Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

America's carbon dioxide emissions have fallen consistently over the last 15 years in large part because power companies have swapped coal for natural gas. Now it appears that those CO2 reductions might be smaller than previously thought.

A recent study by the Environmental Defense Fund found that 3.7% of natural gas produced in the Permian Basin leaked into the atmosphere. That's enough to erase the greenhouse gas benefits of quitting coal for gas in the near term.

"The first thing to say is the 3.7% number really jumps off the page," said Daniel Raimi, a researcher at Resources for the Future. "It is a really high emission rate. It is yet another indicator that the U.S. oil and gas system emits more than current EPA estimates would suggest."

The study by EDF is significant on several fronts. Methane, the primary component of natural gas, produces about half the emissions of coal when burned, but it's a much more powerful greenhouse gas when leaked into the atmosphere.

Scientists have long struggled to pinpoint just how much methane is being released into the atmosphere. A series of earlier studies coordinated by EDF and hundreds of other researchers indicated that the U.S. oil and gas system leaked on average 2.3% of all the gas it produced. That's about 60% more than the leakage rate reported by EPA, at 1.4%.

Until recently, the Permian Basin had been a missing piece of the methane puzzle. The basin, which extends from West Texas into southeastern New Mexico, is the beating heart of the American oil patch. The Permian now accounts for about 30% of U.S. oil production and 10% of the country's gas output.


https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063041299

Like summer here today again.

It's 81°F right now, I was out running in the sun and it felt plenty like summer.  I have the HVAC off.  

Clouds drifting, apparently that hurricane is influencing our weather some, and rain this weekend from it.

76 sunny,soft southern breeze wafting about.Heaven weather really,of course with the Great Lakes/Canada won't be long before we hear from Hell

http://tropical.atmos.colostate.edu/Realtime/

Northern hemisphere hurricane activity is below normal.  It's higher in the Atlantic, and much lower everywhere else (other than Northern Indian).

for the Chemists among us....................

https://fuelcellsworks.com/news/university-of-kansas-joins-industry-partners-to-advance-gas-separation-with-green-materials/

“These are furanic-based polymer membranes — it’s a new material that the DuPont Company is commercializing,” said Mark Shiflett, Foundation Distinguished Professor at the KU School of Engineering, who is leading the work. “Think of it as a new plastic. The ultimate reason that they’re making it is as a replacement for PET, the plastic that’s used to produce most beverage bottles. So, when you buy a two-liter Coke or liter of water, the bottle is made out of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) that ultimately comes from petroleum. These furanic-based polymers will replace PET to manufacture what are basically green water and soda bottles. These furanic-based polymers don’t come from petroleum but natural starting materials like fructose.”

The KU researcher said furanic polymers are an ideal material to use for industrial gas separation because they’re largely impermeable to larger gas molecules.

it's only money......

Obviously DuPont is going to get paid