CATF Articles & Posts
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Study Shows EPA Underestimates Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Production and Demonstrates Need for Tough National Standards
A recently published article (Brandt et al.) assessed methane leakage rates from the natural gas sector and concluded that “official inventories consistently underestimate actual CH4 emissions, with the [natural gas] and oil sectors as important contributors…” The report stacks up 20 years of research—with different scales and seemingly different findings—along…
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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…
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Peak Coal in China — or Long, High Plateau?
China coal power is one of the world’s largest single contributors to carbon dioxide emissions, which will likely need to be reduced to near-zero levels over the next few decades to manage climate change. So when two reports came out in the last few weeks that project a peak in…
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Carbon Capture and Storage – Why It’s Essential
EPA’s move last week to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants marks the beginning of an era of widespread use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in fossil power generation. Going forward, in the absence of any other technology allowing emissions reductions, all new coal-fired power plants must…
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First Things First: Capping Corn-Based Biofuel Production
When Congress dramatically expanded the Renewable Fuel Standard in 2007, supporters of the revised RFS—which is supposed to push 36 billion gallons of biofuel into the US fuel market by 2022—touted the program as a solution to our overdependence on foreign oil, a cure for flagging rural economies, and a…
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The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Has Some Excellent Advice for the President on Climate Change
Two months ago, President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued a nine-page open letter to the President outlining six critical, common-sense pathways for the Administration to address global climate change during his second term. Released without much fanfare, the letter appears to have disappeared from public view,…
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Reducing the Shale Gas Footprint Through the Center for Sustainable Shale Development: A Good Start, But No Substitute for Tight Federal and State Regulation
This week, CATF joined three Pennsylvania environmental organizations – the Pittsburgh-area Group against Smog and Pollution, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, and Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, as well as the Environmental Defense Fund, in endorsing a set of fifteen water and air protection standards we developed with several large shale gas…
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Obama’s Second Term Climate Priorities
In recent statements, President Obama has ranked addressing climate change one of his top three priorities for his second term. Win, place or show, the President has already offered up a two-track course forward: first, take immediate action on near-term greenhouse gas emission reductions; and, second, simultaneously launch a conversation…
