Methane leak at Russian mine could be largest ever discovered

About 90 tonnes of methane an hour were released from the Raspadskaya coalmine in January, data shows

Blast at the Raspadskaya cola mine, Russia. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images Theguardian.com

 

Possibly the world’s biggest leak of methane has been discovered coming from a coalmine in Russia, which has been pouring out the carbon dioxide equivalent of five coal-fired power stations.

About 90 tonnes an hour of methane were being released from the mine in January, when the gas was first traced to its source, according to data from GHGSat, a commercial satellite monitoring company based in Canada. Sustained over the course of a year, this would produce enough natural gas to power 2.4m homes.

More recently, the mine appears to be leaking at a lower rate, of about a third of the highest rate recorded in January, but the leak is thought to have been active for at least six months before January’s survey.

The leak, which comes from the Raspadskaya mine in Kemerovo Oblast, the largest coalmine in Russia, is about 50% bigger than any other leak seen by GHGSat since it started its global satellite monitoring in 2016. The company believes it is bigger than any leak yet traced to a single source.

Brody Wight, director of energy, landfill and mines at GHGSat, said that methane was an often overlooked side-effect of coalmining that added to the climate impact of burning coal. The Raspadskaya leak would add about 25% to the greenhouse gas emissions of burning any coal produced from the mine, he estimated.

“We are seeing an increase in methane from this site generally, which could be the result of increased coal production, linked to global trends in coal use,” he said.

Russia is one of the world’s biggest sources of methane from fossil fuel extraction. The country’s gas infrastructure, including production facilities and pipelines, is notoriously leaky despite calls for the government to take action.

Paul Bledsoe, a former White House adviser to Bill Clinton and now with the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington DC, said: “Deeply cutting methane is the only sure way to limit near-term temperatures and prevent runaway climate change, yet every month brings new evidence that Russia is hiding the world’s most massive and destructive methane leaks. Putin is desperately hiding these enormous emissions so he can continue to profit from sales of Russian coal, oil and gas and fund his war-making regime. But those nations like China who continue to buy Putin’s oil and gas are equally abetting his climate and war criminality.”

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All underground coalmines produce methane, which can cause explosions if it builds up. A blast at the Raspadskaya mine in 2010 killed 66 people.

Venting methane can be done for safety reasons. However, there are ways of capturing methane when it is produced at a high rate, or venting through oxidisation, so that it causes less harm to the climate.

Methane is about 80 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, though it degrades in the atmosphere over about 20 years. In February, the International Energy Agency warned that most countries were under-reporting their methane emissions, and the true amounts pouring into the atmosphere were far greater than had been thought.

Recent studies have shown that cutting methane could be one of the fastest ways of holding down global temperature rises, and that sharp cuts now could prevent a rise of about 0.25C by 2050.

Durwood Zaelke, the president of the Washington-based Institute for Governance, said the Raspadskaya leak showed the urgent need for action. “It’s critical to set up a comprehensive satellite monitoring system for methane. We also need to deploy a system of incentives and sanctions that can remedy these emissions, focusing first on the super emitters,” he said.

The IEA also found that at current high gas prices, the cost of capturing methane was far less than the value of using it or selling it as a fuel source, which should give companies and governments an incentive to capture the gas rather than venting or flaring.

At the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow last November, more than 100 countries agreed to reduce their methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030. Russia was not among them, however.

GHGSat said it measured 13 distinct methane plumes, ranging in size from 658 to 17,994 kg an hour, from the mine. The discovery was made on 22 January, but the company took time to verify its findings and contact the operator of the mine, which has not responded.

Heat Records Fall Across a Sweltering Nation USA - In much of the country, it feels like midsummer this weekend. And it’s not even Memorial Day yet.

 

Cities across a wide swath of the country tied or broke heat records on Saturday as blazing heat and humidity roasted states from Texas to Massachusetts, placing more than 38 million Americans under a heat advisory in the hottest hours of the day.

Records fell in places like Austin, Texas, which hit 99 degrees at its airport and 100 at Camp Mabry; Vicksburg, Miss., which reached 98 degrees; and Richmond, Va., where the thermometer climbed to 95. Philadelphia tied its record at 95 degrees, as did Worcester, Mass., where temperatures reached 88.

At a community sidewalk sale in Philadelphia on Saturday, residents in the Fishtown neighborhood displayed tables of old books, clothing and trinkets they were looking to sell for a little extra cash. Ashley Horowitz, 34, said she had a lot of people come by until her side of the street became bathed in direct sunlight in the early afternoon.

“This is not pleasant,” she said.

In West Virginia, public health officials urged people to look out for symptoms of heat exhaustion. In Washington, D.C., officials activated heat emergency plans, opening splash parks and cooling centers. A runner in the Brooklyn Half Marathon — where organizers had warned participants of potential heat concerns — died on Saturday morning, though it was not immediately clear if the weather had played a role.

Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, is still more than a week away. But by the end of the weekend, more than half of all Americans will have experienced temperatures of 90 degrees or higher from a blast of hot air that started in the Southwest, swept across the eastern third of the country, and will move through New England into Canada.

Washington, D.C., reached a high of 92 on Saturday afternoon, three degrees shy of its daily record. New York City saw a high of 90; its record for May 21 is 93.

With temperatures in the mid-90s at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course, which hosted the Preakness Stakes, the usually rowdy infield was sparse and uncharacteristically sedate in early afternoon, with the biggest crowds found at the water stations or beneath tents or in the shadows cast by concession stands and supply trucks.

In other parts of the country, the misery set in weeks ago. In drought-parched New Mexico, the largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history is burning, months before the start of the peak fire season. Other blazes are driving evacuations and fears in Colorado, Arizona and Utah.

Parts of Texas, where heat-intensified wildfires burned 30 structures near Abilene this week, saw their earliest triple-digit temperatures on record this month.

And in a sign of just how strange things could get, Denver whiplashed from 90-degree weather this week to a late-spring snowfall overnight Friday into Saturday.

Above-average temperatures and drought conditions will contribute to high energy demand and put several parts of the country at elevated or high risk of energy shortfalls this summer, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned this week.

In many places, temperatures could be 20 degrees or more above what residents are accustomed to for this time of year. In Boston, for instance, the average temperature for the weekend before Memorial Day is typically in the high 60s. Though the high on Saturday was 71, the forecast for Sunday is that it could reach 96.

“Definitely very abnormally warm temperatures expected tomorrow,” Torry Gaucher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boston, said on Saturday.

The predicted high of 96 degrees in Worcester, Mass., on Sunday would exceed the monthly record of 94 degrees, set in 2010, the National Weather Service said.

The agency’s office in Gray, Maine, with a territory covering Maine and New Hampshire, noted that it had never before issued a heat advisory during the month of May. “With the forecast continuing to hint at record-breaking heat, and high humidity, this weekend,” the office said in a post on Twitter, “this streak may end.”

Elsewhere in the East, the stretch of heat is expected to fade over the rest of the weekend, though it may be followed by thunderstorms and severe weather, according to the National Weather Service. And heading into Monday, parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas could see excessive rainfall and thunderstorms.

Joe Drapeand Joel Wolfram contributed reporting.

Newsom urges aggressive water conservation and warns of statewide restrictions CA USA

 

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks with leaders of urban water agencies during a meeting in Sacramento on May 23.

(Gov. Newsom’s Office) 

BY IAN JAMESSTAFF WRITER 

                                

Gov. Gavin Newsom met with leaders of the state’s largest urban water suppliers Monday and implored them to step up efforts to get people to reduce water use as California’s drought continues to worsen. He warned that if conservation efforts don’t improve this summer, the state could be forced to impose mandatory water restrictions throughout the state.

Ten months ago, Newsom called for Californians to voluntarily cut water use 15%, but the state remains far from that goal.

The latest conservation figures have been especially poor. Water use in cities and towns increased by nearly 19% in March, an especially warm and dry month. Compared with a 2020 baseline, statewide cumulative water savings since July have amounted to just 3.7%.

“Every water agency across the state needs to take more aggressive actions to communicate about the drought emergency and implement conservation measures,” Newsom said in a statement. “Californians made significant changes since the last drought but we have seen an uptick in water use, especially as we enter the summer months. We all have to be more thoughtful about how to make every drop count.”

For part of the 2012-16 drought, then-Gov. Jerry Brown ordered a mandatory 25% reduction in urban water use. Many Californians responded by cutting back and taking steps such as converting lawns to drought-tolerant plants.

Local water agencies told state officials they preferred an approach that allowed for greater flexibility and would be more tailored to their local situations. Newsom has favored a locally driven approach. But the governor’s office said in a statement that Newsom “voiced concerns today given recent conservation levels around the state.”

“Gov. Newsom warned that if this localized approach to conservation does not result in a significant reduction in water use statewide this summer, the state could be forced to enact mandatory restrictions,” his office said. “The governor will reconvene these same agencies in the next two months to provide an update.”

Monday’s meeting was not open to the public and was not aired live. Officials who attended the meeting at the California Natural Resources Agency, in Sacramento, included leaders of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, San Diego County Water Authority, East Bay Municipal Utility District and other large water suppliers. Their agencies together supply water to about two-thirds of Californians.

Newsom issued an executive order in March calling for local water agencies to implement more aggressive conservation measures. Following that order, the State Water Resources Control Board will vote Tuesday on emergency regulations that require local water suppliers to activate “Level 2" of their local contingency plans to prepare for a shortage of up to 20%. The regulations also include a statewide ban on using potable water to irrigate “non-functional” grass at commercial, industrial and institutional properties — which include homeowners’ associations as well as businesses.

About half of California’s population is now under water restrictions implemented by local water agencies, according to the governor’s office. If the state water board approves the emergency regulations, every urban area throughout the state will be covered by a local plan for reducing water use.

The severe drought, now in its third year in California, is one of the most extreme on record and has been worsened by hotter temperatures with global warming. The first three months of the year were the driest on record. The state’s largest reservoirs are now at about half their average levels.

Across the western U.S., scientists have found that the extreme dryness since 2000 has become the driest 22-year period in at least 1,200 years, a megadrought that research shows is being intensified by climate change.

Some scientists describe the trend as aridification and say the West must prepare for heat-driven drying to continue as temperatures climb with the burning of fossil fuels and rising levels of greenhouse gases.

Newsom has proposed an additional $2 billion this year for drought response efforts.

The state government has scaled up its drought campaign, called Save Our Water, and is urging Californians to conserve by taking steps such as limiting outdoor watering, taking shorter showers and washing full loads of clothes.

Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District, attended Monday’s meeting and said the district supports Newsom’s call for reducing water consumption to stretch California’s shrinking supplies ahead of the summer months.

“We appreciate the governor’s collaborative approach in addressing statewide drought conditions by allowing water agencies to determine the water savings actions appropriate for the specific circumstances of their communities,” Hagekhalil said in a statement. “Different parts of our state have different water supply sources and are being affected by the state’s drought differently.”

The Metropolitan Water District in April declared a water shortage emergency and ordered restrictions on outdoor watering in parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties that rely on the hard-hit State Water Project, which transports water southward from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The water restrictions are set to take effect June 1 and are aimed at reducing water use by about 35%.

Though Newsom’s meeting with managers of water agencies focused on improving conservation in urban areas, the drought is also affecting agriculture and food production. Many growers have seen their water deliveries cut sharply, and have turned to pumping more groundwater or leaving some farmland dry and unplanted.

Of the water that’s diverted and pumped in California, state data show that on average about 80% is used by agriculture while the other roughly 20% is used by cities and towns.

In a recent report for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, researchers calculated that reduced water deliveries resulted in 395,000 acres of cropland left dry and unplanted last year — an area larger than Los Angeles.

The researchers calculated that the drought last year caused the state’s agriculture industry to shrink by an estimated 8,745 jobs and shoulder $1.2 billion in costs due to water cutbacks. Those costs are expected to grow this year as more farmland in the Central Valley is left dry.