See the link below to download this 43 page PDF report that is totally focused on the pressing issue of air pollution in the Front Range:
Though originally published in April 2023 (when it was reported here), I thought it would be a timely reminder to help support public pressure on our state legislators and local legislators. It was so incredibly informative, I felt the need to post it here again. (Note that the cover image is from Weld County, from an OGI video filmed by Earthworks.)
The title says it all: the O&G industry is trying with all its powerful media might to lie to local governments and US domestic markets about the pollution it is causing. They have hired a host of PR efforts to spread their lies, which is wrapped up in something called Project Canary. Purposefully name to allude to the aphorism of a canary in a coal mine, the old fashioned method of detecting deadly methane gas in the hand-dug coal mines of old.
But this quote from page 29 gives the lie of this project. Though organized under the auspices of the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, the industry keeps the project muzzled and its data hidden:
“But the data is not made available for public verification, and Project
Canary’s methods have not been subjected to peer review….At the moment, proprietary quantification methods can be a bit of a black box, and it’s not easy to get information on the methods used,” argues Professor Allen. “So it needs academic oversight but with the
process being led by regulators to ensure compliance. And methodologies should be peer-reviewed. The emissions data should be public – at least to regulators. This would be the gold standard that could build trust and transparency in any data.”
Another expert opinion: “One expert, who prefers to remain anonymous, states that “the claims that Project Canary is making regarding being
able to track all methane emissions seem to be premature and should be backed up by peer-reviewed science so they can be independently validated.”
In other words: the public, nor the regulators, nor the markets, can trust the data coming out Project Canary.
The report goes on to document how the entire project is suspect due to the conflict of interest built into the so-called “certification” that it offers to O&G projects. It is the old story of regulatory capture…or the fox guarding the hen house, to put the situation in the vernacular.
So if anyone from the O&G industry attempts to offer up Project Canary as a defense of how their projects have been “certified”…or that their boundary fence monitors are protecting the public health…this is malarky! Their bluff should be called, and regulators should demand peer reviewed science and real transparency to their data and measurement methods…like real science, not fake science.
