electricity is from natural gas<\/a>, which is mostly composed of methane. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that is more than 80 times more potent for global warming than carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n\u201cIf we’re going to burn natural gas, we should burn it properly,\u201d Commane said. \u201cBurning it carefully and fully is a priority because the more of it that escapes into the atmosphere, the bigger the impact on climate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers said the data indicated there were peaks in methane leakage. Emissions were highest during winter heating and summer cooling seasons, a pattern consistent with increased natural gas delivery and usage.<\/p>\n
\u201dFor methane, the atmospheric lifetime is about a decade, so if we can reduce the emissions for methane, we’ll see a difference in climate warming within about a decade,\u201d Commane said.<\/p>\n
The report comes at a time when New York is poised to build the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline, which is currently stalled by litigation for its New Jersey segment. In addition, the federal government is also trying to pave the way for the Constitution Pipeline over objections from state environmental regulators.<\/p>\n
The study warns that continued dependence on fossil fuels will likely lead to higher emissions because demands for cooling and heating are projected to increase. Researchers said reducing methane emissions from natural gas usage is low-hanging fruit for cutting greenhouse gases in the near term.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith global temperatures continuing to rise, leading to more frequent, prolonged and intense extreme weather events, including extreme heat and extended cold periods, energy demand for both cooling and heating is expected to grow,\u201d the study stated. \u201cWithout a transition to cleaner energy sources, this increased energy demand could lead to higher methane emissions in urban regions.\u201d<\/p>\n
City and state-level legislation requiring buildings to discontinue fossil fuel use is set to go into effect. Buildings account for about two-thirds of New York City\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions via cooking and heating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Yorkers are losing $300 million a year due to natural gas leaks, according to Columbia University researchers.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-373073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}