![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
01-08-2022, 08:40 AM
BY DREW COSTLEY
yesterday
......
The state has also been a major oil and gas producer for more than a century, and authorities are well aware some 35,000 old, inactive oil and gas wells perforate the landscape.
Yet officials with the agency responsible for regulating greenhouse gas emissions say they don’t include methane that leaks from these idle wells in their inventory of the state’s emissions.
Ira Leifer, a University of California Santa Barbara scientist said the lack of data on emissions pouring or seeping out of idle wells calls into question the state’s ability to meet its ambitious goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
......
concerns were heightened in May and June when 21 idle wells were discovered to be leaking methane in or near two Bakersfield neighborhoods.
......
the leaking wells are “an urgent public health issue,” because when a well is leaking methane, other gases often escape too.
......
“Those other gases have significant health impacts,” Leifer said, yet we know even less about their quantities than we do about the methane.
......
A ton of methane is 83 times worse for the climate than a ton of carbon dioxide, when compared over twenty years.
A 2020 study said emissions from idle wells are “more substantial” than from plugged wells in California
https://apnews.com/article/science-calif...0b80be2a7f
yesterday
......
The state has also been a major oil and gas producer for more than a century, and authorities are well aware some 35,000 old, inactive oil and gas wells perforate the landscape.
Yet officials with the agency responsible for regulating greenhouse gas emissions say they don’t include methane that leaks from these idle wells in their inventory of the state’s emissions.
Ira Leifer, a University of California Santa Barbara scientist said the lack of data on emissions pouring or seeping out of idle wells calls into question the state’s ability to meet its ambitious goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
......
concerns were heightened in May and June when 21 idle wells were discovered to be leaking methane in or near two Bakersfield neighborhoods.
......
the leaking wells are “an urgent public health issue,” because when a well is leaking methane, other gases often escape too.
......
“Those other gases have significant health impacts,” Leifer said, yet we know even less about their quantities than we do about the methane.
......
A ton of methane is 83 times worse for the climate than a ton of carbon dioxide, when compared over twenty years.
A 2020 study said emissions from idle wells are “more substantial” than from plugged wells in California
https://apnews.com/article/science-calif...0b80be2a7f
