Page 14 - Oil and Energy January 2013

14 • OIL&ENERGY
Natural Gas Leaks
Report Chronicles
Fugitive Gas Leaks in Mass.
Conservation Law Foundation says releases
from aging pipelines aggravate climate change
THE ISSUE OF NATURAL GAS LEAKAGE
gained more public exposure recently
with the release of a new white paper by
Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) high-
lighting gas leaks in Massachusetts and the
impact on global climate change and utility
gas prices.
The CLF report, entitled Into Thin Air:
How Leaking Natural Gas Infrastructure Is
Harming our Environment and Wasting a
Valuable Resource, highlights the presence
of many aging pipelines in Massachusetts’
natural gas distribution systems.
CLF announced the report as an
unprecedented look at the problems
plaguing natural gas systems that “for the
first time, documents the enormous envi-
ronmental and economic consequences
of aging, leaky natural gas pipes around
Massachusetts.”
FUGITIVE EMISSIONS
“These leaking gases, known as ‘fugitive
emissions,’ amount to a significant source
of greenhouse gases, pollution that hinders
the state’s efforts to achieve the mandates
of the Global Warming Solutions Act,”
the white paper states. “Meanwhile, gas
customers are saddled with paying for all of
the gas that is lost into thin air, to the tune
of tens of millions of dollars each year.”
The report was written by Shanna
Cleveland, a CLF staff attorney. “Every
year, millions of tons of powerful global
warming causing gases are lost through
aging, leaky pipes – and yet there’s no
incentive to fix them. Gas companies are
allowed to – and do – pass the cost and risk
onto Massachusetts customers,” she said.
“To put this in perspective, these losses are
larger than the gains made by the state’s
nation-leading gas efficiency programs, and
the losses are passed on to customers at a
cost of $38.8 million annually.”
Despite the risk that aging, leaky
pipelines pose to public safety, to the
environment, and to ratepayers, current
state and federal policies actually provide
disincentives for pipeline owners to
aggressively find and fix these leaks,
unless they pose an immediate threat,
CLF wrote in a press release. “In addition,
there is no reliable methodology for calcu-
lating the actual amount of fugitive emis-
sions. As a consequence, the greenhouse
gas emissions from these leaks amount
to as much as 4% of the state’s total
greenhouse gas emissions from all sources
– pollution that must be reduced in order
to avoid the most significant impacts of
climate change.”