[Prophet in the wilderness]

I wonder if these gases that they burn off by flaring could be used to run generators ? instead of wasting it.

[r9etb]

America's weather-data department, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), came to this conclusion in a new report based on American satellite data. The study was financed by the World Bank, which five years ago started a global initiative to change the long-established practice of flaring gas and to capture it for energy use instead.

Well, OK, I can see the desire to put the gas to some real use ... but it's gonna go into the atmosphere anyway, once it's burned.

[sionnsar]

but the burden on the earth's atmosphere -- in warming emissions like methane and carbon dioxide -- is enormous.

Just holding off the next Ice Age.

[umgud]

This seems like wasted energy, but the concern here is for the environment. The whackos would probably prefer that we just shut these wells in.

[taildragger]

Stupid.

They won't let us drill for oil off the Cape or So Cal.

Ok, Drill and just tap the gas and let's use it for our cars. Duh....

[theBuckwheat]

In the business, this is called “stranded” or “associated” gas. If it was economical to send the gas somewhere, you can bet the owner of the well would do it. If someone wants to pay the cost of doing something other than flare it, they are welcome to get out their checkbook.

If government wants to write the check, it can only get the money from the taxpayer, who we presume is also the customer who is bidding for the output of the well. If the government wants to regulate well drilling to force the owner to do something with the gas, it will only serve to decrease the number of wells that are drilled, because it will raise costs, and therefore raise the bar about justifying the entire drilling project.

[Leisler]

Imagine how much gas Ted Kennedy ‘flairs’ off.

[Phantom Lord]

Remember the BP refinery that blew up a couple years ago in Texas? The reason it blew is that they were using a blowdown drum instead of a flare system. The flared off gas is for saftey reasons.

Of course, if refineries switch back to blowdown drums and another explodes killing several or dozens, they will be sued for not flaring.

[17th Miss Regt]

Some quick calculations show that the effect of this burnoff is to add about 20 parts per billion of combustion products per year to the atmosphere. Given what volcanoes do, I can’t get too worked up about this.

[lduucckkyy]

convert it to hydrogen and pump it into a blimp and float it back to the states