New Texas sites are seen adding to air pollution
More than half a billion tons of additional greenhouse gas emissions per year — equivalent to 8 percent of total U.S. emissions — could be generated by new oil, gas and petrochemical facilities in Texas and Louisiana, University of Texas researchers estimate.
New petrochemical plants, liquefied natural gas export terminals and refineries being built along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana are likely to contribute to a significant increase in emissions in the coming decade, the paper published in the academic journal Environmental Research Letters found.
Total annual emissions of recently built and planned regional oil and gas infrastructure may reach 541 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, which is about equivalent to adding 131 coalfired power plants, researchers estimate.
In recent years, energy companies spent billions of dollars to build and expand chemical plants along the Houston Ship Channel to process cheap natural
gas from Texas shale fields into plastics and other petrochemicals. The study found that downstream facilities, such as petrochemical plants and refineries, may contribute nearly half the expected rise in emissions in Texas and Louisiana in the next decade.
Researchers analyzed planned and recently completed oil and gas production, pipeline, storage, refining, liquefied natural gas and petrochemical expansions for the analysis. Using data from emissions permits, facility capacities and emissions factors, they projected the expected greenhouse gas emissions at each facility.
Petrochemical plants and refineries are likely to contribute the most to the expected rise in emissions in Texas and Louisiana, researchers found, representing about 46 percent of the projected increase, or 250 million tons of greenhouse gases. Of that, 206 million tons will be from petrochemical facilities, researchers estimate.
Production activities are expected to contribute 31 percent of the projected increase in regional oil and gas emissions, and pipelines and storage 22 percent.
An abundance of cheap natural gas has made feedstocks for petrochemical and LNG processing plants inexpensive and helped to move power generation from coal.
Environmentalists, however, have criticized the recent increased reliance on natural gas, calling on the nation to move toward renewable sources instead.
Earlier this month, researchers at the Environmental Integrity Project completed a similar assessment, though limited to permitted facilities through 2025, and estimated that emissions from 157 planned oil and gas plants in the U.S. would result in 227 million additional tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.