. no idea why they aren’t in this video. those methane emissions are concerning though
Canada going to tell TX how to do oil? Lol 😆
what's crazy about this is that none of these emissions are officially counted, because they don't officially exist. the problem is liable to be an order of magnitude or more worse than it is reported to be.
Pass the cost on to end user . Don’t use it and there will be no need to develop it . But be ready for a epic collapse in the economy
Just use a drone with thermite ( super safe) to ignite the stack. Then you'll know it's not steam
Man, use common sence or at least learn something about basic chemistry first before you blurt out something like this.
Goodbye Texas!
I used to work for a contractor for a gas company. Wells have tanks that catch and separate oil, gas, and salt water. I used to drive a tanker hauling salt water from the tanks. They pump the wastewater back into old wells under extreme pressure. This can fracture the clay and rock layers, contaminating the clean underground water tables.
Every Permian disposal well I was involved including the two biggest in Texas at the time, didn’t pump waste water “under extreme pressure” they were on vacuum.
You have clearly not worked in the industry.
No one is hydraulically fracturing SWDs
Old news, from over 2 years ago. Put actual legal penalties in place, that ratchet up with each infraction. Then the companies get the message, when the PRICE OF COMPLIANCE, is less than the penalties.
what are they suppose to do
@@maaxrenn Federal regulations with severe penalties. The only thing the corporations understand is hitting their bottom line. Otherwise it will be ignored.
We should give Oil CEOs Jail time and seize all the Oil Companies Assets. They knew that emissions would be an extinction event
Old news from over a decade ago. All fracking should be banned and immediately suspended, globally.
@@carlthor91 It was the federal government that moved to shut down the coal industry in favor of NG during the Obama administration. The effects of methane emissions from fracking were well known at the time. The feds are responsible for this. No doubt these energy companies were lobbying for it though. Made Obama a rich man.
Make executives build and live in homes directly adjacent to vents. That, or face jail time.
That sounds authoritarian to me. What about freedom?
@@johnmonrow9981 Freedom to prosecute. It’s called “Skin In The Game.” aka “freedom.” You wanna stay a puppet...be my guest.
@@grizzlymartin1 Freedom to prosecute? What does that even mean?
So now you want to restrict freedom based on what industry you work in? How about we start arresting renewable energy executives for destabilizing the grid? How many people died because of that?
@@johnmonrow9981 Freedom to pollute? What about freedom to live?
@@johnmonrow9981 That was fossil fuels, not renewables, that caused the grid to crash. Seems like it was cheaper for them to not winterize and just ignore the suffering. Stop watching Fox and OAN. 🙄
"Forgiving your cheating lover one more time"
It's true tho right ? Lol if they beat you once they'll do it again !
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better”
- Dr. Seuss
Cute. But it is a constant struggle against billion dollar greed that doesn't care about the future. And greed is winning for years now.
So by getting rid of Florida we would eliminate the amount of pollution caused by Fracking. Problem Solved
Edit:spelling
It's Texas
And you w lose all Morden comforts and back to the stone age you go.
@@asandax6 shut
@@leedergs any comeback other than “shut?”
Short term answers, lead to long term problems…. way to go humans. We have to live one with Mother Nature not fight her in every step of the way. She will win every time……
Tell is alien, what works now? Battery storage? LOL
Shell just sold off most of their Permian Basin holdings. Perhaps they see the writing on the wall or are hoping to avoid getting caught up in lawsuits.
This is wonderful news. I’m calling a local real estate agent to buy
@@lijie6431 , what, you think you can buy surface land and simultaneously get the mineral rights to what lies below? The extractive industry doesn't work that way. You sure are naive!
If they were serious they could just shut them down... not sell them.
@@av_oid , they're pawning the problem off, onto someone else. That's what corporations do. "Problem? What problem? *We* don't have a problem ---- that's SOMEBODY ELSE'S problem now---- we made sure of it! ". I don't recall if the article said who Shell sold it to, but it may well be that there are tax-deduction advantages available to BOTH parties in the deal. Perhaps some investment group needs to show a loss and gain a writeoff.This is how the fossil-fuel business works; there are always investment groups willing to step in and make an investment seem more financially sound than it really is, just by virtue of putting money into it and raising the expectation of future profits. Shell-games abound, and the pun is intended.
Nope. Shale doesnt work for their business model
This is an old problem that keeps getting brought up from time to time.
Considering natural gas is at an all time high, one would think they would try to harvest natural gas and sell it.
Its called Fracking...
@@janeblogs324 I know what it’s called. What is your point?
@@donb2527 they lose more than 95% of the gas they are trying to frack
@@janeblogs324 they are fracking for oil, they burn the natural gas instead of condensing it, they don’t simply lose it, they are just not invested in harvesting it
It’s awesome to see people like her change their mind on climate change but it’s also very frustrating knowing that she only cared when it happen to her.
You just explained conservatism in a nutshell 😉
@@ThatDogBarkz yea I guess you’re right. It’s just a very selfish self centered realization. Super frustrating.
What's the difference between caring and understanding?
@@hattielankford4775 what’s your point?
They keep blaming cows.... Old policy !
Cows are responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions, try again.
And 70 to 75 percent land grows their food which was sometimes forest
do scientists have satellite imaging and software (NASA or weather agency) to detect amount of methane in atmosphere? they managed to do this with ozone.
have you seen Gulf war footage? First thing would be to ban wars :D burning oil well/gas flame must be very bad for environment and planet.
@@aaronwestley3239 cow farts represent 20% of usa's methane emissions
bruh it's not that hard to notice it lol, it literary smells like oil all in the area. It's like the only southwest part of the state smells like a newly tarred road.
Infrared is heat not methane. If you step in front of that camera it will show you are full of "methane ".
“You wouldn’t be able to see it WiTHOUt tHIs CAMerA”
You’re just seeing heat. Your camera isn’t seeing pollution, it’s seeing temperature of the gases. Sure most is pollution, but “cmon man”..
Yeah and that camera aint $100k. Not even close.
its almost like its colorless and you need to use infrared to see it
Everybody are complaining about Methane. Yet everybody wear clothes, use cellphones, watching youtube, travel etc. Without methane, all these stuff we take for granted will never be available.
Why do they put massive catalytic converters on the pipes???
Palladium is very rare and expensive.
The USA has 1.7 million Fracking wells.
The methane leaks out everywhere underground, miles away from the actual well. Its in the water tables
I'm pretty convinced that i have chosen the best path into the future to save our children and the folowing generations: I have no kids.
Lol
That basically sums it up nowadays, best choice is just not to have children at this point.
methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, yes...
thats why you see the flare stacks. when burnt it goes from a powerful greenhouse gas to a much more normal one called co2. its much better to burn the methane than release it.
So she is using a thermal camera that shows heat, but it’s automatically assumed that it’s methane?
Thats what Im wondering too, was looking for this comment.. took a while.
@@user-mm1nt1it5v problem with the world today. No one likes to question anything if it looks professional enough.
No one is taking action because the only thing you can prove is they are burning off-gas. Everything in your video can be proved wrong real easily by someone who understands how the camera works and how flare stacks work. I agree they should be using this gas for something but lying to achieve a goal is BS.
Why don’t they just light the gas torches? They are supposed to burn off methane gas to make less dangerous co2. The vents on top of the tanks are usually supposed to prevent over pressurization and explosion so I’m not sure why they included that.
Every time I drive through that part of Texas, I pass large areas of land that smell awful and there's always oil drills on them
I thought Texas was the place everyone is going for quality of life (???)
Okay. This looks like straight up from a horror movie. Holy smokes!
But isn't she just making warmth visible with the FLIR cam? It clearly says degrees Fahrenheit when she aims at a chimney.
With a normal FLIR cam, yes. But this specific FLIR cam is highly specialized to "see" gas...different type of technology, so to speak. Hella expensive
Per the climate policy watcher: “Though some termite species produce no CH4 at all and those that do rarely exceed more than half a microgram per termite day, the shear mass of termites globally has given rise to some very large estimates (as much as 310Tg per year) of their contribution to global CH4 emissions”
What's a Tg?
@@tetech2 a trillion grams
We need a punitive methane emissions tax to prevent this
Methane gas also escapes around the outer diameter of the pipe that emerges from the ground.
Yeah thermite that too
It escapes into the water table, into creeks/rivers etc. That's just the easy to spot methane. Its escaping from every inch of the soil
The wild thing is that camera that she is using is something that the Military uses. We had larger versions of those in Iraq that protected our FOBs by allowing you to see things in inferred before it could reach the perimeter wall.
As usual Billionaires are messing up the environment on our expense
Can FLIR specifically find methane or is it looking at temp differences (hot gases) - I'm only familiar with it being used in thermal imaging.
You're right, it's a thermal camera. It cannot tell you ANYTHING about what gas it is imaging, just the TEMPERATURE. This FAKE SCIENCE only helps the gas industry. The journalist should have done his research before giving this crazy woman a platform.
It's not the temperature. It's the emissivity in the infrared.
@@jimurrata6785 what do you mean by that? Does Methane give out a different wavelength of IR vs hot gases, or does it absorb a different wavelength etc?
@@singaman08 It is a dimensionless number between 0-1, denoting how much energy is re-radiated from an object (or in this case, a gas cloud)
While it _could_ be possible that we are witnessing some other greenhouse gas, the possibility is _very_ small, and there really wouldn't be any reason for an oilfield to be discharging something like a refrigerant.
Chromatography could better define _exactly_ what proportions are in that flare, common sense and over a century of history will say it is mostly methane with perhaps some ethane, hydrogen and propane mixed in.
Thermal cameras are one of many, many products that FLIR makes. They do in fact make cameras specifically designed to detect gas leaks and also many other products.
The FLIR GF320 detects hydrocarbon and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from natural gas production and use. With this optical gas imaging camera, inspectors can check thousands of components and see potential gas leaks in real-time.
Uploaded one year ago and only 200,000 views so far. This is the kind of video that should have gone viral. Lack of public engagement perpetuates corporate indifference.
Jeezus. I'm no greenie, but companies are losing money big time by not sealing these freakin leaks! It's insanity! Fix the leaks and you'll make a lot more money!
Find it quite hilarious that your own water has to turn black before you convert from a capitalist to an environmentalist. That's how it works.
Glad they didn’t run out of gas while driving around in the Suburban, that would have been awkward…..
11:25 "The French government vetoed a deal to get LNG from the Permian basin because it was too dirty" and of course the Russian natural gas that Europe already uses is even worse. SMH
(Of course, I'm biased, seeing this for the first time after The Invasion)
(Also, at the time of writing (for me) there *are* solutions on the horizon. Congress recently passed an act that, among other things, imposes a charge on some methane emissions. Also, MethaneSAT is scheduled to launch this October. MethaneSAT is a relatively small, low-cost satellite that nevertheless has some of the most precise methane-detection ability ever sent to space, so that should help get a better look at the problem.)
FLIR is for thermal images, it does not tell you if it is methane. Use a spectrograph
No.
The FLIR GF320 detects hydrocarbon and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from natural gas production and use. With this optical gas imaging camera, inspectors can check thousands of components and see potential gas leaks in real-time.
Read more about The Methane Hunters: www.bloomberg.com/features/2021-methane-hunters-climate-change/
Catch part 2 right here: th-cam.com/video/6c-WCg2Y7sE/w-d-xo.html
Man… how much do they owe us if these destruction has to be paid..
Can’t methane gases be burned for energy?
Would almost bet that their personal homes have natural gas and electricity, not even to mention the car they drove all over the country
The US on Global Warming: Blame cows and China
I grew up a few miles from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, just outside Los Angeles. I played in the creek that was contaminated with runoff from that place. None of us local residents knew there had been meltdowns there, we didn't even know they were running experimental reactors up there...we all just thought they tested rocket engines for nearby Rocketdyne Corp. Welp...contaminants and radioisotopes are being detected in wells over 75 miles away now. That site has caused the closure of over 140 drinking water wells that supplied Los Angeles and Simi Valley's drinking water, and who knows how long we were all drinking poisoned water BEFORE they shut those wells down? -It's the same old story. Profits FIRST...public safety LAST. -That's never gonna change until we squeeze the last drop from this earth and we don't have one drop of clean water left or one breath of clean air left to breathe.....THEN they'll listen and make the drastic changes. When it's too late.
Blame the pigs, not the innocent cows!
Flir cameras measure infrared radiation… heat, you need an actual air sampler to know 100% what it is causing the heat that is escaping. Im sure theres tons of methane escaping but this method is iffy.
Iffy at the very best, all they were capturing was the heat it was giving off. Yeah they flare stack might not be actively pumping out steam but it's still going to be hot from the last time it was going and that heat it going to keep dumping into the enviroment.
This goes on pressure filling LNG tanks, no pump used. Known for years. Old news that it continues.
"forgiving your cheating lover one more time"
Use emotive language when you don't have any real evidence.
Since she asked me what I think, I think she needs a drone with flir.
The greatest green house gas is water vapour from the oceans.
methane is 80 times as powerfull, that 5% of stacks is ouputting more pollution then all the other flares in the area combined. (as well as other volatile compounds)
The most ridiculous thing about all this is that you can use the same methane from biodigestors for manure or food waste. All that without the leakage and polluting the groundwater.
Any system can and eventually will have leakage. Another thing is that there is not enough of resources for biodigestors to run current economy.
It’s like tobacco executives says they’ve improved how the products kills you.
LOL. Now cherry flavored!
Everywhere I worked in the Permian the edf guy would not have been allowed. You were required to be clean shaven.
Also a substantial amount of the gas in the Permian is H2S. My company actually had an independent contractor visit it well sites with the Flir camera almost a decade ago. It made a lot of mostly minor adjustments to address the issue.
Oil tanks and water tanks on locations are not pressure vessels, they were all equipped with open vents, these vents were to limit pressure on the tanks. Tanks explode with very little pressure in psi.
Those companies should put as much effort in planting trees
People need to start taking these places down themselves over waiting for others.. just group up and initiate taking back your green beautiful planet
That would cause a lot of damage and even more pollution. Support more inspectors, better regulations and stiffer fines. The industry will respond. And the rest of the world needs to lean off fossil fuels.
The world in general.
@@margaretash9706 well the "taking down" isn't universal in technique and leaves unlimited options open.. things like emailing the owner and offering a better deal.. or to purchase etc
Bravo Sharon!
You know what I find funny? People will blame capitalism for this one when it’s really the government cronyism. The consumer already wants something else, clean energy and there are producers willing to provide it, but government makes it hard for them to compete or even set up.
You sound like someone who lived downwind from those vents for a little too long. Also, no one in the comments here blames capitalism.
and if we try to remove oil, gas, and coal subsidies, the petrochemical companies will pass that loss onto consumers. This jacks up the price of fuel, pissing off Americans. Most of them won't like deeper, and superficially blame a President or Governor, or both.
Consumers can demand what ever they want but if it's not cost effective to supply than companies won't readily switch to renewables. The problem with renewables specifically wind and solar is that they don't provide power on demand but when ever they feel like so it makes Managing the supply a lot harder.
Seems more like you’re trying to scare people than inform them.
That’s why I went electric
That’s why America protects it so damm much
For god's sake. All i can think of is entropy haha. Youve got a powerful greenhouse gas venting into the atmosphere, I cant see how it couldnt be compressed to later burn to run turbines and sell as electricity.
yes, he mentions this at 7:33.
Basically the gas is too hard to store when pressure builds up.
I assume these energy companies have metric tons of storage tanks/containers available, but logistically and practically using them in the locations that require gas venting is probably not sensibly doable. ...That or not nearly as profitable
Its a matter of "is it profitable or not". Of course they could compress and store the gasses and actually use the energy released when burned, but it would cost them $$.
The permian basin emits methane even without drilling.
It’s a broken system if a lone woman is the only one showing this to us.
Infrared cameras does not detect methane
it detects heat
quite often the regulator for the flare is broken and the gas is going too fast so the flame speed is too fast to sustain, it stopped.
why no explanation how the camera works? Infrared measures temperature. The image shows variations in temperature. I dont buy this
I’m surprised that he left out Arctic permafrost melt as another huge source of environmental methane. A comprehensive assessment of all contributing factors must be presented to formulate an effective solution.
But to be fair, that is not direct human caused emissions, so we can't really do much about that except hope that doesn't burp out catastrophic amounts.
At least the gas producers could flare off their emissions of methane if they just followed their own procedures and I guess laws.
As it is an explosive gas they risk blowing up the entire plant/storage area when they just release it.
@@tjampman You are 100% correct! Besides, the scope of your article only covers Texas extraction operations and not Global natural deposits.
There are several sources of methane emissions but the easiest ones to prevent are the leaks from wells.
What a waste of methane
How will we heat our homes in winter?
Windmills?
Nuclear
heat pumps work in most climates
Low pressure gathering systems to capture methane from storage tanks and process facilities is a solution currently available. The issue with the Permian basin is the production and facilities are spread all over so it requires a lot more equipment and gathering systems which means capital and operating cost.
The operators need to be audited and charged on a produced barrel basis. On the other hand IF the solution is in everybody's interest a tax break should be offered to help get there ASAP. It is also safer NOT to have families gas in the air.
Nuclear is more safe then airline planes
smh
This is great reporting. Now what to do about it? Contribute to EDF? What?
Of course it would be better to shut down everything and close all the fracking wells, but the situation prosented in the video is an Incredible lose/lose situation: the environment is been polluted (direct natural gas is 16x worst than the CO2 released by burning it) and at the same time the company loses a product they could make money with.
My question is: why the gas companies don't look directly at this problem? It would increase their bottom line while preserving the environment also
The same reason they didn't worry about it in the first place; it's incredibly cost prohibitive. The small amount of methane saved would never come close to offsetting the cost of the equipment and especially man-hours to attempt to salvage it. This would translate to significant increase in costs to the consumer, which they will not tolerate (and thus inturn vote in people who will provide clean energy)
I also disagree it would be better to shut everything down and close all fracking wells. I personally treasure living in a warm house in the winter and having hot water available at all times.
They know all about the problem they just don't want to choke their wells back to help fix the problem (less oil production less flairs) cuz they're competing for the oil with their naboring oil companies just across the fence!! They need better vapor recovery units!!
But then wat about all the methane and gases just leaking out of the ground, volcanos, sea, etc. other countries does the EPA look at that?
Lol not like anything will change money decides this miserable society's future
“there! you can see it from my F250!”
So that's why its always 115F in the summer.
people can die of anything these days it's so scaring too too see dying everyday.. used to work disabled and I have seen a lot people dying every single days
You should look into uncapped wells that emit.
Natural gas prices are spiking, and here they are flaring it off and releasing it without capture and sale.
When you go to midland Odessa on Google map you see the black holes everywhere
so she's using a thermal imaging lens to see hot gas ? don't try to church it up, she a photographer.
Im so confuse.. every enviromental issue I saw last years says that is the main problem for global warming.. So if I count it then it is more then 400% and it doesnt make any sense to me.
Lol was that Steve from La Bamba?
This is great work
um... isn't that a thermal camera?
Instead of carbon credits or fines, regulators should force companies to liquidate some of their own shares and distribute the returns to their non executive employees. I guarantee they they’ll fix their issues immediately.
But that's communism
@@Demopans5990 Uh oh! Communism! Everyone’s favorite straw-man.
@@Lucas-hb1uq
If everything is communist now, nothing is
Those cameras are made to see heat.. that's obviously going to be billowing from a flame
methane production can be more efficient i agree. but methane is not a very potent greenhouse gas anymore the claim that is it is, is dated. its potency was readjusted 4 times lower, partly because it's lifespan is very low. it falls apart in the air and barely reaches the upperparts of the atmosphere where the greenhouse effect takes place.
Is it possible to contact the journalist?
Yes.
I didn't even know methane makes 6 times worsen than co2 . I need to be careful to take care of my own kitchen gas emissions
What kind of kitchen do you have xD You usually use propane for that
As soon as I saw Leslie Stahl...........👎
FLIR shows temperature differences ONLY!