November 2013 • 3
The Front Burner
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA) requires
strict compliance with Federal drug
and alcohol testing regulations for
motor carriers and drivers. Employers
in violation are subject to civil and
criminal penalties.
The NEFI Alliance Consortium is a
simple, quick and inexpensive solution
to this federal requirement. As a non-
profit group, the NEFI Alliance is able
to offer this comprehensive program
at a most reasonable cost.
Avoid severe fines…
Join today!
Mandatory Drug & Alcohol Testing
Regulations for Motor Carriers…
It’s The Law!
NEFI Alliance Consortium
238 Bedford Street, Suite 2
Lexington, MA 02420
For program information
and application information,
call 617-924-1000,
fax 617-924-1022, or
email
*Figures taken from Energy Information Administration’s “This Week In Petroleum.”
THE BAROMETER
Comparing Heating Oil to Other Financial Products
October 7, 2013
One Year Ago
No. 2 Fuel Oil/New York (dollars/gallon)
$2.953
$3.162
WTI Crude (dollars/barrel)
$103.07
$89.43
Brent Crude (dollars/barrel)
$109.66
$112.60
10-year Treasury Bill
2.65%
1.74%
30-year mortgage
4.22%
3.36%
Dow Jones Average
14,936
13,583
THE DIFF.
Spot Prices (Cents/Gallon) as of October 7, 2013*
New York Harbor
New York Harbor
U.S. Midcontinent
No. 2 Fuel Oil / Heating Oil
No. 2 ULSD
No. 2 ULSD
2.953
3.015
2.958
Scientific Panel Sees Methane Harming Environment More Than Expected
Natural gas emissions aggravate global warming more seriously than scientists had
previously believed, according to a recent report by the website
CleanTechnica.com.
According to the report, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has increased
the “Global Warming Potential” (GWP) metrics for methane, which makes up 95 percent
of the content of natural gas.
IPCC’s revised estimate assigns a GWP of 34 to methane, which means that methane
in the atmosphere causes global warning at 34 times the rate that carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere does over a 100-year time frame. The GWP is a critical statistic, because it
is used to evaluate pollutants and assess their potential to aggravate global warming.
Methane previously carried a GWP of 25 over the same timeframe.
“We’ve known for a long time that methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas
than carbon dioxide (CO2), which is released when any hydrocarbon, like natural gas,
is burned,”
Clean Technica
reports. “But the [International Panel on Climate Change’s
(IPCC)] latest report, released Monday, reports that methane is 34 times stronger a heat-
trapping gas than CO2 over a 100-year time scale.” The IPCC had previously considered
methane to be only 25 times stronger a heat-trapping gas than CO2.
By increasing methane’s Global Warming Potential (GWP) factor from 25 to 34, IPCC
has rendered obsolete the methane emission statistics reported by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
“Amazingly, the EPA has been using a GWP of 21 for its estimate of how methane
compares to carbon dioxide – a figure that is nearly 20 years out of date,”
Clean Technica
reports. “That means methane is a whopping 60 percent stronger than EPA calculates in
its GHG inventory.”
Reporting on the new IPCC report,
EnergyWire
quoted Hugh MacMillan, Senior
Researcher with Food and Water Watch as saying, “The IPCC presents the scientific
consensus, so its conclusions are inherently conservative. It’s bizarre that the EPA is just
now moving to adopt the GWPs from 2005. Is the agency going to wait until 2025 to use
these new GWPs?”
The revised number means [natural gas fracking] is worse for the climate than we
thought, and the benefit of replacing coal with fracked gas is lower than we thought,
EnergyWire
reports.
“The IPCC reports that, over a 20-year time frame, methane has a global warming
potential of 86 compared to CO2, up from its previous estimate of 72,”
Clean Technica
reports. “Given that we are approaching real, irreversible tipping points in the climate
system, climate studies should, at the very least, include analyses that use this 20-year
time horizon.”
