The annual US health cost of oil and gas production is $77B – here’s how we fix that
The US oil and gas sector was responsible for $77 billion in total health impacts in 2016, according to a newly released study.
Few studies have measured the effects of oil and gas production – not even factoring in actual fossil fuel usage – on air quality, human health, and health costs, but this new study does.
The study is called “Air pollution and health impacts of oil & gas production in the United States.” It was published in the journal Environmental Research: Health and was led by the Boston University School of Public Health, the University of North Carolina Institute for the Environment, PSE Healthy Energy, and the Environmental Defense Fund.
The researchers examined air quality and human health impacts associated with ozone, fine particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide from the US oil and gas sector in 2016. They compared that impact with that of the associated methane emissions.
The study’s abstract states:
We find that air pollution in 2016 from the oil and gas sector in the US resulted in 410,000 asthma exacerbations, 2,200 new cases of childhood asthma, and 7,500 excess deaths, with $77 billion in total health impacts. NO2 [nitrogen dioxide] was the highest contributor to health impacts (37%) followed by ozone (35%), and then PM2.5 [fine particulate matter] (28%).
When monetized, these air quality health impacts of oil and gas production exceeded estimated climate impact costs from methane leakage by a factor of 3.
Impacts were largely concentrated in areas with significant oil and gas production, such as southwestern Pennsylvania, Texas, and eastern Colorado. But the health effects also extended into densely populated cities with little or no gas activity, such as Chicago, New York City, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Orlando.
The five states with the highest impacts from oil and gas pollution – all have significant oil and gas activity – were Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. However, Illinois and New York – states that produce very little oil and gas – still landed in the sixth and eighth spots. Pollution doesn’t respect state borders.
Saravanan Arunachalam, research professor at University of North Carolina Institute for the Environment, said:
States that have the highest emissions are not necessarily always the ones with the highest health risk due to these emissions, although Texas ranks first in both.
Texas is No. 1 in both wind and solar production – but the Texas legislature is determined to choke its thriving renewable energy sector and subsidize fossil fuels with new bills that were recently approved by its state senate. These bills will pass because the governor of Texas staunchly backs fossil fuels. And that’s going to guarantee higher energy bills for consumers and increase emissions from natural gas use. (And it was mostly natural gas that failed during Texas’ big outage in winter 2021.)
The direction that Texas is headed is not a direction any legislature should take. Every US state should be working to reduce emissions by switching to renewables in order to protect people and the environment. The study results suggest that emissions reduction policies for oil and gas, such as the forthcoming Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) methane regulations, may produce immediate and significant air quality benefits for both human health and the climate.
Study co-author Ananya Roy, senior health scientist at Environmental Defense Fund, said:
Curbing oil and gas emissions is one of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to reduce methane and other air pollutants, which improves air quality, protects public health and slows climate change.
It’s critical that the US EPA strengthen and finalize its proposed oil and gas methane rules as quickly as possible.
These proposed rules should build from leading state approaches in Colorado and New Mexico and go further to end pollution from the practice of routine flaring.
Read more: A dramatic new EPA rule will force up to 60% of new US car sales to be EVs in just 7 years
Photo: Juan Mt on Pexels.com
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In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.
France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.
At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.
And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:
While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.
That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.
“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”
The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.
You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.
Electrek’s Take
MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.
He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”
With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.
SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.
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GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.
GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.
At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.
The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.
Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”
SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.
Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction
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