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Cleaning up Power Plants by Recovering Oil: The Game-Changing Climate Strategy
Even with the Clean Power Plan fully implemented, coal-fired generation is predicted to make up 22 percent of the U.S. power generation mix and natural gas will be 33 percent in 2030. Because fossil fuel-fired power plants are by far the largest emitters of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is causing…
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Alive and Well and Doing Better than Ever! — A Boundary Dam Update
Nine months ago on these pages, I reported that the Boundary Dam retrofit carbon capture project in Sasketchewan Canada not only was working to keep literally hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, but was controlling 13 percent more of that climate pollution than would…
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First Aliso Canyon, Then the Rest of the Oil and Gas System
On October 23, 2015 a massive natural gas leak was detected and subsequently demonstrated by infrared camera at the Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility near the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles, California. Over 2,000 residents have been relocated away from the leak and schools in the area have…
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Year One at Boundary Dam 3
Year One at Boundary Dam 3 — Or, You Can Catch Some of the Carbon Most of the Time or Most of the Carbon Some of the Time and Still Do Better than EPA’s New Source Performance Standards for New Coal-Fired Units. On November 9th, Senator Joe Manchin of West…
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Putting Out the Fire: Low-cost Solutions are Available to Prevent Flaring in Tight Oil Fields
Flaring of associated natural gas from oil wells in shale formations like the Eagle Ford in Texas and the Bakken in North Dakota has been growing rapidly for several years. Some well developers have acted responsibly, ensuring that gas pipelines with enough capacity are in place at wells before oil…
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The Wait is Over, But the Job is Not Done: BLM’s New Rules for Fracking
Today, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management released its long-awaited updates of its rules for hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas development. It’s about time. As BLM Director Neil Kornze has put it: “The portfolio of oil and gas wells overseen by the BLM has expanded at the same time…
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Recent Expert Reports: Diverse Zero Carbon Options Needed to Manage Climate
As we enter Climate Week, it’s a useful moment to review some recent expert reports suggesting the need for a broad suite of zero carbon energy technologies to manage climate change. In particular, these reports highlight the potentially critical role of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and nuclear energy alongside…
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Do CO2 Injections Pose Risk of Harmful Earthquakes?
How common are measurable earthquakes in association with oilfield operations? The answer is: exceedingly rare. Nevertheless, another scientific paper has raised the possibility of seismic events occurring as a result of injection of CO2 to stimulate new oil production from depleted oil fields. Since this process, known as enhanced oil…
