Climate Change and Natural Gas Dynamic Governance

Case Western Reserve Law Review, Dec 2013

By Elizabeth Burleson, Published on 01/01/13

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Climate Change and Natural Gas Dynamic Governance

Climate Change and Natural Gas Dynamic Governance Elizabeth Burleson 0 1 0 Elizabeth Burleson, Climate Change and Natural Gas Dynamic Governance, 63 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 1217 (2013) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrev/vol63/iss4/11 1 Thi s Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Law Review by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons Climate Change and Natural Gas Dynamic Governance Elizabeth Burleson † “Every year, billions of dollars worth of natural gas are wasted; burned or flared at oil fields across the world. Such flaring produces some 400 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.” —World Bank* Hydraulic fracturing has been a game changer for the energy field, bringing to mind the “nothing in excess” carving at Delphi. Whether heeding ancient oracles or cutting-edge principles of calibration, I argue that dynamic governance innovation can facilitate climate-energy-water balancing to address natural gas governance gaps. Methane lost to the atmosphere not only disrupts the climate at a rate over twenty times that of carbon dioxide,1 but it also constitutes a loss of revenue. Low natural gas prices and distance to markets have been the key drivers of flaring, absent a price on carbon dioxide, methane, and other climate destabilizers. Methane is the primary component—typically 70 to 90 percent—of natural gas.2 Reducing methane emissions through governance innovation presents a profitable way of enhancing economic, social, and environmental synergies. † * Professor Elizabeth Burleson obtained her LL.M. from the London School of Economics and J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law and teaches energy law at Pace Law School and has served as an International Panel on Climate Change reviewer. Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, World Bank, http://web. worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTOGMC/EXTGGFR /0,,menuPK:578075~pagePK:64168427~piPK:64168435~theSitePK:578069,0 0.html (last updated Dec. 13, 2012) (“GGFR supports the efforts of oil producing countries and companies to increase the use of associated natural gas and thus reduce flaring and venting, which wastes valuable resources and damages the environment.”); see also Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497, 532 (2007) (determining that states have standing to bring suit against the EPA to force it to regulate greenhouse gas pollutants). EPA, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990–2010, at ES-9 (2012); see also Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, EPA, http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calc ulator.html (last updated Mar. 13, 2013) (allowing for easy equivalency calculations between different types of greenhouse gases). See Background, NaturalGas.org, http://www.naturalgas.org/overview /background.asp (last visited Mar. 15, 2013). Contents Introduction................................................................................................ 1218 Sketching the Contours of the Governance Gap ................... 1221 Introduction Venting and flaring natural gas flies in the face of efforts to address climate change.3 Yet, the hydraulic fracturing debate remains characterized by an underlying sustainability tension among economic, social, and environmental integrity rather than a coordinated effort to find dynamic governance synergies. Rising natural gas leakage is a problem looking for a governance handle. The problem is becoming widespread, and existing regulation is inconsistent. Natural gas valued at $50 billion by the World Bank is flared annually, contributing around 400 million tons of CO2 equivalent to climate change,4 an amount equal to the Dean Scott, World Bank Sees Increase in Flared Gas Undermining Global Progress on Emissions, Bloomberg BNA (July 6, 2012), http://news.bna.com/erln/ERLNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=27270929& vname=ernotallissues&jd=a0d3k1v5e0&split=0 (“Russia remains the leading gas flaring nation, accounting for 37.4 bcm of flaring in 2011, followed by Nigeria (14.6 bcm); Iran (11.4 bcm); Iraq (9.4 bcm); and the United States (7.1 bcm), according to the data, culled from satellite data collected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. . . . In 2011, the United States had the largest one-year increase of any country of 2.5 billion cubic meters from 2010 levels, a 54 percent increase. That was largely due to increased natural gas drilling in the United States, much of it from greater use of hydraulic fracturing or fracking.”). A stable climate is a public good, the absence of which will thwart the provision of other public goods such as access to fresh water. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that “[c]hanges in precipitation patterns and the disappearance of glaciers are (...truncated)


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Elizabeth Burleson. Climate Change and Natural Gas Dynamic Governance, Case Western Reserve Law Review, 2013, Volume 63, Issue 4,