Unearthed today: The solution is underground

Morning!

First up, here’s a really cool new thing. A global, month-by-month map of methane emissions as seen from space. A reminder, methane is a very potent near-term greenhouse gas, most of which comes from human causes such as agriculture and fossil fuel extraction.

“As expected, areas with high levels of oil and gas drilling activity—from West Texas and New Mexico to the Caspian Sea and parts of the Persian Gulf—show higher levels of methane, likely caused by leaks and flaring,” said Stephane Germain, president of the Montreal-based firm GHG sat.

“If you are a company and you see more red in the areas that you operate in, you should care,” said Germain. “A very small number of sites are responsible for the vast majority of man-made emissions globally. If you can find those industrial emissions, you can have a significant impact.”

Which takes us to a curious deep dive into US cattle-ranching in the New York Times the long-short of which seems to be that factory farming cattle on corn is good for the climate because grass creates more methane and cows don’t live so long, so don’t belch as much. It’s a somewhat extraordinary argument and I include it here largely to highlight the thing it misses – the land-use implications of growing the corn.

I’m reading about… Amy Coney Barrett

I wrote about this yesterday but Vox has an excellent long read today on what the new supreme court justice could mean for the climate.

The long-short is that her style of judicial decision making is likely to curtail the power of the US state act both on the basis of previous laws and even on the basis of new ones whilst – at the same time – would make it harder for people to bring cases against polluters.

“A majority of the Court also seems open to reviving the “non-delegation” doctrine, a constitutional principle that limits Congress’s ability to grant broad powers to agencies. The Court has not struck down a statute on this basis in 85 years, but just last year, three justices indicated their willingness to do so, and Alito said he would join them if a fifth vote could be found. Barrett, whose constitutional originalism might well align with a strict view of non-delegation, could provide the fifth vote. (So might Kavanaugh, who was not yet seated when the case was argued.)”

This will be very important if Trump wins but my read of the piece is that we could exaggerate the impact on a Biden presidency. He would still have options. 

“There is plenty a Biden administration could accomplish using EPA’s and other agencies’ existing legal authority, just by restoring and strengthening the rules the Trump administration has gutted — for example by setting strong standards for power plant carbon dioxide, methane emissions, fuel efficiency, appliances, and the like. A lot of progress can be made without embracing the riskiest legal positions, because technological advances and market conditions have shown what industry can achieve, which provides a sound basis for ambitious standards.”

Three things you need to know about the transition

Japan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to net zero by 2050: The new target, set to be unveiled in a speech to lawmakers next week by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, means Japan will finally catch up to the European Union, which set the same goal last year. 

Geothermal energy is poised for a big breakout: A truly excellent piece in Vox points to the potential for geo-thermal. The most interesting thing here is the role oil companies could, and should. It’s genuinely really interesting. 

Electric cars’ as cheap to manufacture’ as regular models by 2024: Electric cars will cost the same to make as conventional cars, with internal combustion engines, by 2024 and an acceleration in the shift away from fossil fuel vehicles may be imminent, according to new research.