Turns out plugging methane leaks in the natural gas industry takes a lot of effort.
More than 10,000 people will be needed through 2035 alone in the US, about double the number previously anticipated, according to the think tank report linked below.
The US would have incentivized these emission cuts 20 years ago had it placed a price on pollution. Even Russia plugged many of its leaks because UN carbon markets incentivised that.
Yet the US didn’t so much… and so the heat-trapping gas being released in 2023 is stoking global heatwaves and death this northern- hemisphere summer. Methane traps more than 25 times the heat of co2.
It’s truly a shocking situation three decades after the US vowed at the UN level to fight climate change.
The alliance gets funding from donations, trade unions and the government.
Unedited:
WASHINGTON, July 25, 2023/PRNewswire/ — A new study from the BlueGreen Alliance on economic impacts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) supplemental methane rule released in November 2022 found the adoption of leak reducing technologies and practices at new, modified, and existing oil and gas facilities would create over 136,000 job-years through 2035. A job-year represents an increase in demand for employment sufficient to employ one person for a full year.
The analysis highlighted positive employment impacts from the proposed standards from investments in emissions reduction technologies—specifically in leak detection and reduction systems, which are more labor intensive than current leak detection technology and practices used by the oil and gas extraction industry.
The assessment found that over 10,000 net direct and indirect jobs will be created annually in a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, construction, and operations and maintenance. This is a two-fold increase in jobs compared to our analysis of the 2016 rule.
“The EPA’s proposed rule will prevent unnecessary methane leaks in our nation’s oil and gas industry, resulting in good jobs for workers, reducing methane emissions driving climate change, and protecting workers and communities,” said BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director Jason Walsh.
“However, we still need to ensure that the jobs created are good-paying, safe, accessible union jobs. This means supporting and growing pathways into good union jobs.”
