global warming Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

EPA Seeks To Cut Methane Emissions From Oil And Gas

It’s part of an effort to tackle one of the most problematic drivers of global warming.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story should have said companies can eliminate half their emissions with existing technology at no net cost.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said over the weekend that it will curb methane emissions from oil and gas production.

The EPA seeks to cut methane emissions from oil and gas by 80 percent over the next 15 years.

It’s part of an effort to tackle one of the most problematic drivers of global warming. Methane is many times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, though CO2 lasts longer in the atmosphere.

The rules would subtract 58 million tons of methane emissions, equivalent to 1.5 billion metric tons of CO2, the EPA said.

John Rutecki, regulatory and legislative manager in Appalachia for the Environmental Defense Fund, says companies can eliminate half their emissions with existing technology at no net cost.

“This will stop wasted gas,” he said. “So by keeping more energy in the pipeline, you’re obviously ensuring that you’re bringing more gas to market.”

The EPA’s methane rule will begin to take effect next year. One oil producer, BP, welcomed the rule.

W.Va. State Climatologist: Heavy Rain And Flooding May Last Through September

West Virginia’s climate expert said concentrated rainfall and flooding conditions may continue for a while.

Dr. Kevin Law is a Professor of Geography at Marshall University and is West Virginia’s State Climatologist.

He said Huntington, for example, has had the two wettest July on record for 2021 and 2022.

Law cited multiple weather factors for the deluges the state is experiencing.

He said first, an unusually stationary jet stream trough is creating a path for low pressure rain systems traveling into the Ohio Valley.

“It’s kind of a steering pattern for storms,” Law said. “We’ve been seeing a lot more of a trough extending into the Ohio Valley, and that’s led to a lot of these low pressure systems following that path.”

Second, he said high pressure systems in the North Atlantic, sparked by climate change, are blocking any escape or relief.

“You have these blocking highs that prevent things from moving out,” Law said. “That’s been the culprit keeping things more persistent in our area.”

Law said future weather models show these combined inclement weather patterns may be with us for several more weeks.

“It’s not really until you get more toward the end of September, where they’re kind of dialing it back a little bit,” Law said. “We should be expecting some more precipitation, at least over the next few weeks.”

Law added that high summer temperatures, due in part to continued global warming, are churning stronger pop-up storms into the mix.

He said the wet weather systems are concentrating on central and southern West Virginia.

“As you go further and further north, there’s less rain,” Law said. “Believe it or not, over in the Eastern Panhandle, we’ve been talking about drought.”

Us and Them : Touching the Third Rail with Katharine Hayhoe

In today’s culturally polarized society, discussing whether the planet is warming and if humans have an impact on the climate is a topic that’s often avoided. Why? Because speaking about it can be akin to touching the “third rail” of religion and politics. Us & Them’s Trey Kay speaks with a person whose professional and personal lives revolve around the highly charged topic of climate change. Katharine Hayhoe is a respected climate scientist, as well as a devoted evangelical Christian – two descriptions that some Americans don’t think naturally go together.

W. Va. Leads Arguments Against Obama's Clean Power Plan

West Virginia led the charge against the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan yesterday in a day-long hearing at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

President Barack Obama introduced the Clean Power Plan last fall to significantly reduce carbon emissions to meet targets established at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change last year. The plan would require states to significantly reduce carbon emissions and incentivize investments in renewable energy. But the arguments made on Tuesday were less about the urgent need to stymie climate change and more about the constitutionality of the Plan. Opponents countered that the Environmental Protection Agency is undermining the system of checks and balances by essentially commandeering states to create a new energy structure.

The case was determined by the Circuit Court to be so important that all 10 judges, as opposed to the usual three, needed to hear a full day of arguments in the packed courtroom where some in the audience had waited in line for hours to guarantee a seat. David Doniger, director of the Climate and Clean Air Program at The Natural Resources Defense Council, said the most interesting argument he heard was from a lawyer representing West Virginia.

“There’s one thing that the West Virginia council said that really struck me. They’re trying to make the argument that if the result of the rule is to require the states to issue permits for new sources of have public utilities commission do their normal work, that this is a terrific invasion of state turf,” he said. “If that were right, every other part of the Clean Air Act would be equally problematic.”

While supporters say that the plan would spur investment in renewable energy, opponents say it would hurt an already ailing coal industry and drive up the cost of electricity. West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito said after the hearing that the economic impact would have an exponential impact on the state economy.

“It’s not just the coal worker. It’s not just the coal company. It’s the railroad. It’s the tire people. It’s the cars, the truck people,” she said.

The EPA argued that this kind of regulation is not unusual and that all regulation has market effects.

The issue likely won’t won’t be resolved until after a new president is sworn in. It is expected that the decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court.