New Study Finds Large Amount of Methane Emissions on East Coast

A new study published by The American Geophysical Union found large emissions over five major cities along the East Coast, this is twice the total amount of methane and almost 10 times the amount from natural gas. The analysis was based on airborne measurements taken from NOAA Twin Otter aircraft along the East Coast of the United States during the course of 20 research flights between April 8, 2018 to May 12, 2018. The flights covered Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Providence and Boston.

“The new AGU study on methane emissions should be an alarm bell going off to the Murphy Administration. Methane is 86% more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and can cause major climate impacts, while adversely affecting public health, like causing childhood asthma attacks, other respiratory ailments, and even premature death. The east coast has ten times the amount of methane emissions, this is especially concerning because of the amount of leakage from the thousand of miles of pipelines, power plants, landfills, and buildings,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

The five largest cities that were sampled in the studied had significant methane emissions, about double to what EPA estimates found. Methane can be created in releases of natural gas from old or leaky pipes, incomplete combustion from older appliances, etc. Scientists analyzed the ratio of ethane to methane to calculate how much methane was due to natural gas leakage.

“Methane emissions found in the study are close to twice as much as what EPA found. This is very concerning, especially because methane is more potent than C02. The impact of methane that is released from burning of natural gas and is close to 86% more potent than C02. New Jersey has 6,000 miles of cast iron pipelines that were built in the 50s and even earlier and power plants that leak. There are more than a dozen new fossil fuel projects being proposed in the state which can mean more fugitive emissions and leaks. Our state also has older furnaces where 75% use natural gas, this is the highest in the nation,” said Tittel.

Landfill gas is comprised of roughly 50% methane. Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, accounting for approximately 14.1 percent of these emissions in 2017.According to the NJDEP, there are 846 landfill sites in New Jersey. There is currently legislation, S1206(Smith)/A3726 (Gusciora), on Governor Murphy’s desk that would allow food waste to go to landfills, adding to more methane gas.

“When we dump waste in a landfill, they try to cover it and collect the methane gas and burn it. Burning methane will contribute to global warming and C02. What’s even worse is that half of that methane leaks out of the landfill. In order to reduce and utilize our food waste, New Jersey cannot burn it. We ask Governor Murphy to veto S1206(Smith)/A3726 (Gusciora).  Instead we need to go back to the original bill which used composting and anaerobic digestion to reduce and reuse food waste in a sustainable way.”

More dirty fossil fuel projects are being proposed in New Jersey. In New Jersey there are 8 natural gas pipelines, 8 natural gas power plants and a proposed LNG port in Gibbstown.  These plants included the NJ Transit Power Plant, Meadowlands Power Plant, the Musconetcong, Keasby-Woodbridge, the Sewaren 7, and Bl England. Some of the proposed pipelines include the PennEast Pipeline, Southern Reliability Link, South Jersey Gas Pipeline, NESE project, Garden State Expansion Project.

“New Jersey needs to consider the true implications of natural gas, including methane leakage. AGU’s shed more light on the issue of natural gas close to home. Now the Murphy Administration need to step up when it comes to protecting our lungs and environment. We need a moratorium on fossil fuel projects so that the DEP can develop rules and programs to reduce GHG’s and get to 100% renewable. We also need Murphy to veto the food waste bill,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “New Jersey needs to move forward on clean energy that includes wind, solar, and hydro. The Murphy Administration need start now because climate change will not wait.”