Too Late. by Geoffrey Maslen

Author:Geoffrey Maslen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Hardie Grant
Published: 2017-05-08T04:00:00+00:00

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The leaks were large enough to negate a significant proportion of the gains from the Obama administration’s work on climate change, including closing coal mines and launching fuel-efficient cars.

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Australian-made methane

Just as it spread through the US, fracking has made its way across Australia, with the same detrimental effects on the environment. Although not as serious as the methane leaks in the US, a preliminary study by CSIRO scientists found coal seam gas leaks in a small sample of fracking wells in the country. The scientists measured ‘fugitive emissions’ (or leaks) around forty-three coal seam gas production wells — six in New South Wales and thirty-seven in Queensland — out of the more than 5000 wells operating across the nation. The results revealed that nearly all of the wells tested showed some leaks, although very small. In most cases the leaks released less than 3 grams of methane per minute — twenty times lower than reported methane emissions at natural gas sites in the US. ‘Equivalent to the emissions from around thirty cows’ was the researchers’ droll comparative figure, and they state that these emissions could be reduced or even stopped entirely. Nevertheless, they estimate that leaks from coal mining, and oil and gas production, already account for about 8 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, with some 15 per cent derived from burning fossil fuels.13

Other researchers, including University of New South Wales Associate Professor Bryce Kelly, are undertaking further research into methane, such as estimating the quantity of natural gas emissions from seeps in the ground at Queensland’s Surat Basin and the way methane has leaked for millions of years from oil and gas and coal deposits, particularly in areas of major geological faulting. Kelly heads a research team evaluating the impact of leaked coal seam gas and coal mining on groundwater and air quality. But the unknown quantity of gas leaking from the ground adds considerable uncertainty to estimates of how much methane is escaping into the atmosphere — particularly since throughout Queensland there are hundreds of poorly documented coal and groundwater exploration wells that were drilled last century before ‘rigorous regulations’ came into force.14 For example, methane measurements taken near a possible abandoned coal exploration well just north of the Condamine River found maximum methane concentrations of 595 parts per million — in contrast with the average natural methane concentration of 1.79 parts per million.15

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