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posted by mrpg on Saturday September 01 2018, @02:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the blame-dinosaurs dept.

Until renewable sources of energy like wind or solar become more reliable and less expensive, people worldwide remain reliant on fossil fuels for transportation and energy. This means that if people want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there need to be better ways of mitigating the effects of extracting and burning oil and gas.

Now, Adam Brandt, assistant professor of energy resources engineering in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences at Stanford, and his colleagues have performed a first global analysis comparing emissions associated with oil production techniques -- a step toward developing policies that could reduce those emissions. They published their work Aug. 30 in Science.

The group found that the burning of unwanted gas associated with oil production -- called flaring -- remains the most carbon-intensive part of producing oil. Brandt spoke with Stanford Report about the group's findings and strategies for reducing flaring.


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday September 01 2018, @10:31AM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 01 2018, @10:31AM (#729193) Journal

    In the US, yes. But in countries like Venezuela, that are oil rich yet economically poor, they would welcome these engines with open arms to help their desperate need for electricity.

    With open arms, but not with hard currency. Therein lies the rub of that particular problem.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 01 2018, @02:46PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 01 2018, @02:46PM (#729244)

    While I doubt anyone in the Venezuelan government is that creative, all they would have to do is require "flare gas-->electricity" production as part of granting oil drilling leases. The oil is worth enough that the multinational drilling companies would work it out.

    While it's probably too early to do the numbers, the extra cost of running this generation might not be all that much compared to the total cost of a drilling operation(?), so maybe this electricity is put on the grid for free.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday September 01 2018, @09:29PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 01 2018, @09:29PM (#729329) Journal

      granting oil drilling leases

      They nationalized the oil industry in Venezuela. There's no multinational drilling companies there to figure this stuff out.