Methane is a harmless gas that is emitted by a number of natural sources.  There is no reason to impose costly environmental restrictions on business and industry to reduce the production of methane gas.  Methane is one component of the 'greenhouse effect' in the atmosphere, but global warming is not a problem.  All greenhouse gases are essential to life on Earth.  Legislative regulations will not reduce or eliminate natural sources of methane, but they will put the brakes on the U.S. economy.

Before you get too eager to eliminate methane emissions — at a tremendous cost and inconvenience to everyone — you should first be aware of various natural (unstoppable) sources of methane. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Also take note of the unstoppable fire is in the Darvaza Gas Crater in Derweze, Turkmenistan.

Bay Area Regulators Want To Ban Gas Furnaces and Water Heaters.  If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you may soon have to give up your natural gas heaters.  On March 15, regulators will decide if they will ban new propane water heaters and furnaces, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.  Residents would have to replace their broken gas units with electric appliances, starting in 2027 for most water heaters and in 2029 for furnaces.  The sweeping proposal from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's board is similar to a recent move by the Biden administration to crack down on gas stoves because of their alleged link to childhood asthma.  The news drew immediate public outrage, which the media described as the latest twist in the "culture wars."

Meet the Green Energy Group Behind the Study That's Driving Calls To Ban Gas Stoves.  The green energy group behind a study cited in Consumer Product Safety commissioner Richard Trumka Jr.'s call to ban gas stoves has partnered with the Chinese government to implement an "economy-wide transformation" away from oil and gas.  Colorado-based nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute, which published the December study that attributes 13 percent of U.S. childhood asthma cases to gas-stove use, is hardly staffed by an objective group of scientists. [...] The Rocky Mountain Institute is far from the first green energy group to advocate for the banning of gas stoves, which nearly 40 percent of U.S. homes use.  But the nonprofit's newfound influence reflects the Biden administration's alignment with the left's loudest climate activists.  President Joe Biden has already proposed a natural gas phaseout in federal buildings, which would ban fossil-fuel equipment in new buildings by 2030.

CNN host accidentally EXPOSES real motives for gas stove ban live on-air.  Every once in a while, left-wing propagandists will accidentally blurt out the truth.  That's exactly what happened on CNN the other day when one of the network's hosts was discussing the Biden administration's proposed war on gas stoves.  While the official party line from the federal government claimed that gas stoves needed to be phased out to prevent childhood asthma, CNN let slip that there is a bigger motive behind the move.  [Video clip]

The Gas Stove Scare Is A Fraud Created By Climate Change Authoritarians.  In the past I have often tried to take a big picture approach to the issues facing the American public and how there is almost always a deeper connection between a variety of political and economic events.  And, what has become increasingly clear to me is that in order to understand government actions and geopolitics, you must always ask yourself "Who benefits?" [...] Right now I'd like to take a look at a relatively small issue and how the little dominoes lead up to a bigger con game and a bigger disaster.  Let's talk about gas stoves.  Frankly, I don't care about what my stove uses to cook with as long as it works.  That said, around 38% of US households use natural gas for cooking and heating.  That's a significant percentage of people that rely on gas based energy for their daily needs.  Here's the problem, though — Natural gas is not politically correct these days.  Nearly all carbon emitting energy sources have been marked by climate activists and western governments as a threat that needs to be erased between 2030 [and] 2050.

GOP bill blocks Biden admin from banning gas stoves: 'Regulation run amok'.  House Republicans introduced legislation on Thursday that would prohibit the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) from banning gas stoves, after the agency indicated an interest in aggressively regulating or even banning the common kitchen cooking appliance used in millions of homes.  Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and 43 House Republicans introduced the GAS Act, which is aimed at making sure the possibility of a ban is taken off the kitchen table.  "The Biden Administration's clear consideration to ban an appliance used by more than 40 million homes and 76 percent of restaurants is worse than Green New Deal-style regulation run amok," Issa said.  "It is a preposterous overreach of federal power that would deny Americans a necessary product they use every day."

Gas-stove ban is off, claims Biden, but many are skeptical.  Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and millions of natural gas-cooking Americans can breathe a little easier: Both President Biden and the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission say they have no plans to ban natural gas stoves.  White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said yesterday that Biden "does not support banning gas stoves."  Jean-Pierre pointed to a clarifying statement by the head of the CPSC to buttress her point.  "I want to set the record straight.  Contrary to recent media reports, I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the [CPSC] has no proceeding to do so," Alex Hoehn-Saric, chair of CPSC, tweeted yesterday. [...] Conservatives had a field day exploiting the apparent floating of a potential ban on popular natural gas stoves, showing photos of First Lady Jill Biden, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other top Democrats cooking with gas.  Others noted that the main study launching the discussion was authored by writers tied to two climate-change advocacy groups.

The Green War on Natural Gas Heats Up.  Historically, those on the left never saw an energy source they liked.  Americans who have been around for a few decades remember the protests at nuclear power plants.  Then there is the war on coal which has been largely successful and continues unabated.  But something can and should be said for having a diversity of power available.  If one supply goes down, there has always been another.  But it appears the ability to pick and choose is now under fire.  On Jan. 14, Liberty Nation's Sarah Cowgill reported on Governor Kathy Hochul's natural gas ban in New York, which will take place over the next ten years.  This will mean approximately 60% of New Yorkers will have to transition their homes to electric everything from water heaters to stoves and ovens — the whole enchilada.  Dictating energy sources is a dicey business because it takes away a consumer's freedom of choice.  This has become so troubling that 20 states have already passed laws that make it illegal to block natural gas hookups.

Biden administration gas stove ban idea leaves NYC restaurants feeling burned.  During a Friday night dinner rush, executive chef Peter Petti will have stainless steel pots of pasta water boiling while searing salmon and steaks, all 12 burners ignited on the gas stoves at Sojourn, a New American restaurant on the Upper East Side.  Nearly everything on his menu — from a 30-day, dry-aged NY strip to a chocolate flambeed dessert — is cooked on the range.  "Some dishes require two or three pans on the burners," said Petti, 45, who's been cooking with gas since the beginning of his culinary career in the early 2000s, when he started as a line cook at Eleven Madison Park.  The Feds, however, can't stand the heat.  On Monday, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said it was considering a nationwide ban on gas stoves, which are currently used in 37% of US households and 76% of US restaurants, according to Consumer Reports and the National Restaurant Association.  The safety commission cited recent reports that gas stoves emit unsafe levels of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide and have been linked to cancers, respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular problems.  But the city's chefs and restaurateurs are fuming at the possibility of a ban and the devastating effect it could have on the health of their businesses.

Keywords:  Lobbyists, echo chamber, talking points.
The Creepy Cult Surrounding the Gas Stove Panic Gets Exposed.  If you've been on social media the last day or so, you've probably noticed there's a moral panic occurring over gas stoves.  According to Democrats far and wide, they are dangerous, cause asthma, and must be banned by the federal government.  As RedState reported, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushed that line on Tuesday, resulting in much mockery given she herself has a gas stove.  But what's astonishing is that amidst her absolute certainty on the topic, she had never even mentioned the issue prior.  [Tweet]  In other words, in the span of just 24 hours, Ocasio-Cortez saw some questionable study, promoted it on the internet, gained legions of supporters for her position, and then tried to pretend that everyone else had been ignoring her desperate calls.  As Charles W. Cook notes, it's cultish behavior.  Is there anything the New York congresswoman could say that her army of simps wouldn't agree with?  And none of them even gave a second thought as to whether what she was saying was true or made any sense.  It wasn't just Ocasio-Cortez, though.  Other Democrats lined up to preach the dangers of gas stoves, having all suddenly become experts on the matter.  [Tweet]

The real reason they want to ban gas stoves: climate change.  The push to electrify everything is going full speed ahead, at the same time that our grid is getting less reliable and losing base load capacity.  Brownouts/planned blackouts have plagued multiple grids in the country in recent months, and the electrification of the transportation industry threatens to overload the system even more.  Yet the Biden Administration, the Climate Change fanatics, and some "public health" folks are pushing for the banning of gas stoves on some shaky evidence that they cause asthma.  OK.  Whatever.  We've been using gas stoves for generations, and just about every restaurant uses them with cooks standing over them for hours at a time, but whatever.  If safety is your concern, what do the stats say? [...] This is [...] driven not by health concerns but rather is part of a war on fossil fuels.  Steve Milloy of Junk Science debunks the study cited itself, which isn't even a study.  It is a poorly designed meta-analysis that doesn't focus on children, doesn't say what they claim, and doesn't stand up to scrutiny.  They wanted a result, and created some "scientific" research to get it.

Consumer Safety Commission Walks Back Gas-Stove Threat amid Backlash.  U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman Alexander D. Hoehn-Saric issued a statement Wednesday assuring the public that his agency has no intention of banning gas stoves after a commission official drew the ire of the cooking public by suggesting the appliances might be banned in the near future due to the alleged health threat they pose to Americans.  "Over the past several days, there has been a lot of attention paid to gas stove emissions and to the Consumer Product Safety Commission," Hoehn-Saric wrote in an official statement released Wednesday.  "To be clear, I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so."  Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. had originally told Bloomberg News that fears over air quality caused by gas stoves was creating "a hidden hazard."  "Any option is on the table.  Products that can't be made safe can be banned," Trumka Jr. insisted.  The comments came following Senator Cory Booker (D., N.J.) and Representative Don Beyer (D., Va.) urging the federal agency to investigate the issue due to its allegedly disproportionate impact on black, Latino, and low-income households.

The Editor says...
Wait, is this a solution to global warming, air pollution, asthma, or access/equity/fairness/racism?

After receiving complaints from probably NOBODY:
Biden Administration Considers Banning Gas Stoves over Health Concerns.  A federal agency may look to ban gas stoves over concern about the release of pollutants that can cause health and respiratory problems, according to a new report.  The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is set to open public comment on the dangers of gas stoves sometime this winter.  The commission could set standards on emissions from the gas stoves, or even look to ban the manufacture or import of the appliances, commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg News.  "This is a hidden hazard," Trumka told the outlet. "Any option is on the table.  Products that can't be made safe can be banned."

The Editor says...
The government is really good at solving problems nobody has.  If gas appliances are unsafe, when did that start?  We had gas appliances when I was a little kid (in the 1960s), and they never hurt anybody.  Back then, my perception was that only the wealthy could afford all-electric homes, and that did not include us!

The Truth About Natural Gas: A Wellspring for the U.S. and Global Energy Future.  Americans are waking up to the fact that anti-energy policies are spiking prices and limiting access to energy.  At the same time, the world is discovering that energy independence plays a critical role in ensuring nations can control their own destinies.  Energy disruptions and runaway prices are hindering investment and development at the state level.  Michigan, Texas, California, and many other states have aging and increasingly fragile energy infrastructures that have come dangerously close to failure, or have experienced significant outages in the recent past.  The nation is experiencing systemic pressures that are stressing the abilities of states to create and deliver reliable and affordable energy to residents and businesses.  Energy security strengthens a nation's status and stature as a reliable energy producer and exporter and promotes both national security and quality of life.  The opportunity to return to energy independence is currently facing the Unites States: natural gas is a wellspring of wealth and security for America and a foundation for the world's energy future.

Methane: Much Ado About Nothing.  Thanks to Modtran, an online program maintained by the University of Chicago, we know that carbon dioxide's heating effect is logarithmic.  The first 20 ppm of carbon dioxide heats the atmosphere by 1.5°C.  At the current concentration of 412 ppm each extra 100 ppm is only good for 0.1°C. Carbon dioxide is tuckered out as a greenhouse gas.  But what of methane which is the excuse du jour for wrecking livelihoods, towns, industries and whole economies?  Methane, with a half life of nine years in the atmopshere, is carbon dioxide's little brother in the pantheon of the satanic gasses. [...] While not as pronounced as carbon dioxide's drop off in heating effect with concentration, the effect is still there such that at the current concentration of 1.9 ppm, each extra 0.1 ppm heats the atmosphere by 0.05°C.  With the methane concentration currently rising by 0.1 ppm every 20 years, the atmosphere will get an extra 0.2°C of heating by 2100.  The reader can decide whether or not he/she/it need be worried by this projection.  But methane has only been going up at that rate for a few years.  The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has measured since 1958.  Methane measurements only started in the mid-1980s and this is what the data looks like:  [Chart]

A Little Learning on Methane and Climate Change.  In fact, there is no climate emergency and there will not be one, with or without new regulations on methane emissions.  Methane, the molecule CH4, is the main constituent of natural gas.  Animals like cattle and sheep belch methane as they chew their cud.  They are able to get more energy from forage by digesting some of the cellulose with the aid of methane-generating microorganisms in their stomachs.  Termites use the same trick to digest wood.  Microorganisms in soils, notably rice paddies, also emit large amounts of methane.  To understand why methane regulation will be irrelevant to climate, it is necessary to discuss a few numbers.  This is not customary in climate discussions, which are usually more based in emotion than in fact.

Control Freaks and the Guilt Trip Travel Agency.  On April 2, 2007, the Supreme Court of the United States of American ruled that carbon dioxide is a pollutant.  So much for the wisdom and efficacy of courts.  Carbon dioxide is critical to the life chemistry of plants.  Animal life depends on plant life.  Within reasonable limits, and as much as we understand from known history, there have been times when the atmosphere had more carbon dioxide and times when it had less.  Until very recently, these variations were not created by the activities of man.  When there was more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, plant life flourished.  In those times, the potential for human life to flourish was greater.  [¶] The advance of technology in the Bronze Age and Iron Age allowed fewer men to feed more people and led to the green revolution of the 1950s and '60s, which allowed farmers to be much more productive.  Critical to this was the Haber-Bosch process, which allowed nitrogen fixation and created ammonia and artificial fertilizer.  Without this artificial fertilizer, farm productivity could not support the current population of the Earth.  Farm machinery depends on fossil fuels, and the Haber-Bosch process depends on methane, which is the main component in natural gas.  [¶] If you reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, plant life will decline.  If you reduce the production of energy from fossil fuels, farm production will decline.  If you reduce the production of natural gas, nitrogen fixation using the Haber-Bosch process will decline.  Each of these declines will reduce the productivity of farming.  [¶] If you reduce the productivity of farming, life will become nasty, brutish, and short again.

Methane — the Irrelevant Green-House Gas.  A Zoom lecture was hosted by the Irish Climate Science Foundation (icsf.ie) and Clintel on Wednesday, Sept 21, 2022.  In the lecture Dr. Sheahen focusses on the work of Professors Will Happer and William van Wijngaarden in their pioneering work in calculating the real-world Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) of the five most common Green-House Gases (GHGs).

Did the US (or its agents) blow up the Nordstream pipelines?  Thanks to an open threat issued by President Biden, the question must be asked: Is the United States behind the two explosions that caused a massive natural gas leak into the Baltic Sea?  The incident has cut off Russia's ability to deliver methane gas to Germany and other European nations.  The release of methane into the water and atmosphere is killing marine life and delivering a greenhouse gas pollutant into the atmosphere that would be gravely feared by believers in man-made global warming.  The word "eco-terrorism" comes to mind the describe the act of sabotage, if that's what the explosions were. [...] What raises intense suspicion on the United States is the very specific threat that President Biden issued against Nordstream last February 7: [...]

Leaking natural-gas from the damaged Nord Stream pipelines is erupting like geysers in the Baltic Sea, Danish military video shows.  Natural-gas is erupting like geysers on the surface of the Baltic Sea above the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, images from the Danish military show.  Danish Defence on Tuesday released a video taken from a helicopter showing the extent of the disturbances caused by the leaking pipelines, which European officials believe have been sabotaged.  The largest disturbance on the surface is spread across more than 1,000 metres, while the smallest is about 200 metres, Danish Defence said.

Did Putin's frogmen blow up Europe's gas supplies?  Western leaders blame 'deliberate' sabotage after Nordsteam pipe from Russia ruptured.  Western leaders have blamed 'deliberate' sabotage after the Nordsteam pipe from Russia suffered 'unprecedented' damage off Sweden — causing 3000ft-wide bubbles in the Baltic Sea and causing prices to spike.  Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said her government believes the leaks were caused by 'deliberate actions', adding that the gas supply pipeline will be out of action for around a week.  She said this evening:  'It is now the clear assessment by authorities that these are deliberate actions.  It was not an accident.  There is no information yet to indicate who may be behind this action.'

Please use all-electric appliances — but only between midnight and sunrise, when your solar panels are asleep.
California moves to ban natural gas furnaces and heaters by 2030.  California is committing to a plan that will make it the first U.S. state to phase out gas-fueled furnaces and water heaters in homes, a move environmentalists are betting will provide a template for other states.  The Golden State will ban the sale of all new natural gas-fired space heaters and water-heating appliances by 2030, under a proposal unanimously approved by the California Air Resources Board on Thursday.  "We need to take every action we can to deliver on our commitments to protect public health from the adverse impacts of air pollution, and this strategy identifies how we can do just that," board Chair Liane Randolph said.  "While this strategy will clean the air for all Californians, it will also lead to reduced emissions in the many low-income and disadvantaged communities that experience greater levels of persistent air pollution.

Leafcutter ants produce so much gas that they actually rival cows.  The fact that cows produce a ton of greenhouse gas in the form of methane is science factoid that people tend to pull out in casual climate discussions (you have those, don't you?).  As it turns out, one of the other major natural contributors of greenhouse gas is a creature that is a whole lot smaller but a lot more numerous.  In a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers from the University of Montana reveal that leafcutter ants are also major gas producers, pumping out incredible quantities of a different gas, nitrous oxide.

All organisms produce methane.  It is well known that methane, a greenhouse gas, is produced by special microorganisms, for example in the intestines of cows, or in rice fields.  For some years, scientists had also observed the production of methane in plants and fungi, without finding an explanation.  Now researchers have shed light on the underlying mechanism.  Their findings suggest that all organisms release methane.

'World-first' hydrogen project raises questions about its role in fuelling future homes.  On the northern shores of the Firth of Forth, royal blue waters lap against the weathered walls of Methil Docks.  The quays were once a hub for coal exports but, since the late 1970s, haven't dealt in the black stuff.  Now, the town on Scotland's east coast is flirting with another era in the energy industry — but it doesn't appear to be going to plan.  In what has been dubbed a "world-first project", called H100, about 300 homes in Methil and neighbouring Buckhaven in Levenmouth were planned to be powered by "green hydrogen" gas [beginning] next year.  Customers are offered free hydrogen-ready boilers and cookers under the scheme, scheduled to last at least four years. [...] Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water using electricity from renewables, with minimal emissions.  Under the plans, an existing 7 megawatt, 200-metre-high offshore wind turbine would be used to power an electrolyser on the nearby Fife Energy Park before the hydrogen is stored and transported to homes through a newly laid network of pipes.

The Editor says...
[#1] I suspect the trucks and tractors used to install the new pipes will be powered by diesel engines.  [#2] The consumers participating in this project have a great advantage over most people:  The (hydrogen) gas appliances are being provided to them at no cost.  That doesn't give a good indication of the feasibility of residential hydrogen use in the free market.  [#3] Windmills don't spin all the time.  What happens when the hydrogen supply fails to meet the demand?  I suspect we'll never hear about it.  [#4] How does the energy available from a cubic foot of hydrogen compare to the energy available from a cubic foot of natural gas?  A quick internet search reveals natural gas (methane) has a 3-to-1 advantage over hydrogen, among other advantages.

This is extremely dubious:
Gas stoves linked to asthma in children, adult cancers, scientist warns.  The more than 40 million households in the US who use a gas stove might want to consider an alternative.  New findings have shown that gas stoves — even when turned off — may cause asthma in children and put adults at risk of cancer.  Dr. Jonathan Levy, an environmental health professor at Boston University, claimed the stoves may pollute the air with nitrogen dioxide, which can cause lung damage.  The pollutant, a "byproduct of fuel combustion," is also the same that is produced on major highways, but since the kitchen is an enclosed space, it puts inhabitants at more risk.  The size of the home and the quality of ventilation also play a part, Levy said.

The Editor says...
Gas stoves are reasonably safe, when the risks are weighed against the benefits.  If there is too much nitrogen dioxide or radon or any other gas in your house, it's probably because the place is sealed up too tightly to allow any fresh air to come in.  If your kid has asthma or peanut allergies or cancer or autism, you should probably wonder about the barrage of vaccines he or she has had at an early age.

Don't They Know That Crickets Pass Gas Too?  Among the critters that metabolically produce CO2 are bacteria.  As far as I can find out, every creature on Earth that has a mouth has a gut. [...] You, me, the cows, the crickets, all God's creatures need to fart.  Especially we humans, as we have more bacteria living inside each of us than there are dollars in our $30+ trillion national debt.  Yeast, while a sort of fungus and not a bacterium, also exudes CO2 as it goes through its lifecycle.  Baking bread, fermenting grains into beer, bourbon, and other alcohols, and converting grape sugar into wine all release yeast-created CO2.  You can tell a greenie is truly dedicated to reducing carbon emissions when he stops eating avocado with toast, comparing sips of microbrews, and relaxing with a boutique single malt or pinot noir after a long day.  By the way, bacteria that live in the seabed alone make up 10% to 30% of the Earth's whole biomass.  They are snuggled into the mud happily breaking down organic matter into its basic components and releasing carbon dioxide.

Methane Emissions Create Yet Another Green Grifting Opportunity.  As we point out in a companion story today, some in the oil and gas industry have sold out and are supporting the Manchin-Schumer methane tax.  It's sad (and angering). As we point out in that post, those companies believe they are insulated from the effects of the methane tax because they have already deployed technology to reduce methane emissions from their operations.  But what happens when the federal government changes the rules by telling them their technology is junk and they have to replace it with new government-blessed technology?  Right on cue, the Dept. of Energy announced it will spend $32 million on "research" to figure out what kind of technology can lower methane emissions. [...] The importance is this:  The feds will research what technology they think lowers methane emissions — and once they figure it out, that tech will become required by the EPA, not optional.

EPA Agents Are Flying Helicopters Over Texas Oil Fields To Crack Down On Methane Emissions From Drilling.  The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Region 6 department is conducting helicopter flyovers over the Permian Basin to identify "super-emitters" of methane gas among oil and gas operations, according to an Aug. 1 news release.  The flyovers will use infrared cameras to inspect hundreds of oil and gas activities in the Permian Basin region of West Texas and southeast New Mexico until Aug. 15, according to the press release.  The agency hopes to use aerial surveillance to identify large emitters of methane and excessive volatile organic compound (VOC), emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids which may cause adverse health effects, as well as address any noncompliance indicated by the flyovers through EPA administrative enforcement actions and referrals to the Department of Justice (DOJ).  "It's just a way to intimidate the oil and gas industry," Steve Milloy, member of former President Donald Trump's EPA transition team, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.  "The EPA's conduct is outrageous."

Biden EPA Announces 'Flyovers' of Key US Oil- and Gas-Producing Region.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it will conduct "flyovers" of the Permian Basin region in Texas and New Mexico to "survey oil and gas operations to identify large emitters of methane" amid the Biden administration's climate policy initiative.  "The flyovers are vital to identifying which facilities are responsible for the bulk of these emissions and therefore where reductions are most urgently needed," said Earthea Nance, an EPA official, in an Aug. 1 news release.  The flyovers, which will use infrared cameras, will be conducted until Aug. 15, the agency said.  With the announcement, it means the administration will continue to target the oil and gas industry, coming after President Joe Biden sent letters to the heads of major oil companies in June and threatened to take action to increase supply.  The move drew pushback from the CEOs of ExxonMobil and Chevron, who both accused Biden of taking an increasingly hostile approach to the industry.  The Permian Basin accounts for 43 percent of the nation's oil supply, meaning any federal regulation or rules may impact gas prices nationwide.

The Editor says...
[#1] How will the aerial samples distinguish between natural and industrial sources of methane?  With so much oil in the ground in the Permian Basin, wouldn't there have been a lot of methane seeping out of the ground 200 years ago?  [#2] What is the estimated mass of the escaping methane, and how does it compare to the mass of the atmosphere?  [#3] The value of the energy produced by products from the Permian Basin outweighs the incidental leaks of methane and other gases.  Oil production is a messy business.  Get over it.

California governor calls for no new gas plants in climate fight.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced steps Friday [7/22/2022] to speed up the clean-energy transition and fight climate change, including an end to building gas-burning power plants, even as the move away from fossil fuels has threatened his state with blackouts and forced him to reconsider nuclear power.  Newsom said he would work with Sacramento legislators to pass a law requiring California to reach carbon neutrality, a goal set by his predecessor Jerry Brown in an executive order.  In a letter to the state's top climate change regulator, the Democratic governor also called for building offshore wind farms, deploying 6 million home heat pumps, requiring the aviation industry to increase its use of clean fuels, and setting firm targets for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using land management and machines designed for the task.  Perhaps most important, Newsom told the head of the California Air Resources Board that he doesn't want new natural-gas plants built in the state.

The Editor says...
The avoidance of carbon dioxide emissions and the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are both futile.  Any and all money spent on these activities is wasted.  China and India aren't wasting their time with projects like this, and they share the same atmosphere.

Methane levels surged in 2020 despite lockdowns.  Methane has a mixture of both natural and anthropogenic sources.  Around 40% of methane emissions comes from natural sources, while 60% comes from anthropogenic sources such as agriculture, fossil fuel exploitation and landfills.  One of the largest sources of methane emissions comes from wetlands — an area of land that is either covered by water or saturated with water — yet there is still uncertainty in how they respond to changes in climate and short-term variations, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.  The combination of methane's high global warming potential and relatively short lifetime in our atmosphere of approximately nine years, means if we reduce our methane emissions, we can partially mitigate the human impact of climate change on a relatively short timescale — while global emissions of carbon dioxide are reduced.

Los Angeles joins movement to ban new natural gas hookups to fight climate change.  As the nation looks for ways to cut fossil fuel emissions to meet ambitious carbon reduction goals, natural gas, that common household fuel staple loved by cooks, is feeling the heat.  So far, 77 cities and towns and Washington state have banned or discouraged new natural gas hookups.  Los Angeles became the latest to join the list when its City Council voted last week to rewrite building codes requiring new homes and buildings achieve zero-carbon emissions — effectively eliminating future natural gas lines.  Climate change experts say the shift is a necessary part of the nation's energy transformation.  About half of American homes use natural gas, and appliances burning natural gas make up 13% of U.S. greenhouse emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.  At least 95% of those emissions come from water heaters, stoves, furnaces and clothes dryers powered by natural gas.

The Editor says...
[#1] What could be more natural than natural gas?  If natural gas affects nature, why interrupt the process?  [#2] The opinions of "climate change experts" are the only ones that matter, apparently.  But how many years have the "experts" been squawking about the imminent arrival of an irreversible tipping point, beyond which the world is doomed, unless we stop using hydrocarbons for energy — without paying heavy taxes for it, that is.  [#3] Obviously, "water heaters, stoves, furnaces and clothes dryers powered by natural gas" are your only choice, if everyone goes out and buys an electric car, as the Democrats recommend, because the power grid will be operating at its newly-reduced capacity:  The tree-hugging baby-killing Democrats are doing away with nuclear power and coal-fired power plants (in addition to natural gas), leaving less electric supply at a time when the same busybodies are encouraging increased consumption.

Fjords Emit as much Methane as All the Deep Oceans Globally.  During heavy storms, the normally stratified layers of water in ocean fjords get mixed, which leads to oxygenation of the fjord floor.  But these storm events also result in a spike in methane emissions from fjords to the atmosphere.  Researchers from the University of Gothenburg have estimated that the total emissions of this climate-warming gas are as great from fjords as from all the deep ocean areas in the world put together.  The world's fjords were created when the inland ice receded, and are a relatively rare natural feature, constituting only 0.13 percent of all the oceans on Earth.  However, according to researchers from the University of Gothenburg, emissions of methane from the surface of fjords are comparable to the emissions of this gas from global deep oceans which account for 84 percent of the global sea surface area.  These results were presented in an article in the prestigious science journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters.

Scientists calculated the global population of ants: there are 20 quadrillion, or 2.5 million per person.  An estimated 20 quadrillion ants roam the earth, scientists have estimated.  The astonishing number — 20,000,000,000,000,000 — means there would be about 2.5 million ants per single human living today.  "It's unimaginable," Patrick Schultheiss, a lead author on the study, told The Washington Post.  "We simply cannot imagine 20 quadrillion ants in one pile, for example.  It just doesn't work."

Methane and Climate.  Atmospheric methane (CH₄) contributes to the radiative forcing of Earth's atmosphere.  Radiative forcing is the difference in the net upward thermal radiation from the Earth through a transparent atmosphere and radiation through an otherwise identical atmosphere with greenhouse gases.  Radiative forcing, normally specified in Watts per square meter, depends on latitude, longitude and altitude, but it is often quoted for a representative temperate latitude, and for the altitude of the tropopause, or for the top of the atmosphere.  For current concentrations of greenhouse gases, the radiative forcing at the tropopause, per added CH₄ molecule, is about 30 times larger than the forcing per added carbon-dioxide (CO₂) molecule.  This is due to the heavy saturation of the absorption band of the abundant greenhouse gas, CO₂.  But the rate of increase of CO₂ molecules, about 2.3 ppm/year (ppm = part per million), is about 300 times larger than the rate of increase of CH₄ molecules, which has been around 0.0076 ppm/year since the year 2008.  So the contribution of methane to the annual increase in forcing is one tenth (30/300) that of carbon dioxide.  The net forcing from CH₄ and CO₂ increases is about 0.05 W per square meter per year.  Other things being equal, this will cause a temperature increase of about 0.012 C  per year.  Proposals to place harsh restrictions on methane emissions because of warming fears are not justified by facts.

Natural gas [is a] 'large part' of solution to climate goals, industry leader says.  A leading supplier of natural gas in Wyoming told Fox News there are misconceptions about the fossil fuel that powers everything from cell phones to electric cars.  "The single largest misconception about natural gas is that we can't do it clean," Jonah Energy Vice President Paul Ulrich told Fox News.  "We can," he continued.  "We've proven it here in the Jonah Field.  Other operators have proven it, and we absolutely are a large part of the solution to climate goals."  Ulrich said about 40% of electric generation in the U.S. is powered by natural gas.

Biden's New "Regressive" Methane Tax Will Raise Average American's Gas Bill By 17%.  At a time when the Biden administration is panicking in an attempt to keep energy prices down, the House has slapped a "fee" on methane that is being called a "stealth tax" on natural gas and everyone who uses it.  The House bill results in an "escalating tax on methane emissions by oil and gas producers," a new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal points out.  The tax will hit $1,500 per ton by 2025 and the fee is supposed to be a contribution to recent promises made in Glasgow to curb methane emissions.  The cost of the fee will obviously get passed along to the consumer, which will then result in even higher energy prices than consumers are already struggling with.  180 million Americans use natural gas to hear their homes, the report says.

Biden's Methane Gas Tax will Raise the Average American's Heating Bill by 16%.  Would you rather pay lower prices than higher prices to heat your home this winter?  Well, too bad.  Brandon is worried about the climate, what with all those tornadoes and such, so he's pushing a new tax that'll raise your heating bill by 16% this winter alone.  Background on the new tax and the cost imposed by it comes from the Wall Street Journal, which reported that the House of Representatives just passed a stealth tax on natural gas.

Pocket-sized aerosolized inhalers emit tiny amounts of methane.  They're wrecking the earth!
Latest Climate Culprits: Asthmatics.  By now you should know that you hate the planet if you eat beef, instead of mashed-up bugs or heavily salted soy protein or algae or whatever.  And of course you hate the planet if your car uses gasoline instead of electricity, which is generated by, apparently, magic.  But did you know that now you hate the planet if you have asthma but you insist on breathing anyway?

EPA proposes rule easing regulation of methane emissions, Wall Street Journal reports.  The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a new rule that would ease the regulation of methane emissions at a time when greenhouse gas emissions are at their highest — the latest rollback of an environmental protection introduced under former President Barack Obama.  The Wall Street Journal reports that the EPA's proposed rule, expected this week, would no longer require the oil and gas industry to install technologies that monitor and limit leaks from new wells, tanks and pipelines.  Methane is a major contributor to climate change.

The Editor says...
Wait a minute.  I suppose news5cleveland thought they could assert that "Methane is a major contributor to climate change" without question.  Methane may have a role in the greenhouse effect, but that doesn't mean methane is changing the climate.  Methane has been around much longer than the internal combustion engine or the industrial revolution.  The only reason Barack H. Obama implemented EPA rules about methane was to make production of oil and gas more difficult.

Methane emissions: don't blame cows and camels, blame the oceans.  Methane emissions are a bit of a sleeper.  They are ignored (even by me) yet and cows, sheep, pigs and lamas produce a whopping 11% of the Australian national greenhouse emissions (mostly as methane and nitrous oxide). Livestock emissions are 70% of our entire agricultural sector emissions.  They are so important, at one stage Australia was considering a camel genocide — hoping to stop storms and reduce droughts by knocking off some camels.  So if we like ham, steak and hamburgers, we need to pay attention.

Volcanoes and Glaciers Combine as Powerful Methane Producers.  Large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane are being released from an Icelandic glacier, scientists have discovered.  A study of Sólheimajökull glacier, which flows from the active, ice-covered volcano Katla, shows that up to 41 tonnes of methane is being released through meltwaters every day during the summer months.  This is roughly equivalent to the methane produced by more than 136,000 belching cows.  The Lancaster university-led research, which is featured in Scientific Reports, is the first published field study to show methane release from glaciers on this scale.

5 States Could Wreck Their Economies In Futile Fight Against 'Climate Change'.  New Mexico voters will be picking the next powerful public lands commissioner.  As the New York Times notes, "at stake is a job with the authority to regulate the emissions of methane."  The Democrat running for this job, Stephanie Garcia Richard, has promised to cut down on methane emissions.  Since the state owns nine million acres of land, a crackdown on methane leaks from oil and gas operations there has the potential to severely hamper the industry, along with the well-paying jobs that go with it.  But methane emissions in the state have been dropping on their own.  That's thanks to industry-driven advances in the technology.  In 2017 alone, emissions dropped by more than 50%.  Forcing still deeper cuts in methane emissions will likely cost the industry — and the state's economy — plenty, but will do nothing to change the global climate.

Obama's third term: 13 times courts said Trump must continue Obama's lawless policies.  [#12] Hot air?  Trump must continue Obama's methane policies:  Last year, Judge William Orrick ordered Trump to continue Obama's lawless legislation of allowing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to regulate the venting and flaring of methane from oil and gas production.  This has been devastating to our burgeoning natural gas industry.  No statute on the books could conceivably grant such authority to the BLM. Orrick is the same lawless Obama-donor judge who declared a nationwide sanctuary policy attempting to block the DOJ from punishing sanctuary cities.

Trump Guts Obama-Era Methane Rules To 'Allow Job Growth In Rural America'.  President Donald Trump's administration is revising a former President Barack Obama-era rule on methane emissions to help make the U.S. energy dependent while helping people in rural parts of the country retain jobs.  "In order to achieve energy dominance through responsible energy production, we need smart regulations, not punitive regulations," Joe Balash, assistant secretary for land and minerals management, said in a statement following Trump's move to revise the controversial rule.  "We believe this proposed rule strikes that balance and will allow job growth in rural America," said Balash, an official inside the Interior Department.  The Interior Department believes the regulation was redundant and damaged industry inside rural parts of the country.

New York Gov. Cuomo Pushes Costly Methane Reduction Plan.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced an ambitious plan to reduce methane emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 throughout New York.  Cuomo has said methane is second only to carbon dioxide in contributing to climate change and represents almost 10 percent of the greenhouse-gas emissions in the state.  Cuomo's 25-step "Methane Reduction Plan," announced on May 17, calls for the state to cut methane emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80 percent below 1990's number by 2050.  Among the industries and sources of methane emissions targeted for reduction under the plan are active and inactive landfills and new and existing oil and gas infrastructure, including pipelines, terminals, and power stations.

Appeals court blocks California gas facility from reopening.  A California appeals court judge temporarily blocked a Los Angeles natural gas storage facility Friday [7/28/2017] from reopening — a year and a half after a major blowout spewed methane that drove thousands of families from their homes.

Bid to revoke Obama-era methane rules fails in U.S. Senate.  The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected a resolution to revoke an Obama-era rule to limit methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump's efforts to free the drilling industry from what he sees as excessive environmental regulation.

Cow emissions can now be regulated in California.  California Gov.  Jerry Brown kept up his assault on climate change Monday [9/19/2016], pushing through a law meant to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from dairy farms and landfills. [...] Brown's approval of Senate Bill 1383 goes after short-lived climate pollutants, which include methane, black carbon, and HFC gases, per the AP.

Crazy California Legislators Approve Cow [Emission] Legislation to Curb Gas Emissions.  Cows could literally be exploding thanks to new legislation.  If this wasn't California you would know it was a spoof.  However, nothing is too strange for California. [...] Costs will be passed on to consumers of course.  No one mentions what the price of a gallon of milk will rise to after this goes into full effect, but you can bet it won't be cheaper.

From Fracking to Flatulence:  The All-Out Assault on Methane.  What is the "biggest unfinished business for the Obama administration?"  According to a report from Bill McKibben, the outspoken climate alarmist who calls for all fossil fuels to be kept in the ground, it is "to establish tight rules on methane emissions" — emissions that he blames on the "rapid spread of fracking."  McKibben calls methane emissions a "disaster."  He claims "methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide" and that it does more damage to the climate than coal.  Methane, CH4, is the primary component of natural gas.

Obama administration announces historic new regulations for methane emissions from oil and gas.  The Obama administration on Thursday [5/12/2016] announced a set of much-anticipated — and first ever — steps to regulate oil and gas industry emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas second only to carbon dioxide in its role in the climate debate.  The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a new rule that will target emissions from new or modified oil and gas wells — and prevent 11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by the year 2025, the agency said.  And while this would not apply to the vast numbers of existing rigs, well pads and auxiliary equipment that have driven a historic boom in domestic oil and gas production, the agency also signaled that it plans to regulate these as well.

E.P.A. Methane Leak Rules Take Aim at Climate Change.  The Obama administration on Thursday [5/12/2016] unveiled the first federal regulations to control emissions of potent planet-warming methane gas that could leach from new oil and gas wells, the next step in President Obama's effort to combat climate change.  The methane rules, the final version of draft regulations put forth last year by the Environmental Protection Agency, require oil and gas companies to plug and capture leaks of methane from new and modified drilling wells and storage tanks, not older, existing wells.

More Burning Water Fracking Hype:  Aussie CSIRO says Methane Emissions are "Natural".  An Aussie Green politician has attracted publicity, by "setting fire" to water in an Australian river, as part of a propaganda attack against local gas fracking operations.  But CSIRO scientist Damian Barrett has been quick to dismiss the scare, stating that methane seeps are well known in the area, and that the methane in the video is likely from natural sources.

California's Ongoing Suicide Watch.  Two headlines from the past week tell the story.  First, you may have heard about a massive natural gas leak out near Newhall over the past few months.  This was not a leaking production field, but was a huge underground gas storage formation that Southern California Edison draws from in the summer to run natural gas "peaker" plants when electricity demand soars during hot weather.  Now that the leak is filled, the state has ordered than the underground formation not be refilled for the time being.

Workers cap massive gas leak plaguing Los Angeles-area neighborhood.  A blowout at a natural gas well that leaked uncontrollably for 16 weeks and drove thousands of residents from their Los Angeles homes was plugged Thursday [2/11/2016], a utility said.

President Obama's Methane Rule Threatens to Stymie U.S. Energy Growth and Innovation.  In 2015 President Obama and his EPA cronies unveiled a plethora of new regulations that will surely send energy costs skyrocketing and stymie the ongoing renaissance in U.S. energy development.  Regulations such as the Clean Power Plan, Ozone Standard, and the Waters of the U.S. Rule all pose a threat to efficient and affordable energy.  On top of these costly new rules, President Obama will use the EPA in 2016 to once again impose his regulatory agenda on the American consumer and energy industry.  For 2016 the EPA is set to push new regulations to cut methane emissions once again targeting the already overregulated energy industry.  According to the EPA's own estimates, this new rule will cost $180 to $200 million in 2020, with costs possibly reaching $500 million in 2025.

Efforts to plug Porter Ranch-area gas leak worsened blowout risk, regulators say.  Southern California Gas Co.'s effort to plug its leaking natural gas well involves higher stakes than simply stopping the fumes that have sickened many residents of Porter Ranch.  The company also is trying to avoid a blowout, which state regulators said is now a significant concern after a seventh attempt to plug the well created more precarious conditions at the site.

The methane makers.  The man behind one of the most influential reports on climate change, Lord Stern, has highlighted the impact meat production has on greenhouse gas emissions.  Part of it comes through methane made by the animals as they digest food.  So which farm animals expel the most methane?

California Governor's Sister Sits on Board of Company Responsible for Methane Leak.  The sister of Gov. Jerry Brown of California (D.) sits on the board of an energy company that owns a facility responsible for what is being called the "worst environmental disaster since BP" as thousands of residents have been displaced from their homes due to a methane gas leak that is expected to continue until spring.  A gas valve ruptured at California's Aliso Canyon Storage Facility in October in the city of Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley.  Multiple residents of the town were struck with symptoms including headaches, nosebleeds, and nausea as 2,300 households were forced to flee their homes; thousands more may be relocated in the near future.

Methane gas leak plaguing Los Angeles neighborhood still months from fix.  The escape of tons of natural gas from storage under a Los Angeles neighborhood is not likely to be fixed for at least another two months because of the specific dynamics of the leak, according to officials. [...] The natural repository is huge — nearly one cubic mile at a depth of a mile and a half, according to the newspaper — and holds natural gas brought from as far away as Canada.

"Unstoppable" California Gas Leak Now Being Called Worst Catastrophe Since BP Spill.  This is, indeed, the biggest environmental catastrophe since the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010; and for now, there is no way to stop it.  This methane disaster is worse than can be sufficiently described in words, because while it's estimated well over 100,000 pounds of methane spew into the atmosphere every hour, the leak can't be halted, at least until spring.  Even then, that stoppage depends entirely on the efficacy of a proposed fix — which remains a dubiously open question.  According to the California Air Resources Board, methane — a greenhouse gas 72 times more impactful in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide — has been escaping from the Aliso Canyon site with force equivalent "to a volcanic eruption" for about two months now.

Landfills: The climate threat in trash.  While efforts to avert disastrous climate change zoom in on cars, industry and power plants belching harmful gases into the air, a potent source of global warming is stealthily stewing underground:  rotting trash.  Landfills packed with decomposing dinner leftovers and grass clippings are among the world's top sources of methane — one of the most powerful heat-trapping gases contributing to the Earth's warming.

The Editor says...
Yes, but all that trash had to go somewhere, and even if it had been left in the city streets to rot, it would still be rotting.

EPA Moves to Limit Methane Emissions.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its proposed regulations intended to slash methane emissions from oil and gas production by almost half.  The proposal is part of the Obama administration's ongoing efforts to curb global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. [...] EPA's proposal would limit emissions from new or modified natural gas wells by requiring energy producers to find and repair leaks at oil and gas wells and capture gas escaping from wells that use fracking.  The rules would not apply to existing wells, which number in the thousands.

Claim: Arctic sea ice plays a pivotal role in the Arctic methane cycle.  The ice-covered Arctic Ocean is a more important factor concerning the concentration of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere than previously assumed.  Experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) report on the newly discovered interactions between the atmosphere, sea ice and the ocean in a recent online study in the journal Nature's Scientific Reports.

Energy Department smashes pumpkins for causing climate change.  How scary are your jack-o'-lanterns?  Scarier than you think, according to the Energy Department, which claims the holiday squash is responsible for unleashing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  Most of the 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins produced in the U.S. end up in the trash, says the Energy Department's website, becoming part of the "more than 254 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the United States every year."  Municipal solid waste decomposes into methane, "a harmful greenhouse gas that plays a part in climate change, with more than 20 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide," Energy says.

The Editor says...
Decaying vegetation produces carbon dioxide and methane, in your front yard, at the city dump, and in the most remote forest.  This isn't a new development, and it does not cause catastrophic global warming, which is obvious because if greenhouse gases caused global warming, the catastrophic warming (that has only recently become a concern) would have started thousands of years ago.

Methane Regulation: Some Personal Recollections.  The White House-EPA plan to control methane emissions is but the latest effort against our domestic energy industry and would simply raise costs to consumers.  It acts like an energy tax, but with no money flowing into the US Treasury — a pure waste of resources.  EPA is apparently unaware that the generally believed greenhouse (GH) effectiveness of methane (when compared to a molecule of CO2) is too high by a factor of about 100.  In addition, atmospheric methane levels are roughly 200 times less than those of CO2 — yielding a GH overestimate of about 20,000.  This display of recent scientific ignorance has brought back memories of 45 years ago.

Methane Madness: Science Does Not Support White House Policy.  Methane has many sources, both natural (about half) and anthropogenic.  The major natural sources are wetlands, swampy areas and bogs; the human-related sources are traditional agricultural ones, related to the growth of world population:  rice paddies and cattle raising (flatulence from ruminants).  More recent sources also include landfills and leaks from oil and gas operations.  Coalmines also emit some methane that occasionally cause explosions there.  There are also many natural sinks of methane, including ozone and hydroxyl (OH) radicals in the troposphere (lower atmosphere).  The combination of sources and sinks leads to an atmospheric lifetime of approximately 10 years.

EPA Targets Fracking With New Global Warming Rules.  The Obama administration has released new regulations on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling as part of the president's effort to show the U.S. is serious about tackling global warming ahead of the United Nations climate summit this year.  The EPA has proposed rules for oil and gas wells that will cut 340,000 to 400,000 short tons of methane emissions in 2025.  The agency is also proposing methane rules for hydraulically fractured, or fracked, wells along with gas "transmission" equipment in the downstream sector of the energy industry.

Obama EPA keeps seizing private property and churning out economy-destroying regulations.  Just last week, EPA proposed rules aimed at reducing methane emissions at oil and natural gas facilities by 40-45 percent over the next decade from 2012 levels, part of meeting Obama's environmental goals and establishing his legacy.  The agency says the proposal is a "common sense plan" to reduce methane, which EPA estimates to have 20 times more of a warming effect than carbon dioxide.  But industry interests say even though natural gas production has jumped dramatically in recent years in the United States, methane levels are already on a downward trend.

EPA Targets Methane Emissions, Provokes Ire From Congressional Republicans.  The Obama administration made major waves on Tuesday [8/18/2015] when it proposed the first ever federal regulations that would require the nation's oil and gas industry to cut emissions of methane.  Congressional Republicans contend it's further proof of the administration's collusion with environmental lobbyists to advance its climate-change agenda despite the lack of science to support it and regardless of the significant economic impact it is expected to have.  The proposal aims to cut methane by 40 to 45 percent by 2025 and would require drillers to stop leaks and capture lost gas in wells intended to extract only oil, as part of a larger push by the Obama administration to cut emissions.  Earlier this month, Obama unveiled the Clean Power Plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent by 2030 and increase the proportion of the nation's electricity generated by renewable sources to 28 percent.  According to The Hill, that regulation is "one of the most expensive EPA regulations ever," as states will have no choice but to implement a carbon tax, cap-and-trade, or dramatic energy efficiency mandates in order to achieve this target.

Climate Hysteria and Methane Madness: Belching Cows, Fracking, and Obama's EPA Mandates.  Is methane an even worse climate villain than CO2? In the run-up to this year's UN Paris Summit on global warming, President Obama, radical NGOs, and professional alarmists in the media are hyping the "threat" that methane (CH4) supposedly presents to the planet.  In January, President Obama announced plans for new EPA mandates aimed at cutting methane emissions by nearly one-half over the next decade.  Hence, the federal regulators are busily crafting and ordering new limits on emissions from cows and other gassy critters, manure piles, landfills, sewers, and motor vehicles, etc.  But the main targets, of course, are the coal, oil, and natural-gas industries.  Coal and oil, especially, have been in the crosshairs, while, until recently, natural gas was the darling of environmentalists, who promoted it as the "clean energy" alternative to its "dirty" hydrocarbon cousins.  However, now that natural-gas production has taken off and is actually replacing significant amounts of coal and oil, its erstwhile champions have turned on it with a vengeance.

Methane Sources & Sinks.  Natural sources of methane include wetlands, gas hydrates, permafrost, termites, oceans, freshwater bodies, non-wetland soils, and other sources such as wildfires.

Methane.  Natural sources of methane have conventionally thought to be dominated by wetlands. Where soils are waterlogged and oxygen concentrations are low or zero, a group of microorganisms called methanogens may produce large amounts of methane as they respire carbon dioxide to derive energy.  Wetland methane emissions are thought to comprise around 80 percent of the total natural methane source, with methane release from termites, methane hydrates (frozen deposits of methane), and the emission from the oceans also being important.  Total annual methane emissions from natural sources are estimated to be around 250 million tonnes.

About Methane.  Wetland methane emissions dominate the natural sources of methane.  Global emissions from natural sources total around 250 million tonnes each year.

Sources of Methane Emissions Still Uncertain: Study.  Climate scientists still haven't figured out the reason for the so-called "pause" in global warming — more accurately, a slowdown in the rate of warming over the past decade or so — even as emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide continue to increase.  But there's another sort of pause, involving a different greenhouse gas, that baffles them as well.  From 1999 through 2006, methane concentrations in the atmosphere stopped increasing after more than a decade of strong growth.  Then they took off again.

An avalanche of environmental regulations is coming.  The Wednesday [11/26/2014] ozone announcement would require factories, refineries and other facilities to cut back on their emissions.  It comes just after the EPA put off its announcement of the required blending volumes this year for the Renewable Fuel Standard, a delay sure to ignite a lobbying and political fracas next year as supporters defend it from changes or an outright repeal.  The Obama administration is also due to release an interagency strategy to reduce emissions of methane, a short-lived but potent greenhouse gas that is 25 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

Interior Secretary Jewell Plugs Methane Reduction to Deal With 'Climate Change'.  Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, just back from a submarine trip to the Arctic Circle, says she's seen the melting ice up close, and "there is no question... that the impact of climate change is everywhere."  She said the United States, as the world's largest economy, has a "responsibility to be part of the solution," and she said the solution includes policy changes.

Obama EPA To Regulate Bovine Emissions.  It's our lust for cheeseburgers that's dooming the planet through climate change, the Obama administration said in a Climate Action Plan released Friday [3/28/2014] that seeks to save us all from ruminant livestock.  Having already blamed the Industrial Revolution for what we used to call weather and temperatures that have flat-lined for 15 years, the White House is now targeting American agriculture abundance by slashing methane emissions from cows by 25% by 2020.

White House looks to regulate cow flatulence as part of climate agenda.  As part of its plan to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the Obama administration is targeting the dairy industry to reduce methane emissions in their operations.  This comes despite falling methane emission levels across the economy since 1990.  The White House has proposed cutting methane emissions from the dairy industry by 25 percent by 2020.  Although U.S. agriculture only accounts for about 9 percent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, it makes up a sizeable portion of methane emissions — which is a very potent greenhouse gas.  Some of these methane emissions come from cow flatulence, exhaling and belching — other livestock animals release methane as well.

Natural Gas Fracking is Not Causing a Methane Spike.  Natural gas fracking is not causing a spike in U.S. methane emissions, the latest U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data show.  The data debunk assertions by global warming alarmists that recent declines in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions — caused largely by the increasing use of low-carbon natural gas power — are being offset by rising methane emissions from natural gas fracking.

Cow Flatulence Has a 'Larger Greenhouse Gas Impact' Than Previously Thought; Methane Pushes Climate Change.  According to the new research, livestock's noxious flatulence accounts for a large portion of the methane gas being released into the atmosphere.  Researchers say cows are producing twice as much methane gas as scientists previously believed.  The states producing the most methane gas were Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas — which also happen to have a lot of cows, oil and gas.

Global methane emissions are driven by Soviet leaks, volcanoes and El Niños.
The true story of the drivers of methane.  Methane is a greenhouse gas associated with grazing animals and decaying plant material in swamps and marshes. It has been claimed as a factor contributing to global warming because of an alleged warming effect that is assumed by the IPCC to be 21 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2.  However, when calculated correctly[i] on the basis of atomic weight, the actual multiplier is only 7 and, moreover, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere is about 200 times less that that of CO2.  Methane in the atmosphere is broken down to CO2 and water over a period averaging some 12 years.

Earthquakes 'contribute to global warming by releasing greenhouse gas from the ocean floor'.  Earthquakes may contribute to global warming by releasing greenhouse gas from the ocean floor, a study suggests.  Scientists uncovered evidence that a large earthquake in 1945 released more than seven million cubic metres of methane into the North Arabian Sea.  The discovery exposes a natural source of greenhouse gas emissions that has not been considered before, they claim.

Methane Emissions to the Atmosphere: Natural Vegetation.  The impetus for global cooling due to carbon sequestration by Earth's peatlands historically has been — and currently is — significantly greater than the global warming potential produced by their emissions of methane.

Atmospheric Methane Concentrations.  Atmospheric methane's contribution to anthropogenic climate forcing is estimated to be about half that of CO2 when both direct and indirect components to its forcing are summed, and nearly all models project atmospheric methane (CH4) concentrations will increase for at least the next 3 decades, with many of the scenarios assuming a much larger increase throughout the 21st century.  A quick fact-check, however, reveals that observations lie far below the model projections [...]

Burp-catching mask for gassy cows, designed to reduce methane emissions and slow down climate change, wins prestigious Prince Charles prize.  An innovative face mask for cows, designed to reduce methane emissions and slow down climate change, has won a prestigious design award.  The wearable device for cattle, created by UK-based design group Zelp, was one of the four winners of the inaugural Terra Cart Design Lab competition.  Prince Charles, who launched the competition as part of his Sustainable Markets Initiative, hailed the ground-breaking design as "fascinating" at an awards ceremony in London on Wednesday, The Telegraph reported.  The design, a smart harness for cows, converts methane into carbon dioxide and water vapor.

The Editor says...
Someone should tell you guys that the methane comes from the other end of the cow.  Moreover, what have you gained?  Carbon dioxide and water vapor are greenhouse gases, too.  Just accept the fact that nature doesn't need your help to stay in balance.

It's an Unraveling, Not a Reset.  Modern synthetic fertilizers are typically made using natural gas or from phosphorous-bearing ores.  The former provides the nitrogen that is critical to re-use of fields in commercial agriculture.  They constitute more than half of all synthetic fertilizer production.  So what happens when oil and natural gas extraction are crippled in industrialized nations?  One likely outcome is that the fertilizer manufacturing industry is also crippled, leaving both large commercial growers and smaller farms around the world starved of a key substance they need to grow food for hungry populations.

The campaign to ban gas stoves is heating up.  Over the past three years, dozens of cities across the country have banned natural gas hookups in newly constructed buildings as part of a growing campaign to reduce carbon emissions from homes.  The movement scored a major victory last month, when New York City's outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law a ban on gas hookups in new buildings.  Though new laws apply to the entire home, the policy debate often focuses on one room in particular: the kitchen.  Gas stoves account for a relatively small share of the emissions released by a typical household, but they've become a proxy for a larger fight over how far efforts to curb at-home natural gas consumption in the name of fighting climate change should go.  Natural gas consumption accounts for 80 percent of fossil fuel emissions from residential and commercial buildings, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Editor says...
[#1] If you mean carbon dioxide emissions, don't say, "fossil fuel emissions."  Nobody is emitting fossil fuels from their houses.  [#2] If my house is heated in the winter by natural gas, and carbon dioxide is generated as a byproduct, here's what I care about most:  My house is heated.  If you have any courtroom-quality proof that the combustion of natural gas in the U.S. is harmful to the entire world, please step forward with it.

New York City is banning natural gas hookups for new buildings to fight climate change.  The New York City Council on Wednesday voted to pass legislation banning the use of natural gas in most new construction, a move that will substantially slash climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions from the country's most populous city.  The bill now goes to Mayor Bill de Blasio's desk for signature.  Once signed, the measure will go into effect at the end of 2023 for some buildings under seven stories, and in 2027 for taller buildings.  Hospitals, commercial kitchens and laundromats are exempt from the ban.  Under the law, construction projects submitted for approval after 2027 must use sources like electricity for stoves, space heaters and water boilers instead of gas or oil.  Residents who currently have gas stoves and heaters in their homes will not be impacted unless they relocate to a new building.

Methane Fee Is Latest Step in Biden Plan to Kill U.S. Economy.  President Biden has a methane fee in his Build Back Better bill and his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a rule to reduce methane emissions.  Biden announced at COP26 proposed methane rules put forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which go beyond any previous regulation of methane in the United States, forcing operators of both new and existing infrastructure to monitor and fix leaks of methane.  The EPA proposed rules would establish standards for old wells, impose more frequent and stringent leak monitoring, and require the capture of natural gas that is found with oil.  In the House Democrat proposed reconciliation bill, methane fees of as much as $1,500 per ton would be imposed on oil and gas infrastructure — from wells and pipelines to the terminals that process natural gas for export.  Together, the additional costs and fees that would result from these policies and regulations would disadvantage American producers, increase Americans' energy costs and cause 90,000 jobs to be lost across the country.  EPA's proposal would, for the first time, regulate existing facilities and would also add additional requirements to newly built or modified facilities, which were previously regulated under a 2016 rule.

EPA moves to regulate methane emissions from oil and gas.  The Biden administration on Tuesday [11/2/2021] announced a proposal to regulate methane from oil and gas sources, touting the rules as having the potential to produce immediate emissions cuts and hoping the proposal will bolster U.S. clout at the ongoing U.N. climate conference.  Methane, the main component of natural gas, is less known than carbon, the biggest contributor to climate change.  But emissions from methane are driving more than 25% of global warming, mostly caused purposely or accidentally by leaks during production and transportation of natural gas.  Those methane leaks could offset the carbon reduction benefits of the switch in recent years from coal to natural gas and renewables for generating electricity in the United States.

The Editor says...
The article above, judging by the first few sentences, appears to have been written by a Democrat Party activist.  So-called renewable energy isn't going to solve any problem that anybody has.  Natural gas is clean and abundant, and should be utilized to its fullest potential.  Any "global warming" that you prevent by eliminating the use of natural gas will be negated the next time Mount Pinatubo erupts, as it did in 1991.  Aside from that, consider the statement that methane "is less known than carbon, the biggest contributor to climate change."  There are several things wrong with this deceptive assertion; for example:  [#1] Carbon dioxide is not carbon.  [#2] Carbon dioxide doesn't cause climate change.  The climate constantly changes with or without slight changes in the CO2 content of the atmosphere.  [#3] Lots of things contribute to climate change, especially the variable output power of the Sun.  In the sentence prior to that, there was a statement that "emissions from methane are driving more than 25% of global warming."  Presumably the writer means, "emissions of methane," but even so, methane does not cause "more than 25% of global warming."  For one thing, there is not enough global warming to be of any concern at the moment.  But more importantly, water vapor has a far greater influence in the greenhouse effect than methane.  Water vapor comes from the lakes and oceans and can never be stopped.

Biden administration unveils oil and gas rules to cut methane emissions.  The Biden administration presented sweeping regulations targeting the oil and gas industry Tuesday in an effort to cut back on the emission of methane, a greenhouse gas more harmful than carbon dioxide in the short term.  The proposals, announced at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, known as COP26, mark the first time the federal government has offered a comprehensive rules package to limit the release of methane.  Speaking in Scotland, Mr. Biden said the initiatives are critical to meet world leaders' goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Editor says...
The goal is to keep "global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius."  Really?  1.5° above what?  (When did we vote on this 1.5-degree figure?)  What is the Goldilocks temperature that's ju-u-u-ust right, and how do you know, and what are you willing to forfeit to cool the earth or stay within your arbitrary limits?  And if the earth cools 1.5° on its own, before any of your schemes are implemented, are you willing to retire from politics forever?

Climate Alarmists Propose Feeding Cows Seaweed to Reduce Methane [Emissions].  Environmentalists intent on finding new ways to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions to curb climate change have proposed a novel method:  feed cows seaweed to diminish methane in flatulence, belches, and manure.  Ermias Kebreab, an zoology professor at the University of California-Davis, led a team in producing a bovine meal regimen containing varying levels of Asparagopsis armata, a strain of red seaweed, and fed it to 12 dairy cows over a two-month period.  In a mix containing just 1 percent seaweed, the cows' methane emissions went down by a stunning 60 percent.

The Editor says...
Even if that's all true, and even if methane emissions are a problem (which I doubt), most of the cows in North America don't live near the ocean.  How is all that seaweed going to get to Kansas?  (Hint:  Diesel engines!)

German Green Party Proposes Ban on All Industrial Farming.  The Green party in Germany said it will ban industrial farming to reduce global warming if it comes to power.  The measure was proposed by Katrin Goering-Eckardt, the party's leader in the Germany parliament, as part of a massive €100 billion project to finance climate initiatives.  For several years, climate change doomsayers have turned their attention to cattle, as a series of reports demonstrated that "livestock emissions" are more dangerous for the environment than automobiles.

The Editor says...
If farming is "dangerous for the environment," what is the solution?  If you eliminate farming, nearly everybody will starve.  At that point, what is the purpose of saving the environment?

California:  Proof That Everything The Liberals Run Turns [Bad].  The climate change debate heats up, again because of hurricanes, earthquakes, rain, and more.  Trump pulling out of the Paris accord will destroy us even more.  Yes, yes, yes, only humans can prevent global warming.  Volcanos and cows have nothing to do with it.  Well, volcanos release over half a billion tons of carbon emissions a year!  And then there are cows.  Yes, I said cows!  According to a report issued by the United Nuts (UN) in 2006, they claimed livestock (mostly made up of cows) and I quote, "generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2, over 18% than transportation does."  Kill all cows and fix the problem, right?

Now California's Climate Cops are Going After the Cows.  California is sliding slowly into the abyss.  It's not enough that 9,000 companies have packed up and moved to more tax-friendly states.  The Bay Area is so expensive that few can afford to live there.  Progressives run the place like their own personal slot machine.  The California Air Resources Board has issued regulations to cut the state's greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, but the board is getting worried about their climate agenda.  It could all be ruined by natural phenomena.  They've gone after the oil producers, the manufacturers and now they are going after the cows. It's methane, which "according to the board is a 'short-lived climate pollutant with an outsized impact on climate change in the near term.'"  "Cow manure and 'enteric fermentation' (flatulence) account for half of the state's methane emissions."

The Editor says...
Methane from cows is not a pollutant.  It is part of a natural cycle that has been going on for as long as cows, termites and volcanoes have been around.  And if cows are responsible for half of the methane emissions in the state, then the state doesn't have a serious problem.  There will always be cows, and the cows will do what cows do.  In any case, if California reduces its methane emissions to zero, but Mexico and Nevada do not, then what has been gained?

On the other hand, methane buildup can be deadly.
Wisconsin farmer, 16 cows dead after being overcome with manure fumes.  A coroner revealed Tuesday [8/16/2016] that a Wisconsin farmer and more than a dozen cows died when they became overcome by fumes from a huge manure holding tank.  According to WAOW-TV, Michael Biadasz, 29, was found by other farmers early Monday when they arrived at Biadasz Farms near Amherst to haul away manure from the football field-sized tanker.  Portage County Coroner Scott Rifleman said that the deaths of Biadasz and at least 16 cows are under investigation, but that they were probably overcome by methane or sulfur oxide.  Rifleman said the farmer agitated the tank and that this, along with warm upper air temperatures, created a deadly dome of air.

Gassy German cows cause barn explosion.  The blast, caused by a concentration of gas emitted by a group of 90 cows, damaged the roof of their cow shed — leaving one of the animals injured.

Inconvenient: worms, clams, release as much greenhouse gas as 20,000 dairy cows.  Scientists have shown that ocean clams and worms are releasing a significant amount of potentially harmful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.  The team, from Cardiff University and Stockholm University, have shown that the ocean critters are producing large amounts of the strongest greenhouse gases — methane and nitrous oxides — from the bacteria in their guts.  Methane gas is making its way into the water and then finally out into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming — methane has 28 times greater warming potential than carbon dioxide.  A detailed analysis showed that around 10 percent of total methane emissions from the Baltic Sea may be due to clams and worms.

Aquatic life emits gases.  Mussels, freshwater snails and other underwater creatures emit a potent greenhouse gas as they feed, according to a study that adds a small aquatic dimension to the impact of wildlife on global warming.  The animals, also including worms and insect larvae, emitted nitrous oxide — commonly known as laughing gas — as a by-product of their digestion when nitrate was present in water.

Shepherd or shoot goats in the name of climate change.  A single one-way Boeing 747 flight from Chicago to London emits about 200 tons of carbon dioxide, or about 5,000 times the annual emissions from a gasoline-powered lawn mower of a homeowner.  It appears that emissions savings from O'Hare goats will be relatively small.  But what about methane emissions from the herd?

Mysterious Poop Foam Causes Explosions on Hog Farms.  You see, starting in about 2009, in the pits that capture manure under factory-scale hog farms, a gray, bubbly substance began appearing at the surface of the fecal soup.  The problem is menacing:  As manure breaks down, it emits toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide and flammable ones like methane, and trapping these noxious fumes under a layer of foam can lead to sudden, disastrous releases and even explosions.  According to a 2012 report from the University of Minnesota, by September 2011, the foam had "caused about a half-dozen explosions in the upper Midwest ... one explosion destroyed a barn on a farm in northern Iowa, killing 1,500 pigs and severely burning the worker involved."

Earthquakes 'contribute to global warming by releasing greenhouse gas from the ocean floor'.  Earthquakes may contribute to global warming by releasing greenhouse gas from the ocean floor, a study suggests.  Scientists uncovered evidence that a large earthquake in 1945 released more than seven million cubic metres of methane into the North Arabian Sea.  The discovery exposes a natural source of greenhouse gas emissions that has not been considered before, they claim.