Native American Methane Capture
Since the beginning of time, the mountains of Colorado have been shifting. When they shift, gases from deep inside the core of the earth are released. The Southern Ute Tribe has learned how to capture this leaking gas and redirect it into energy.
What it does
Methane is a short-lived climate pollutant that is 25 times worse for the earth than carbon dioxide for 100 years after its release. This project captures methane seeping from coal seams at the surface of the mountains. These leaks from the coal seams are highly combustible and were the cause of coal fires that were often nearly impossible to extinguish. This damaged the surrounding landscape.
How it works
Once the leaking methane gas is captured it is refined into useable natural gas and piped into the local grid, helping to power homes, businesses, and schools. The Tribe has decided to invest in this system to protect their sacred tribal lands and the world’s environment and are looking for ways to improve the system.
Methane is best known as the primary component of natural gas. It is a by-product of nature’s formation of coal, occurring over millions of years. When geological forces raise coal to the surface of the earth, methane escapes into the atmosphere. The gas seeps from an outcrop of the Fruitland formation, the decay from an ancient swamp that underlies much of the area contributing to the Four Corners methane hotspot, or the largest US methane anomaly viewed from space.
Benefits
- 40 – 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions are eliminated every year by this project
- Over a billion cubic feet of methane has been captured over the life of the project
- Provides jobs and income for members of the Southern Ute tribe
- Decreases local demand for natural gas, mitigating the need for invasive drilling elsewhere
Challenges
- Methane is highly flammable and can cause sudden fires
- Currently, the Tribe is not profiting from this project, but continues to manage it because it supports their values
- The project requires consistent funding to maintain infrastructure
Who it helps
Modern Wisdom in Ancient Traditions
Read how a proud people, respectful of their ancient lands, have stepped up to solve a modern problem.
Why we chose this project
Global greenhouse gas emissions from coal mining are hugely detrimental to the environment.
Several methodologies have been approved by the United Nations to mitigate the effects of methane emissions from mining coal, but almost all the projects that used these methodologies have closed due to the methodological complexities and uncertainties associated with the quantity and quality of methane gas from coal seams.
This project is one of the few very successful projects that started by devising a new methodology and has gone through a painstakingly long process of approval. The project is a pilot initiative that is a model for solving many thousands of similar coal mine methane leak problems across the world. Without income from carbon, this project would not be possible.
—Sid Yadav, CEO Global Offset Research
Drawdown
Methane capture is not cited in Drawdown; however, this project resembles Drawdown Solution 58 – Landfill Methane. The project captures methane naturally seeping from the ground instead of capturing methane from decomposing trashHow we select our projects
We go the extra mile, or kilometer, to make sure each project’s carbon-cutting is effective, and the use of funds is efficient.
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