According to an analysis released in February, scientists say that the huge leak that saw millions of pounds of natural gas escape from a Los Angeles storage facility back in December appears to be the worst accidental release of greenhouse gases in U.S. history.
The leak occurred at the Aliso canyon facility over a period of 112 days. Over that period almost 5 billion cubic feet of methane was released into the atmosphere making it the single biggest emitter of gas anywhere in the US. The assessment of the situation was published in the peer-reviewed journal Science.
The heat trapping effect of this leak was equivalent to the annual exhaust emissions from 600,000 cars.
Stephen Conley, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, Davis campus involved in the study had the following to say: “The climate impact is the largest on record.”
The study pointed out that a single incident like the one at the Aliso Canyon facility can sabotage all of the efforts being made to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases being blamed for climate change. As a result of this accident California officials are calling for significant and dramatic reductions in carbon pollution and is offering tax rebates to consumers that buy electric vehicles.
The Aliso Canyon leak has made it much harder for California to meet its carbon-reduction goals. It is hard to know exactly how much of the rebate program’s benefits were wiped out by the leak. The bad news is that this is not an isolated incident and leaks of this nature will likely continue to occur.
The leak was initially reported on October 23rd. It all started when a wellhead connected to an underground storage system for natural gas blew out. He facility is owned by Southern California gas Company.
The leak resulted in the evacuation of two schools and approximately 1,700 residential homes. Huge streams of natural gas poured out of the rupture for almost four months during which gas company officials made seven attempts to stop the flow unsuccessfully. The like was finally sealed off with cement on February 18th.
The publication of the study comes just as the U.S> Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to tighten down regulations around methane leaks from oil and gas operations. A draft study conducted by EPA scientists hints that the EPA has significantly underestimated the amount of methane that gets accidentally released into the atmosphere by wells and storage facilities like Aliso Canyon.
According to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy methane emissions from oil and gas operations are “substantially higher than we previously understood.” She goes to say “As the science advances and data emerges, we need to make sure we’re addressing the biggest climate challenges, where the biggest opportunities can be found.”