Methane emissions in Canada much higher than official estimates, reports show
Global News
A recent survey of oil and gas facilities in Canada found widespread methane releases. Satellite imagery saw giant plumes of the gas escaping landfills.
As the federal government moves to tighten regulations on methane emissions, new assessments suggest the amount of the potent greenhouse gas escaping into the atmosphere has been significantly underestimated.
A recent survey of oil and gas facilities in Canada found widespread methane releases. Satellite imagery saw giant plumes of the gas escaping landfills. And published research suggests claims of success at curtailing the gas may be partly the result of accounting changes, not actual reductions.
“There’s uncontrolled methane everywhere,” said Tim Doty, a former longtime senior regulator for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality who used an infrared camera to look for emissions at oil and gas facilities along the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary last July.
Doty, brought to Canada by the David Suzuki Foundation, surveyed 128 sites around Lloydminster, Alta., and Kindersley, Sask.
“It wasn’t a problem finding emissions,” he said. “It was a problem with the number of hours in a day.
“I just can’t describe the magnitude of the emissions we saw.”
Doty said he saw flares, used to dispose of unwanted methane from oil wells, burning off far less than the 98 per cent of the gas they are assumed to. He saw flares operating unlit, which turns them into a methane vent. He saw very few vapour recovery units, which collect fugitive gases.
Doty’s familiar with Texas’ Permian basin, which he calls “the worst” for methane release.
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