awma.org4 em august 2015

by Jesse Thé

Jesse Thé is a professor at the University of Waterloo and President of Lakes Environmental.

As environmental professionals, we need to understand how current and future regulatory

initiatives infl uence certain energy sector opportunities. This issue of EM focuses on future

challenges and opportunities for our members, related to the growing trend of using natural

gas as a replacement for other fossil fuels.

em • cover story

NATURALIncreased Use of

GAS and Its Implications on GHG Emissions and Air Quality

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To reduce the carbon intensity of the American electricity sector, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the “Clean Power Plan” (CPP).

The CPP will limit carbon emissions from existing fossil fuel-fi red electric generating units, including steam generating, integrated gasifi cation com-bined cycle, and stationary combustion turbines (USEPA, 2014). Therefore, the CPP will reduce some of the opportunities on the current energy matrix, while opening new ones. Although a com-plex document, this plan basically attempts to shift energy generation from coal into natural gas and other renewables.

Our readers know too well most of the touted nat-ural gas benefi ts, such as reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) generation and improvement of air quality due to lower SO2 and PM emissions. Fur-thermore, the increasing production of natural gas in the United States promotes signifi cant economic activities, as shown in Table 1 below. Opportuni-ties will come in the form of incremental services to the hundreds of thousands of new wells and from added in-shoring American manufacturing due to lower energy costs.

Natural Gas Concerns Addressed in this Issue Figure 1 displays the evolution of the natural gas production in the United States, by source type. The International Energy Agency (IEA) (2014b)

and Lazarus (2015) predict that the natural gas production will continue to grow in the United States, even against low international prices and some restrictions on hydraulic fracturing. While the increase of natural gas use is overall benefi cial, it does come with adjoined issues.

Prof. Uddameri and co-author Sreeram Singaraju, from Texas Tech University, present a compre-hensive explanation on natural gas use concerns. Their article in this issue, “Environmental Impacts of Unconventional Natural Gas Production,” addresses most of the environmental aspects related to the use of natural gas.

Karin Ritter and Miriam Lev-On address climate change aspects of natural gas use, in the second feature “Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions through Increased Use of Natural Gas.” Their arti-cle comprehensively summarizes the role of natural gas GHG reduction by sector.

Table 1: Estimated eco-nomic benefi ts of shale gas and oil in selected American states.**Approximate values from (API, 2014)

Figure 1: U.S. natural gas gross withdrawls by well type. (2007-2013)

State Addt’l Employment Addt’l Tax Revenue

Louisiana 57,000 US$ 7 billion

North Dakota 50,000 US$ 1 billion

Ohio 65,000 US$ 0.5 billion

Pennsylvania 72,000 US$ 1 billion

Texas – Eagle Ford 47,000 US$ 1 billion

Texas – Barnett 100,000 US$ 11 billion

2007

Billi

on c

ubic

feet

per

day

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

02008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Shale gas wellsWells drilled into shale or other very low permeability rocks.

Other gas wellsWells other than shale gas wells with gas-to-oil ratios of 6,000 cubic feet per barrel or more.

Oil wellsWells with gas-to-oil ratios less than 6,000 cubic feet per barrel.

Coalbed wellsWells drilled into open coal seams or coal beds.

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Carl Linvill and co-authors warn about the “dash to natural gas.” They convey their solid arguments in the article “No Rush: A Smarter Role for Natural Gas in Clean Power Plan Compliance.” The crux of the topic is that investors should carefully assess their expensive investments in the natural gas infrastructure. Due to changes in regulatory frame-work and the risk of alternative energy expansion, these investments may have a short life.

Finally, Farhad Fazlollahi and Larry L. Baxter, from Brigham Young University, devise an ingenious way to use natural gas to work as energy stor-age and carbon capture. The fi nal feature, “Mod-eling and Analysis of Natural Gas Liquefaction

Process-Energy Storage of Cryogenic Carbon Capture (CCC-ES),” is a summary of their novel equipment design paper, which the prestigious Elsevier journal ENERGY recently approved for publication. Admittedly, this is an advanced topic that the authors did a great job in simplifying for a general audience.

Together these papers present key adjoined issues that impart important observations and dialogue that environmental professionals should assimilate into their collective knowledge of how trends to use more natural gas creates benefi ts and opportunities but also contributes to environmental regulatory complexity and future economic outcomes. em

References1. API, American Petroleum Institute. Shale Infographics, 2014, (as accessed June 15, 2015): http://www.api.org/news-and-media/infographics 2. EIA, Energy Information Administration. Shale gas provides largest share of U.S. natural gas production in 2013. 2014a, (as accessed June

15, 2015): http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=18951# 3. EIA, Energy Information Administration. Medium-Term Gas Market Report. 2014b4. Lazarus, M., Tempest, K., Klevnäs, P., and Korsbakken, J. I. Natural Gas: Guardrails for a Potential Climate Bridge. Stockholm Environmental

Institute, May, 2015. 5. SHIP, Shale Gas Information Platform. What are the Benefi ts? (as accessed June 15, 2015): http://www.shale-gas-information-platform.org/

what-are-the-benefi ts.html 6. USEPA Clean Power Plan, 2014. (as accessed June 15, 2015): http://www2.epa.gov/carbon-pollution-standards

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