Ready for Recovery: Four Ways We're Tackling Today’s Climate Challenges

Mike Sommers
Posted December 14, 2020

From reducing America’s dependence on foreign energy to powering our economic recovery, the U.S. natural gas and oil industry is providing solutions to today’s biggest challenges.

That includes addressing the risks of climate change. Americans do not have to make the false choice between utilizing our nation’s energy resources and protecting the environment. We can do both.

Here are four ways natural gas and oil companies are stepping up:

• Bringing Emissions to Historic Lows: The increased use of natural gas in power generation, predominantly as a replacement for coal, has reduced energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to their lowest levels in a generation.
   
• Exporting Cleaner Energy Globally: Such environmental benefits extend to nations around the world. API’s lifecycle analysis of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to China, Germany and India shows, on average, U.S. LNG produces 50.5% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than coal in all base-case scenarios for electricity generation.
   
• Innovating to Capture More Carbon: Our industry has invested billions of dollars in greenhouse gas mitigation strategies, including end-use technologies like carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). This groundbreaking technology is designed to remove carbon dioxide from industry operations – and even directly from the air – and convert it into marketable commodities or recycle it for use in enhanced oil recovery.
   
• Collaborating to Reduce Emissions: Industry-led initiatives like The Environmental Partnership have established a model for collaboration toward emissions reductions and energy solutions. Today, the Partnership includes 36 of the top 40 U.S. natural gas producers, all committed to reducing emissions of methane and volatile organic compounds in America’s largest energy-producing regions.

The U.S. natural gas and oil industry isn’t waiting for regulation and legislation to improve efficiency – it’s innovating and investing to maximize climate effectiveness right now.

While the U.S. leads the world in emissions reductions, we recognize there is more work to be done. We are investing and prioritizing breakthrough technologies to produce, refine and deliver cleaner, reliable and affordable energy and power the world’s recovery.