This is way past due. Methane is less in volume but bigger in impact. Oil industry, abandoned mines, and natural methane releases can now be mapped and quantified. Man I look forward to the day we can do this with nitrogen and phosphorous. This is going to generate a ton of work for oil field service companies. Might be a sector to watch Satellite launched on SpaceX rocket Monday will pinpoint climate-warming methane emissions (msn.com) Eyes in the sky tracking Texas’ oil-rich Permian basin and other methane hot spots are, for the first time, precise enough to see whodunit. A pollution-tracking satellite dubbed MethaneSAT launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just after 4 p.m. Monday, promising a new level of accountability for companies and governments thought to be underreporting their emissions. The device is designed to trace methane released anywhere in the world to its individual source, whether an oil well, farm or landfill, and share findings directly with the public online. Jon Goldstein of the Environmental Defense Fund, the nonprofit that spearheaded the satellite’s development, said its unprecedented level of granularity should allow for more targeted advocacy to lower the key driver of climate change. “Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas, it’s more than 80 times more powerful, ton for ton, in the short term at driving climate change than carbon dioxide,” said Goldstein, the nonprofit’s senior director of regulatory and legislative affairs. The Biden administration released its long-anticipated methane rule at the COP28 United Nations climate change conference in December. The rule spelled change for Texas oil producers by imposing new emissions limits and increased the urgency of methane tracking methods that are not restricted by company reporting.
Potential bad news for all those no longer holding in their farts after reading that other thread. I’m particularly worried about gator_lawyer and g8orbill after their posts in that thread. They likely will show up in the satellite data…
