Category: Responsible Gas Initiative

Hydrogen Tax Credit Rules Must Sync With Biden’s Climate Agenda 4/10/2024

Hydrogen Tax Credit Rules Must Sync With Biden’s Climate Agenda

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Deputy Director Greg Clough, and Responsible Gas Program Advisor Simon Lomax write about how President Joe Biden’s climate change agenda is more aggressive than anything previously in US energy and environmental policy.  But involving many federal departments and agencies in administering these initiatives introduces risks that must be managed, such as the danger of disorganization and conflicting policies from different parts of the US government that will make reducing carbon emissions slower and more expensive.  April 10, 2024.

Making Sense of the U.S. LNG Pause: Five Key Data Points 4/9/2024

Making Sense of the U.S. LNG Pause: Five Key Data Points

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Deputy Director Greg Clough, and Responsible Gas Program Advisor Simon Lomax write about how the Biden administration’s pause on liquefied natural gas (LNG) export approvals will be over in a matter of months.  They provide five data points offer some critical clues.  April 9, 2024.

Colorado School of Mines, Chevron announce partnership for Global Energy Future Initiative 4/8/2024

Colorado School of Mines, Chevron announce partnership for Global Energy Future Initiative

Mines Global Energy Future Initiative Vice President John Bradford contributes to an article about a new partnership between the Colorado School of Mines and Chevron to support the Mines Global Energy Future Initiative.  Through this partnership, Chevron will sponsor research projects and participate in steering committees and working groups, adding industry expertise to solve complex problems related to the energy transition. April 8, 2024.

Greening the black gold? How private carbon finance can tackle oil & gas 4/5/2024

Greening the black gold? How private carbon finance can tackle oil & gas

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler writes about how a set of entrepreneurs in the U.S. are considering how carbon finance and the Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM) can be harnessed in new ways to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Their target: oil and natural gas wells. These entrepreneurs are looking across the “lifecycle” of a well or a whole oilfield and, in the process, targeting different GHGs. April 5, 2024.

Panel of lawmakers considers whether carbon capture holds future in Colorado 4/1/2024

Panel of lawmakers considers whether carbon capture holds future in Colorado

Payne Institute CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield contributed to this article about how as Colorado aims to achieve 100% net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, leaders of key state agencies argue that they can’t meet that goal without employing carbon-capture-and-sequestration techniques in hard-to-decarbonize sectors.  Ensuring the state has tools to allow and regulate such operations as fossil-fuel usage continues for the foreseeable future is a “strategic step to expediting the process.”  April 1, 2024.

New Method for Tracking Down Methane Emissions on Oil and Gas Sites 3/27/2024

New Method for Tracking Down Methane Emissions on Oil and Gas Sites

Payne Institute Student Researcher William Daniels, Faculty Fellow Dorit Hammerling, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how reducing methane emissions is a key component of short-term climate action.  Empirical data and transparent models are key pillars of emission reduction efforts.  Payne Institute researchers William Daniels, Meng Jia, and Dorit Hammerling have developed a completely open-source analytical framework for detecting single-source methane emissions, determining the source location, and estimating an emission rate using data from continuous monitoring systems (CMS).  March 27, 2024.

Detection, localization, and quantification of single-source methane emissions on oil and gas production sites using point-in-space continuous monitoring systems 3/20/2024

Detection, localization, and quantification of single-source methane emissions on oil and gas production sites using point-in-space continuous monitoring systems

Payne Institute Student Researchers William S. Daniels and Meng Jia, and Faculty Fellow Dorit M. Hammerling write about how they propose a modular framework for methane emission detection, localization, and quantification on oil and gas production sites that uses concentration and wind data from point-in-space continuous monitoring systems. The framework leverages a gradient-based spike detection algorithm to estimate emission start and end times (event detection) and pattern matches simulated and observed concentrations to estimate emission source location (localization) and rate (quantification). March 20, 2024.

Mines’ Potential Gas Agency provides guidance for assessment of natural gas supply and demand 3/6/2024

Mines’ Potential Gas Agency provides guidance for assessment of natural gas supply and demand

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Stephen Sonnenberg led the most recent biennial assessment of the United States’ estimated natural gas resource base for the Potential Gas Committee.  The assessment reports the nation’s natural gas recoverable supply, which ensures we have the knowledge to make well-informed decisions about current natural gas usage and how it fits into the nation’s future energy strategy. March 6, 2024.

LNG exports, pauses, climate impacts: Are we having the wrong debate? 2/26/2024

LNG exports, pauses, climate impacts: Are we having the wrong debate?

Payne Institute Fellow Arvind Ravikumar shares his perspective on the way we should be thinking about the future of US LNG exports.  The US Department of Energy in late January hit “pause” on its work issuing key LNG export permits. About 30 million mt/year of probable export capacity additions in the US and Mexico are at risk because of the permitting hold. February 26, 2024.

The cleaning of U.S. natural gas; evolution of differentiated gas and related crediting mechanisms 2/15/24

The cleaning of U.S. natural gas; evolution of differentiated gas and related crediting mechanisms

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler and Student Researcher Felix Ayaburi write about the concept of differentiated gas, the emerging role of crediting mechanisms in promoting its adoption, and the prospects for demand growth and its evolution.  After rapid growth in the supply of U.S. differentiated gas through late 2021 and 2022, demand is rising from domestic utilities and industry as well as European energy companies. February 15, 2024.