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In an area producing oil, if you don't use the methane for something like this power plant, then it will be burned off as waste at the well. I'm not advocating
by smoyer 6y ago
In an area producing oil, if you don't use the methane for something like this power plant, then it will be burned off as waste at the well. I'm not advocating for the power plant but rather pointing out that methane itself is a byproduct you've got to deal with. And clearly the plant should be burning the methane instead of leaking it. As green energy becomes more and more feasible, I think the answer to a problem like this will be to lower the quantity of oil being produced so there's less waste methane to deal with.
- osamagirl69 6y agoI have seen it happen several times where it was considered illegal to use waste methane (for example, to run a generator) because the operator was unable to get a permit to do so. The reasoning is that small scale power generation produces other pollutants (NOx, etc) that are even more tightly regulated than the methane. This plant still should have been able to secure a permit to flare the methane (thus converting it to CO2 + soot) which would at least be better for global warming than releasing the methane directly