US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Colorado John Hickenlooper
Today’s news finalizes the initial agreement announced in January
Funding comes thanks the Inflation Reduction Act Hickenlooper helped pass into law
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper celebrated the news that Colorado-based LongPath Technologies received a $162.3 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy (DOE) to finance the construction and installation of more than 1,000 remote real-time methane monitoring towers in oil and gas production basins across the West. In January, DOE had announced the initial agreement with LongPath Technologies. The funding comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, which Hickenlooper helped pass into law.
As governor, Hickenlooper brought together environmentalists and the oil industry to create the world’s first methane regulations. Those regulations were used by President Obama as a model for national standards which in turn were used as a basis for the international methane pledge in 2021.
“As governor, we made sure Colorado led the country with the first methane regulations of their kind,” said Hickenlooper. “We’re building on that leadership to create real-time methane emissions monitoring for the rest of the country thanks to these Inflation Reduction Act investments and our homegrown innovators like LongPath.”
“Preventing harmful greenhouse emissions from entering our atmosphere is a key pillar of President Biden and Vice President’s Harris’ Investing in America agenda to improve public health while combatting climate change,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement underscores the Biden-Harris Administration continued efforts to create environmentally resilient communities and ensure the United States leads the world in deploying next-generation clean energy solutions.”
The financing from DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) will support LongPath in the installation and deployment of up to 24,000 square miles of monitoring coverage. If finalized, the network is expected to prevent methane emissions equivalent to at least six million tons of carbon dioxide annually – equivalent to 1.3 million gasoline powered vehicles – by enabling subscribers to identify and respond to methane leaks quickly. At its peak, the project is anticipated to create an estimated 35 construction jobs and 266 operations jobs for regional workers, including trained experts to install and maintain the equipment, and provide competitive benefits. LongPath also provides internship opportunities with the University of Colorado to engage the future generation in technology-based climate solutions.
Emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas up to 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide, occur across the oil and gas sector. Leaks during oil and gas production and compression, which are difficult to identify across vast production areas, are a major source of U.S. methane emissions. The longer leaks go undetected, the more planet-warming greenhouse gas enters the atmosphere.
Today, methane leak monitoring is typically conducted via flyovers or using methods such as optical gas imaging cameras, which can leave major gaps in emissions monitoring over time and space. LongPath’s technology continuously identifies, localizes, and quantifies methane emissions more rapidly and at lower detection levels than conventional methods, allowing operators to mitigate leaks earlier and more often. This is particularly true because emissions are intermittent – only continuous monitoring can reliably detect these kinds of emission sources.
LongPath technology was developed at the University of Colorado and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST).