New Mexico expands support to more youths as they age out of foster care - Associated Press
New Mexico is expanding the reach of a program that includes providing support for housing, health care and transportation to youths raised in foster care as they turn 18 and age out of the child welfare system, under an executive order signed Thursday by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
The order signed by the Democratic governor is expected to add 20 young adults each year to the "fostering connections" program who may not otherwise qualify after they move to New Mexico, or because of legal delays as courts confirm child abuse or neglect and parents surrender children voluntarily.
Nearly 90 young adults are currently enrolled the program, after exiting a foster care system that cares for about 1,700 children statewide. Benefits also include instruction in financial literacy, caseworker guidance and optional access to psychological counseling.
Democratic state Sen. Michael Padilla of Albuquerque, who grew up in foster care during the 1970s and 80s, said aid and counseling for young adults as they emerge from foster care is gaining recognition in several states as an investment that eventually provides stable households to the children of former foster children.
"It provides a softer landing to adulthood," said Padilla, a sponsor of 2019 legislation that established the New Mexico program. "Can you imagine not having anything? It's like the floor dropped out from under you. ... We're going to see a decline in repeat fostering."
Padilla said he wants to enshrine the eligibility changes into state statute.
The program's expansion drew praise at a news conference from Neera Tanden, a domestic policy adviser to President Joe Biden.
Tanden said the Biden administration is proposing a related multibillion-dollar expansion of annual spending on housing vouchers for youth exiting foster care.
Thursday's announcement is among the latest efforts to improve results from the New Mexico's troubled child protection and well-being system.
New Mexico's repeat rate of reported child abuse cases is among the worst in the country, amid chronic workforce shortages in the child welfare system and high turnover among employees in protective services.
PRC denies application for Rio Rancho liquified natural gas facility - By Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
In a unanimous vote Thursday, New Mexico utility regulators denied a permit for a proposed liquified natural gas storage facility in Rio Rancho. Public regulation commissioners said the projected $180 million price tag outweighed the potential benefits.
“It just doesn’t seem to me that the costs justify the benefits that you get from the project,” commissioner James Ellison said during the Thursday morning special meeting.
PRC member Pat O’Connell echoed concerns about “cost-effectiveness.”
The 16-page final order denying the permit found that the New Mexico Gas Company did not meet the net public-benefit standard, nor did the company prove that the facility was the most cost-effective alternative.
Tim Korte, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Gas Company, said no final decisions have been made regarding any appeal to the decision.
“We are disappointed,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “We proposed the (liquified natural gas) storage facility in the belief it would provide benefit to our customers, both in terms of reliability and price protection. We will be carefully reviewing the final order as well as the comments from commissioners at today’s open meeting.”
The application for a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity is required for constructing or operating new utility plants or systems, according to a media release from the Public Regulation Commission.
The 12-million-gallon storage facility was first proposed in 2022 by the New Mexico Gas Company. The company said that storage inside of New Mexico would “provide certainty about access to stored gas when needed most” on cold winter days or low supply. Officials also claimed it would protect customers from “market swings” on natural gas prices.
Currently, the company leases space at a salt cavern storage facility in Pecos County, Texas in the Permian Basin, to supplement gas supplies during winter storms.
Ellison noted the costs to taxpayers in response to the company’s analysis that a storage facility in the state would save people money. The study from the New Mexico Oil and Gas Company estimated that local storage during deadly Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, would have saved $14 million out of $107 million paid for higher gas prices, which shot up during supply shortages as pipelines froze.
That totals to about 15% in savings. Not enough to justify the costs, Ellison said.
“But we’ve got to pay $20 million a year, every year to have that insurance to have that capability,” he said.
A hearing examiner (which acts as a judge in regulatory proceedings) previously found if the PRC accepted a separate rate hike based on the Winter Storm Uri costs and approved the Rio Rancho storage facility, New Mexico ratepayers could experience a rate hike “of over 35% by 2027.”
Mariel Nanasi, executive director of Santa Fe-based nonprofit New Energy Economy, celebrated the public regulation commission’s decision Thursday, saying the denial “was extremely clear and decisive.”
Nanasi, who’s nonprofit opposed the project and organized with residents in Rio Rancho said there was a “glaring omission” from commissioners about other risks raised by public commenters.
“The cost is a really big deal, especially when the risks are so high,” Nanasi said. “Those risks of health, safety and climate.”
THE FINAL ORDER
The final order adopted by the Public Regulation Commission had some changes from the opinion issued last month by a hearing officer that also recommended denying the project.
That opinion in February, from PRC chief hearing examiner Anthony Medeiros stated that the gas utility failed to meet a higher standard of proof on the project, and found it to be a “discretionary,” project pursued by New Mexico Gas Company.
The commission declined to examine that argument in the final order, writing there was no need since it concluded the New Mexico Gas Company proposed facility is “not consistent with public convenience and necessity.”
Medeiros also said the New Mexico Gas Company’s failure to “update time-sensitive elements of its analysis,” should be another reason to deny the application.
In a filing, the New Mexico Gas Company argued that the company “lacked proper notice for a new evidentiary burden” for some of the required documentation during the application, later calling the requirements “vague” and “untenable.”
PRC members rejected that, writing in the final order that timeliness concerns will not be ignored in these kinds of applications.
Finally, the order noted that while there was no cost-benefit analysis done for this project, and no strict requirements for companies to use them when pursuing these applications, the commission may consider using them in assessing future cases.
Report finds flawed tactics, poor communication in a probe of New Mexico trooper's death - Associated Press
Flawed tactics and poor communications were among the key findings of a New Mexico State Police internal review of the deadly shooting of an officer who unknowingly stopped an armed drug suspect while he was being tracked by federal agents as part of an undercover operation in February 2021.
The report released Wednesday provides excruciating detail — partially drawn from dashboard and body-worn camera footage — of the death of Officer Darian Jarrott. He was killed by a burst of gunfire during a traffic stop on Interstate 10.
The report also describes the killing of drug trafficking suspect Omar Cueva-Felix after a 40-mile (64-kilometer) vehicle chase and a shootout with authorities in Las Cruces.
It concludes that two U.S. Homeland Security Investigations agents and a State Police supervisor provided conflicting accounts about whether the supervisor received "full disclosure" about Cueva-Felix's criminal history and an HSI plan to arrest him along the interstate.
"Omar Cueva-Felix killed Officer Jarrott in cold blood, and unfortunately, we cannot change that," New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler said in a statement that accompanied the release of the report.
The chief said the review resulted in several internal departmental policy changes and discussions about possible alternative actions and tactics for certain situations.
"The highlighting of mistakes by different individuals involved in the incident and noting areas for improvement is done solely to learn and find ways to operate more safely," Weisler said.
Jarrott, 28, was the first New Mexico State Police officer killed in the line of duty in more than 30 year. A father of four, he became a state police officer in 2015 after working as a state transportation inspector.
The incident spawned multiple lawsuits that allege both HSI and Jarrott's superiors were negligent and did not warn the officer of Cueva-Felix's dangerousness beforehand. A federal judge in Albuquerque dismissed one of the cases last July with a ruling that the government was immune from liability.
A State Police supervisor had asked Jarrott to pull over Cueva-Felix at the behest of federal agents. The request was made after the suspect sold a large quantity of drugs to an undercover agent, showed off a large rifle and told them he wasn't going back to prison.
Cueva-Felix, 40, of Deming, had what authorities described as an extensive criminal history in California and was known to carry firearms.
The fatal traffic stop occurred the afternoon of Feb. 4, 2021, on I-10, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of Deming. Within minutes, Jarrott was ambushed and shot multiple times. Cueva-Felix then led authorities on a chase that ended with him being killed in Las Cruces during a shootout that also injured a city police officer.
Eric McLoughlin, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations El Paso, said in a statement provided to the Albuquerque Journal that the agency is reviewing the report and the committee's recommendations regarding joint enforcement actions. He also reiterated the agency's condolences for Jarrott's death.
McLoughlin said the New Mexico State Police is among many law enforcement agencies with which his agency works and special agents are often embedded as task force members with other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
According to the review, no State Police officers were at an official operation briefing and Jarrott was not included in text messages with federal agents about the plan. It also noted that there was no incident command structure in place, even though two agencies and different HSI elements were working in cities 60 miles (96 kilometers) apart.
The review also found that Jarrott didn't appear to pick up on "danger cues" after stopping Cueva-Felix and should have "changed his tactics" once he spotted a handgun on the suspect's hip.
New Mexico day care workers' convictions reversed in 2017 death of toddler inside hot car - Associated Press
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday granted a new trial for two day care workers in the 2017 death of a 1-year-old girl left in a hot car and the serious injury of another toddler.
The high court said in a news release that it reversed the child abuse convictions of Mary Taylor and her adult daughter Sandi Taylor after it found that the jury was given a set of confusing instructions at their joint trial in 2019.
Attorneys listed in court records for the mother and daughter did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
The Taylors, both of Portales, New Mexico, operated a licensed day care center in their home. Each was sentenced to 36 years in prison for reckless child abuse but were released from custody in 2020 as they appealed their convictions.
In July 2017, the Taylors drove a group of children to a nearby park for lunch and playtime. Two of the children, both girls younger than 2, were left in the hot car for nearly three hours, authorities said.
The high temperature in Clovis near Portales was 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) that day.
One of the girls died the same day at a hospital. The other survived but was expected to face lifelong physical challenges.
At trial, according to the high court's decision, the jury had been provided with an "and/or" list of factors to consider, including whether the day care workers had failed to do a proper headcount, whether they drove the children without prior permission from the state's child protective services agency, "and/or" whether they failed to remove the girls from the car.
The high court said the list, in that format, "provided for alternative ways for the jury to find that the defendants committed child abuse" without requiring the jury to unanimously agree on the conduct that led to a guilty verdict.
Interior Department will give tribal nations $120 million to fight climate-related threats - By Graham Lee Brewer Associated Press
The Biden administration will be allocating more than $120 million to tribal governments to fight the impacts of climate change, the Department of the Interior announced Thursday. The funding is designed to help tribal nations adapt to climate threats, including relocating infrastructure.
Indigenous peoples in the U.S. are among the communities most affected by severe climate-related environmental threats, which have already negatively impacted water resources, ecosystems and traditional food sources in Native communities in every corner of the U.S.
"As these communities face the increasing threat of rising seas, coastal erosion, storm surges, raging wildfires and devastation from other extreme weather events, our focus must be on bolstering climate resilience, addressing this reality with the urgency it demands, and ensuring that tribal leaders have the resources to prepare and keep their people safe is a cornerstone of this administration," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, said in a Wednesday press briefing.
Indigenous peoples represent 5% of the world's population, but they safeguard 80% of the world's biodiversity, according to Amnesty International. In the U.S., federal and state governments are relying more on the traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous peoples to minimize the ravages of climate change, and Haaland said ensuring that trend continues is critical to protecting the environment.
"By providing these resources for tribes to plan and implement climate risk, implement climate resilience programs in their own communities, we can better meet the needs of each community and support them in incorporating Indigenous knowledge when addressing climate change," she said.
The department has adopted a policy on implementing Indigenous knowledge, said Assistant Secretary of the Interior Bryan Newland, a citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community. "We are also investing in tribes' ability to use their knowledge to solve these problems and address these challenges close to home," he said.
The funding will come from President Joe Biden's Investing in America agenda, which draws from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and annual appropriations.
The funding is the largest annual amount awarded through the Tribal Climate Resilience Annual Awards Program, which was established in 2011 to help tribes and tribal organizations respond to climate change. It will go toward the planning and implementation projects for climate adaptation, community-led relocation, ocean management, and habitat restoration.
The injection of federal funding is part of Biden's commitment to working with tribal nations, said Tom Perez, a senior adviser to the president, and it underscores the administration's recognition that in the past the U.S. has left too many communities behind. "We will not allow that to happen in the future," he said.
In 2022, the administration committed $135 million to 11 tribal nations to relocate infrastructure facing climate threats like wildfires, coastal erosion and extreme weather. It could cost up to $5 billion over the next 50 years to address climate-related relocation needs in tribal communities, according to a 2020 Bureau of Indian Affairs study.
How do you fire a chief of police? - Carolyn Carlson, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ
After three false starts, Councilor Louie Sanchez is getting some traction in getting the City Council to chastise Chief Harold Medina after what he calls a pattern of mismanagement and scandals.
This week a vote of no confidence moved forward out of an important city committee — but Sanchez acknowledges that Medina is not going to be removed from his post any time soon. A no confidence vote is just the first step.
Voters changed the city charter to give the city council the power to remove a police chief and it must be done by a vote of two-thirds — or six votes.
“The bottom line is something needs to happen. The citizens of Albuquerque are demanding it,” Sanchez said in an interview with City Desk ABQ. “This transcends party lines, it transcends the far left and the far right, it is something that everybody is worried about.”
WHAT?
The city’s Finance and Government Operations Committee met on March 11 and approved sending a measure for a vote of no confidence in the police chief to the full Council. The message was passed without a recommendation. Items coming out of the finance committee can have a recommendation to approve or to not approve or without recommendation.
The city’s finance committee is composed of five councilors. Councilors Sanchez, Dan Champine and Dan Lewis voted for and Tammy Fiebelkorn and Klarissa Peña voted against.
The no confidence vote will be introduced at the upcoming City Council meeting set for next week on March 18 but will not be voted on until the April 1 meeting.
HOW TO REMOVE THE CHIEF
Removing a police chief is a process and a declaration of no confidence is just the first step, Sanchez said in an interview with City Desk. Sanchez has tried a couple of times to get a voteof no confidence in Medina and has failed. He also did not have the votes to call for a multi-agency investigation into a Feb. 17 crash Medina was involved in on his way to a press conference.
After the first call for a no confidence vote failed, Mayor Tim Keller issued a statement saying, ‘Councilor Sanchez’s failed attempt to call for a vote of no confidence shows just how out of touch he is with our community and the rest of the council.”
Thecity charter says that “the mayor’s appointments to chief administrative officer, any deputy administrative officers, chief of police, and AFR chief require the advice and consent of the City Council. The police chief or fire chief may be removed for cause by a vote of two-thirds of the entire council.”
Councilor Sanchez said he hopes it doesn’t come to that.
“We’re not there yet,” he said. “We’re hoping the mayor, then also Harold (Medina) will say it is time to go and go off in the sunset and retire. That would be the best thing so we wouldn’t have to push any harder.”
If Medina were to resign or be removed by the Council, under the city charter it would be up to the mayor to appoint a new police chief and for the council to confirm the appointment within 45 days.
“A new police chief would hopefully be held to a higher standard based on the fact that he’s not going to run into the same problems that this one did,” Sanchez said.
SCANDALS
Some of the charges leveled against Medina in Sanchez’s measure are the dismissal of more than 150 active DWI casesdue to a federal investigation that Sanchez says shows unchecked corruption within the department. It also says: a record number of officers have resigned or retired leaving the department dangerously shorthanded; there have been a record number of officer-involved shootings; response times have increased; 328 people have been murdered in the last two years; and APD’s Gang Unit along with critical units such as Narcotics and Vice units have been dissolved.
All of this and more, Sanchez said, shows a failure to lead the police department.
Then, on Feb. 17, Medina was involved in a crash while on his way to a press conference on east Central Ave. Medina says gunshots rang out near his vehicle. He says he accelerated to get out of the way of gunfire and crashed into another vehicle critically injuring the other driver. Sanchez introduced a resolution that says there should be at a minimum representatives from New Mexico State Police, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, the New Mexico Department of Justice and APD investigating the incident to see if any laws or policies were violated.
The resolution failed on a 5 to 4 vote, with Councilors Sanchez, Lewis, Champine and Renée Grout voting for and Councilors Peña, Fiebelkorn, Joaquín Baca, Brook Bassan and Nichole Rogers voting against.
INTERNAL TURMOIL?
Sanchez says he hears from many APD officers who feel the chief should be held to the same standards as the rank and file.
He said that the city has a reputation for being a difficult place to be a police officer.
“The word is out that if you come to work in Albuquerque, you’re going to have a hard time as a police officer here.”
He said he is hearing from officers that the department morale is the worst it has been in many years — and it starts at the top.
“Right now, the police chief is putting forth a double standard in front of his whole department by not taking responsibility and having an outside source investigation,” he said. “This is a critical time in our history. As a leader we have three choices – move forward, stay the same or fall back as a city. And currently, we are falling back as a city.”
Elephant Butte Irrigation District to start irrigation season June 1 - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
The southern New Mexico irrigation season will start in June in Sierra and Doña Ana counties, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District board of directors voted unanimously on Wednesday.
The district will start diverting water for irrigation on June 1 and the season is expected to last about 80 days.
The allotment of 12 inches was approved in a second vote.
“This is the most important decision that we make in any given year, given the direct impact to our members,” board president Greg Daviet said.
Dr. Phil King, the engineering advisor for the district, presented forecasts for snowpacks and incoming moisture, and said that while recent snowpack snapshots showed higher numbers, the headwaters for the Rio Grande is below its seasonal median.
“It’s a nice looking hydrograph, but it isn’t very much water,” King said about the snowpacks in the San Juan, Sangre de Cristo and Jemez Mountains.
Snowmelt, which was strong last year, will not bail out downstream drought.
“Basically, what I’m saying is don’t expect a lot of relief from snowmelt runoff,” King told the board.
Daviet said his experience watching snowpack concurred with King’s analysis.
“When we’re in the 80% to 85% range of snowpack, my experience has been that means almost zero runoff is making its way to San Marcial,” he said, referencing a gage upstream of Elephant Butte.
Information sessions for farmers will be scheduled at the upcoming April board meeting.The board is expected to set those for May, when water orders open.
On Saturday, federal officials with the Bureau of Reclamation released water from Caballo Dam for Mexico and Texas irrigators. Both Mexico and Texas’ season starts this week.
Board members remarked that it was an unusual situation for water to be running in the river at this date. Joe Paul Lack, who represents the area surrounding Hatch, said farmers were asking questions since it was “something we haven’t seen before.”
“Everybody just sees the water going by, understand that’s just different,” Lack said.
Discussion at the meeting Wednesday revolved around the question of staggering the start and end date for portions of the district, depending on supply and crop needs.
Lack said water for chiles and crops was necessary in June and July, since the river water soaking into the shallow alluvium (pool of groundwater right around the river) prevented salt damage from using groundwater when the young crops are most vulnerable.
“It’s not a matter of wants, we need that water sooner,” Lack said.
Elephant Butte Irrigation board secretary James Sloan, representing the Mesilla Valley in Cruces, said his biggest concern was surviving the end of the summer, which he said was devastating in the wake of the non-soon last year.
“Last year, August was brutal, so I’d like to get through the month of August,” he said.
Sloan recommended that the whole system start irrigating on June 15. Lack amended that to start irrigating Hatch, Array and Rincón farmers on June 1, with southern NM starting June 15.
Board member Prescott “P.K.” Colquitt asked the irrigation district manager Gary Esslinger to weigh in, since “you’re either going to upset A or B,” when making the decision.
Esslinger said he follows the board’s wishes, but said that the impact of the serious drought and requests from farmers causes a difficult choice, noting the split of allowing northern farmers an earlier delivery has been a good compromise.
A third board member, Rafeael Rovirosa, asked to amend the motion again, asking that the whole district start its irrigation season on June 1. This passed the board with a unanimous vote.
That puts the projected end of the irrigation season around Aug. 20, but Daviet said the board would have to wait until the end of the season, before making that official, with the variability of monsoons.
“Usually about 30 days before the shutdown days, we set last order dates,” he said. “Because we don’t know what the end of the season will look like today.”
Judge schedules sentencing for movie armorer in fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
A judge has scheduled sentencing next month for a movie set armorer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film "Rust," court records indicated Wednesday.
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted by a jury last week in the shooting on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico, during a rehearsal in October 2021. Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in January and has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge, with trial set for July.
Santa Fe-based Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer set aside two hours for Gutierrez-Reed's sentencing hearing on the morning of April 15. Marlowe Sommer also is assigned to oversee Baldwin's trial.
Involuntary manslaughter carries a felony sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Gutierrez-Reed is being held pending sentencing at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility.
Defense attorney Jason Bowles indicated last week that Gutierrez-Reed plans to appeal the conviction.
Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has maintained that he pulled back the gun's hammer, but not the trigger.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed at a two-week trial for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of "Rust" where it was expressly prohibited. They also said she failed to follow basic gun-safety protocols.
"Rust" assistant director and safety coordinator Dave Halls last year pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm and completed a sentence of six months unsupervised probation.
Albuquerque to pilot on-demand public transit - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
The city of Albuquerque is rolling out its own ridesharing-type service Monday. It’s an approach called “microtransit” and is meant to meet the needs of those in neighborhoods without bus service.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the city is piloting the “ABQ Ride Connect” program in the North Valley, Old Town and West Mesa.
Six-seater vans with room for a wheelchair will be available on request. The vans can pick riders up at home and drive them to nearby bus stops, grocery stores or even doctor’s appointments.
Mayor Tim Keller says the service is “about getting the last mile.”
The free service will be available weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through the ABQ Ride Connect app.
The city purchased five electric vans for the program for $110,000 each. Until sufficient charging stations are ready, it will use SunVans to meet initial demand.
While the city is short on bus drivers, the vans can be driven without a commercial license, which could make the job more accessible.
The city will study the program over a one-year period, including asking users for feedback.
US energy industry methane emissions are triple what government thinks, study finds - By Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer
American oil and natural gas wells, pipelines and compressors are spewing three times the amount of the potent heat-trapping gas methane as the government thinks, causing $9.3 billion in yearly climate damage, a new comprehensive study calculates.
But because more than half of these methane emissions are coming from a tiny number of oil and gas sites, 1% or less, this means the problem is both worse than the government thought but also fairly fixable, said the lead author of a study in Wednesday's journal Nature.
The same issue is happening globally. Large methane emissions events around the world detected by satellites grew 50% in 2023 compared to 2022 with more than 5 million metric tons spotted in major fossil fuel leaks, the International Energy Agency reported Wednesday in their Global Methane Tracker 2024. World methane emissions rose slightly in 2023 to 120 million metric tons, the report said.
"This is really an opportunity to cut emissions quite rapidly with targeted efforts at these highest emitting sites," said lead author Evan Sherwin, an energy and policy analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab who wrote the study while at Stanford University. "If we can get this roughly 1% of sites under control, then we're halfway there because that's about half of the emissions in most cases."
Sherwin said the fugitive emissions come throughout the oil and gas production and delivery system, starting with gas flaring. That's when firms release natural gas to the air or burn it instead of capturing the gas that comes out of energy extraction. There's also substantial leaks throughout the rest of the system, including tanks, compressors and pipelines, he said.
"It's actually straightforward to fix," Sherwin said.
In general about 3% of the U.S. gas produced goes wasted into the air, compared to the Environmental Protection Agency figures of 1%, the study found. Sherwin said that's a substantial amount, about 6.2 million tons per hour in leaks measured over the daytime. It could be lower at night, but they don't have those measurements.
The study gets that figure using one million anonymized measurements from airplanes that flew over 52% of American oil wells and 29% of gas production and delivery system sites over a decade. Sherwin said the 3% leak figure is the average for the six regions they looked at and they did not calculate a national average.
Methane over a two-decade period traps about 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide, but only lasts in the atmosphere for about a decade instead of hundreds of years like carbon dioxide, according to the EPA.
About 30% of the world's warming since pre-industrial times comes from methane emissions, said IEA energy supply unit head Christophe McGlade. The United States is the No. 1 oil and gas production methane emitter, with China polluting even more methane from coal, he said.
Last December, the Biden administration issued a new rule forcing the U.S. oil and natural gas industry to cut its methane emissions. At the same time at the United Nations climate negotiations in Dubai, 50 oil companies around the world pledged to reach near zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in operations by 2030. That Dubai agreement would trim about one-tenth of a degree Celsius, nearly two-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit, from future warming, a prominent climate scientist told The Associated Press.
Monitoring methane from above, instead of at the sites or relying on company estimates, is a growing trend. Earlier this month the market-based Environmental Defense Fund and others launched MethaneSAT into orbit. For energy companies, the lost methane is valuable with Sherwin's study estimating it is worth about $1 billion a year.
About 40% of the global methane emissions from oil, gas and coal could have been avoided at no extra cost, which is "a massive missed opportunity," IEA's McGlade said. The IEA report said if countries do what they promised in Dubai they could cut half of the global methane pollution by 2030, but actions put in place so far only would trim 20% instead, "a very large gap between emissions and actions," McGlade said.
"It is critical to reduce methane emissions if the world is to meet climate targets," said Cornell University methane researcher Robert Horwath, who wasn't part of Sherwin's study.
"Their analysis makes sense and is the most comprehensive study by far out there on the topic," said Howarth, who is updating figures in a forthcoming study to incorporate the new data.
The overflight data shows the biggest leaks are in the Permian basin of Texas and New Mexico.
"It's a region of rapid growth, primarily driven by oil production," Sherwin said. "So when the drilling happens, both oil and gas comes out, but the main thing that the companies want to sell in most cases was the oil. And there wasn't enough pipeline capacity to take the gas away" so it spewed into the air instead.
Contrast that with tiny leak rates found in drilling in the Denver region and the Pennsylvania area. Denver leaks are so low because of local strictly enforced regulations and Pennsylvania is more gas-oriented, Sherwin said.
This shows a real problem with what National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association methane-monitoring scientist Gabrielle Petron calls "super-emitters."
"Reliably detecting and fixing super-emitters is a low hanging fruit to reduce real life greenhouse gas emissions," Petron, who wasn't part of Sherwin's study, said. "This is very important because these super-emitter emissions are ignored by most 'official' accounting."
Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who also wasn't part of the study, said, "a few facilities are poisoning the air for everyone."
"For more than a decade, we've been showing that the industry emits far more methane than they or government agencies admit," Jackson said. "This study is capstone evidence. And yet nothing changes."