This story was originally published on Inside Climate News. It is reproduced as part of the Climate Desk Collaboration. Last week, oil and gas companies in West Texas released hundreds tons of toxic gases as a record-breaking temperature drove pressure within pipelines and compressors up to dangerously high levels. One company, Houston’s Targa Resources […]
AP Aaron M. Sprecher
As part of the Climate Desk collaboration, this article, which was originally published by Inside Climate News, is reproduced around.
As a record-breaking heatwave drove pressure inside pipelines and compressors to extremely high levels next week, oil and gas companies in West Texas released hundreds of tons of toxic gases into the air.
According to records submitted with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, one company, Houston-based Targa Resources, single released more than 500,000 pounds of gas into the air during at least 17 reported events over a seven-day period.
When facilities in its pipeline network dialed back operations” to prevent them from shutting down due to high ambient temperature ,” the$ 17 billion company once vented 238 000 pounds of gas. In a different, it” to prevent compressor units from overheating due to high external temperature” released 168,000 pounds.
The harsh weather they produce is too much for the oil and gas industry to handle. According to Wilma Subra, an economic chemist and MacArthur fellow in Louisiana, who examined the data for Inside Climate News,” These are really great, major release events.” ” That gas contains a variety of chemicals that contribute to chronic diseases like cancer.”
Texas experienced a scorching heat wave in June that set temperature records. The weather increased the pressure inside the pipeline systems that transport West Texas gas to refineries, power plants, and various customers because gas expands as it warms. Operators release gas into the air, including the powerful greenhouse gas methane, which traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide, to prevent explosions. Additionally, methane increases ground-level ozone pollution, which can lead to breathing problems and various health problems.
According to Sharon Wilson, an visual gas thermographer who works with Oilfield Witness to track oilfield emissions in Texas,” Emissions are generally much worse when it’s warm.” The oil and gas sector is unable to withstand the severe weather they produce.
The majority of heat-related emissions were classified as” volatile organic compounds ,” which are the intricate chemicals and room-temperature vapors that make up petroleum gas. Most of it is methane, but it also contains chemicals that cause cancer, such as benzene and xylene.
Wilson remarked that” these events add up to a lot of harmful gases.” They are merely using our air as a dump.
Operators reported the heat-related emissions to the TCEQ, who then used the agency’s website database to access them.
On June 20, Targa reported that” extremely great atmospheric air temperature caused issues out in the field” in a West Texas incident. Inlet gas was routed to the Pressure Relief Valve to safeguard the Rocker B Compressor Station from overpressure conditions and for safety reasons.
On June 25, Targa reported another incident in which several units shut down as a result of the external air temperature, increasing pressure on the field pipeline system and causing inlet gas to be vented to the atmosphere.
Targa wasn’t the sole operator to report the most and the largest gas emissions as a result of heat.
Following system failures” caused by the automatic shutdown of the control panel from elevated temperatures ,” DCP Operating Company in Ector County reported burning nearly 4, 000 pounds of” alcohol gas” in its flare on June 20.
Almost 22, 000 illicit pollution releases were discovered in a 2023 report, which noted that the state hardly ever took significant action against the offenders. Due to” high gas temperature in the sales line ,” WTG South Permian Midstream burned about 7, 000 pounds of carbon monoxide, 2, 600 pounds in nitrogen oxide, and 1, 200 pounds worth of VOCs on June 21. Due to” restricted flow due to high discharge gas temperature causing the recompressor shutdown ,” the same company burned off 2, 000 pounds of nitrogen oxide on June 26.
According to TCEQ spokesperson Victoria Cann, first reports of emissions quantities are merely estimates and may be updated as soon as two weeks have passed. The agency will then decide whether or not to enforce climate law.
Companies that emit excessive pollutants are frequently given permission by TCEQ to present an” affirmative defense” and claim that unexpected events rendered the emissions beyond their control. According to the organization, it” thoroughly considers the facts” when determining whether excessive emissions were inevitable.
According to Cann, TCEQ regulations” require operators to be responsible for good operation and maintenance practices, and those rules do not provide an affirmative defense against any activity or event that could have been anticipated, avoided, or planned for.”
According to Cann,” TCEQ may pursue enforcement actions against regulated entities that may include the imposition of a penalty.”
Just about three percent of unauthorized emissions events are penalized by TCEQ each year, according to a 2017 report by the Environmental Integrity Project and Environment Texas.
The Environmental Integrity Project found that between 2016 and 2022, Texas experienced 21,769 instances of unauthorized pollution, but simply” half of one percent of these incidents required the state to use its constitutional authority to require the companies to analyze the cause of the problem and take concrete action to avoid these pollution releases in the future.”
According to that report,” The TCEQ has been afraid to require industry to do better.”
According to Luke Metzger, senior director of the volunteer Environment Texas, state governments should require adequate insulation on oil and gas facilities to prevent temperature-related pollution.
To cut costs and maximize profits, many businesses refrain from investing in their facilities’ health and safety, leaving Texans to bear the brunt of pollution and blackouts, he claimed.
Metzger also noted that during the heatwave, Texas’ electric grid was unable to generate 10 gigawatts of power, mainly due to gas supply interruptions.
Without consulting the data,” to several Texas legislators are mindlessly pushing natural gas as the greatest fuel.” He claimed that these facilities frequently fail to deliver gas to the power plants that require it in addition to being polluted at high temperatures. This shows how vulnerable our gas infrastructure is to severe weather, whether it’s warm or cool.
According to Virginia Palacios, senior director of Commission Shift, a watchdog organization for Texas’ oilfield regulator, the Texas Railroad Commission, gas supply also failed in 2021 during Winter Storm Uri, which resulted in severe grid failure in Texas.
However, she claimed that in order to increase utility resilience, lawmakers in Texas’ most recent legislative session concentrated on gas sector subsidies.
Because organic gas infrastructure is susceptible to failure during severe weather, Palacios claimed that goal was misguided. Without consulting the data,” to some Texas legislators are blindly promoting natural gas as the greatest fuel.”
One of the biggest midstream businesses in the Permian Basin, Targa Resources, did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
The company has made campaign contributions to oil regulators on the Texas Railroad Commission, who have even traded the company’s stock, according to Andrew Wheat, research director for Texans for Public Justice.
According to Wheat, the businesses it is supposed to be in charge of have taken over our state oil and gas agency. Companies that are aware that there is no state agency that will penalize them for breaking the rules engage in long-term sustained negligence as a result of these conflicts of interest.
In response to a request for comment, the Railroad Commission did never respond.
As part of the Climate Desk collaboration, this article, which was first published by Inside Climate News, is reproduced below. A record-breaking heatwave caused pressure inside pipelines and compressors to rise to extremely high levels next week, causing West Texas oil and gas companies to release hundreds of tons of harmful gases into the air. One business, Houston-based Targa Resources,[…]
This story was originally published on Inside Climate News. It is reproduced as part of the Climate Desk Collaboration. Last week, oil and gas companies in West Texas released hundreds tons of toxic gases as a record-breaking temperature drove pressure within pipelines and compressors up to dangerously high levels. One company, Houston’s Targa Resources […]
Aaron M. ist ein Vertreter der Associated Press. Last week, numerous oil and gas companies situated in West Texas emitted massive amounts of toxic gases into the air during a record-breaking heatwave. The Houston-based firm Targa Resources, which is worth over $20 billion, described 17 events (on records filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) in which they alone released more than half a million pounds of gas. At one point, they vented 238,000 pounds of gas to avoid shut down due to increased temperatures. It put out 168,22 pounds to stop the compressor units from getting too hot under the hot temperature. The oil and gas industry cannot withstand the effects of the severe weather conditions they are responsible for producing. Wilma Subra, an environmental chemist and MacArthur fellow based in Louisiana, described the releases as being “enormous” when she assessed the information provided by Inside Climate News. That gas is composed of an extensive range of substances which can result in cancer and long-term medical issues. Extremely hot temperatures in June shattered previous records in Texas. The temperature changes leading to hot weather caused the internal pressure to rise dramatically within the pipelines which transmit natural gas from West Texas to refinery operations, electrical power plants, and other customers.
