Oil Change International, April 2023

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Certified Disaster: How Project Canary & Gas Certification Are Misleading Gas Markets & Governments
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Certified gas programs are likely highly unreliable and ineffective, resulting in increased threats to health and climate from the oil and gas industry, according to a new report by Oil Change International and Earthworks. Certified Disaster: How Project Canary & Gas Certification are Misleading Gas Markets & Governments examines the rapid growth in  “certified gas” and exposes on-the-ground failures to detect oil & gas pollution by one of the largest certifiers of methane gas.

Field investigations by optical gas imaging experts at Earthworks documented nearly two dozen instances in which Project Canary and similar monitoring technologies failed to capture significant pollution events. This evidence calls into question the degree to which gas certification process is misleading gas markets, giving consumers and investors a false sense of security about the environmental impacts of methane gas. 

Key Points: 

  • Project Canary monitors consistently fail to detect pollution events: Oil and gas certified-thermographers captured alarming evidence of Project Canary monitors failing to detect emissions in the field. 
  • Greenwashing: Project Canary’s marketing aggressively positions its certification services as a means to justify continued fossil fuel extraction, despite IPCC and IEA insistence that fossil fuel production and consumption must rapidly decline to avoid climate catastrophe. (i.e. Project Canary CEO Chris Romer told an interviewer, in September 2022, that “people need to understand that this is the cleanest carbon on the planet, and we need to bring two billion people out of poverty with this enormously clean carbon fuel.”
  • Lack of Transparency: Despite claims of ‘radical transparency’ and third-party verification, there is limited access for regulators, academics, or the public to confirm data generated in the certification process. 
  • Conflicts of Interest: Evidence suggests that a key Project Canary Director and Advisory Board Members have direct financial investments in the same gas companies it certifies.

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49 Comments

  • This expresses my feelings exactly!

    Project Canary monitors consistently fail to detect pollution events: Oil and gas certified-thermographers captured alarming evidence of Project Canary monitors failing to detect emissions in the field.
    Greenwashing: Project Canary’s marketing aggressively positions its certification services as a means to justify continued fossil fuel extraction, despite IPCC and IEA insistence that fossil fuel production and consumption must rapidly decline to avoid climate catastrophe. (i.e. Project Canary CEO Chris Romer told an interviewer, in September 2022, that “people need to understand that this is the cleanest carbon on the planet, and we need to bring two billion people out of poverty with this enormously clean carbon fuel.”
    Lack of Transparency: Despite claims of ‘radical transparency’ and third-party verification, there is limited access for regulators, academics, or the public to confirm data generated in the certification process.
    Conflicts of Interest: Evidence suggests that a key Project Canary Director and Advisory Board Members have direct financial investments in the same gas companies it certifies.

  • Also close the animals slaughter houses eggs and dairy concentration camps. Its the main reason!!

  • Please stop funding fossil fuels use and development, climate change won’t stop until we transition off fossil fuels to nonpolluting renewable energy sources ASAP!

  • what is being done about How Project Canary & Gas Certification Are Misleading Gas Markets & Governments?

  • Project Canary monitors consistently fail to detect pollution events: Oil and gas certified-thermographers captured alarming evidence of Project Canary monitors failing to detect emissions in the field.
    Greenwashing: Project Canary’s marketing aggressively positions its certification services as a means to justify continued fossil fuel extraction, despite IPCC and IEA insistence that fossil fuel production and consumption must rapidly decline to avoid climate catastrophe. (i.e. Project Canary CEO Chris Romer told an interviewer, in September 2022, that “people need to understand that this is the cleanest carbon on the planet, and we need to bring two billion people out of poverty with this enormously clean carbon fuel.”
    Lack of Transparency: Despite claims of ‘radical transparency’ and third-party verification, there is limited access for regulators, academics, or the public to confirm data generated in the certification process.
    Conflicts of Interest: Evidence suggests that a key Project Canary Director and Advisory Board Members have direct financial investments in the same gas companies it certifies.

  • I live in a residential neighborhood and had to evacuate for weeks over a methane leak. This is bad for our environment and all people.

  • Project Canary monitors consistently fail to detect pollution events: Oil and gas certified-thermographers captured alarming evidence of Project Canary monitors failing to detect emissions in the field.
    Greenwashing: Project Canary’s marketing aggressively positions its certification services as a means to justify continued fossil fuel extraction, despite IPCC and IEA insistence that fossil fuel production and consumption must rapidly decline to avoid climate catastrophe. (i.e. Project Canary CEO Chris Romer told an interviewer, in September 2022, that “people need to understand that this is the cleanest carbon on the planet, and we need to bring two billion people out of poverty with this enormously clean carbon fuel.”
    Lack of Transparency: Despite claims of ‘radical transparency’ and third-party verification, there is limited access for regulators, academics, or the public to confirm data generated in the certification process.
    Conflicts of Interest: Evidence suggests that a key Project Canary Director and Advisory Board Members have direct financial investments in the same gas companies it certifies.

  • Why wouldn’t this happen in good old U.S.A. we live in a crooked country crooked politicians crooked Supreme Court? We are way down on the Transparency list for crooked countries and how can it get better when we don’t prosecute crooked politicians Like Trump, the Supreme Court and Congress members, the Senators and the rest of the crooked government?

  • The lives of my grandchildren mean more to me than the money you gain by harming them.

  • Stop the corruption! It is like the police monitoring themselves, it does not solve anything

  • Time for this corruption to be thoroughly investigated and stopped permanently – after all, it only means the survival of the human race and most life on earth!!!!

  • DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
    Certified gas programs are likely highly unreliable and ineffective, resulting in increased threats to health and climate from the oil and gas industry, according to a new report by Oil Change International and Earthworks. Certified Disaster: How Project Canary & Gas Certification are Misleading Gas Markets & Governments examines the rapid growth in “certified gas” and exposes on-the-ground failures to detect oil & gas pollution by one of the largest certifiers of methane gas.
    Field investigations by optical gas imaging experts at Earthworks documented nearly two dozen instances in which Project Canary and similar monitoring technologies failed to capture significant pollution events. This evidence calls into question the degree to which gas certification process is misleading gas markets, giving consumers and investors a false sense of security about the environmental impacts of methane gas.
    Key Points:
    Project Canary monitors consistently fail to detect pollution events: Oil and gas certified-thermographers captured alarming evidence of Project Canary monitors failing to detect emissions in the field.
    Greenwashing: Project Canary’s marketing aggressively positions its certification services as a means to justify continued fossil fuel extraction, despite IPCC and IEA insistence that fossil fuel production and consumption must rapidly decline to avoid climate catastrophe. (i.e. Project Canary CEO Chris Romer told an interviewer, in September 2022, that “people need to understand that this is the cleanest carbon on the planet, and we need to bring two billion people out of poverty with this enormously clean carbon fuel.”
    Lack of Transparency: Despite claims of ‘radical transparency’ and third-party verification, there is limited access for regulators, academics, or the public to confirm data generated in the certification process.
    Conflicts of Interest: Evidence suggests that a key Project Canary Director and Advisory Board Members have direct financial investments in the same gas companies it certifies.

  • Federally appointed oversight must be mandatory for methane evaluation. Project Canary, the current agency, has questionable ethics and one of its directors is known to be an investor in the companies he approves certification for, demonstrating a visible bias to his judgment. The certification process also lacks transparency, and that must be corrected to provide public safety. Please expedite these changes.

  • I have read this report by Oil Change International on the misleading Project Canary and gas certification, which also points to the conflicts of interest of a key Project Canary CEO and of Board members . Clearly this situation is heading all who believe in any of the points backed up in Project Canary’s Report. Please take note and act accordingly. Thank you

  • Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    I have read this report by Oil Change International on the misleading Project Canary and gas certification, which also points to the conflicts of interest of a key Project Canary CEO and of Board members . Clearly this situation is heading all who believe in any of the points backed up in Project Canary’s Report. Please take note and act accordingly. Thank you

  • nsistently fail to detect pollution events: Oil and gas certified-thermographers captured alarming evidence of Project Canary monitors failing to detect emissions in the field.
    Greenwashing: Project Canary’s marketing aggressively positions its certification services as a means to justify continued fossil fuel extraction, despite IPCC and IEA insistence that fossil fuel production and consumption must rapidly decline to avoid climate catastrophe. (i.e. Project Canary CEO Chris Romer told an interviewer, in September 2022, that “people need to understand that this is the cleanest carbon on the planet, and we need to bring two billion people out of poverty with this enormously clean carbon fuel.”
    Lack of Transparency: Despite claims of ‘radical transparency’ and third-party verification, there is limited access for regulators, academics, or the public to confirm data generated in the certification process.
    Conflicts of Interest: Evidence suggests that a key Project Canary Director and Advisory Board Members have direct financial investments in the same gas companies it certifies.

  • Monitoring technologies are failing to capture significant pollution events, and failing us morally. My group and I join many others in calling for federal oversight and a clear commitment to a transition away from methane gas.

  • Fossil fuel usage/dependency, which is destroying the natural world (including our air, water, soil) must cease immediately, if not sooner!

  • It’s clear that methane is much worse (many times worse) to our atmosphere than CO2. So dealing with methane should be a high priority and regulated by the feds to be sure it’s done right. Some of the remediation is easily ‘low hanging fruit’ like leaking closed oil wells.

  • We’ve known for the last 100 years we have to get off oil. If we had any brains we would have started this 99 years ago. But our leaders are stupid, so little to nothing has been done. So now it has to be more extreme. Stop all oil development. We need mass transportation to be electric only. We need to re-arrange society so people can bike and walk to get their basic needs met. A new way to protect the planet and life.

  • Field investigations by optical gas imaging experts at Earthworks documented nearly two dozen instances in which Project Canary monitors and similar devices failed to capture significant pollution events.

    This evidence calls into question the degree to which Project Canary’s certification process is misleading gas markets and giving consumers and investors a false sense of security about the environmental impacts of methane gas.

    Investing in our planet is more important than ever — that’s why it’s the theme for this year’s Earth Day. We need to take action to ensure a sustainable future for ourselves and future generations. Reducing methane pollution is a key part of that, and it must be significantly reduced within this decade to avoid a worst-case climate crisis scenario.

    Change these practices for the future of our children.

  • I understand that Project Canary and similar monitoring technologies failed to capture significant pollution events. The evidence for this calls into question the degree to which the gas certification process is misleading gas markets, and giving consumers and investors a false sense of security about the environmental impacts of methane gas. This is unacceptable and must be addressed.

  • Project Canary monitors consistently fail to detect pollution events: Oil and gas certified-thermographers captured alarming evidence of Project Canary monitors failing to detect emissions in the field.
    Greenwashing: Project Canary’s marketing aggressively positions its certification services as a means to justify continued fossil fuel extraction, despite IPCC and IEA insistence that fossil fuel production and consumption must rapidly decline to avoid climate catastrophe. (i.e. Project Canary CEO Chris Romer told an interviewer, in September 2022, that “people need to understand that this is the cleanest carbon on the planet, and we need to bring two billion people out of poverty with this enormously clean carbon fuel.”
    Lack of Transparency: Despite claims of ‘radical transparency’ and third-party verification, there is limited access for regulators, academics, or the public to confirm data generated in the certification process.
    Conflicts of Interest: Evidence suggests that a key Project Canary Director and Advisory Board Members have direct financial investments in the same gas companies it certifies.

  • We need to stop our dependence on methane and all other forms of fossil fuels. Clean energy (solar, wind, and others) are available. The CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels, and the resulting atmospheric warming, is killing humans through many types of devastating climate events (wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, sea level rise). There is no Planet B!!

  • No more flaccid excuses, lies, and indecisive cowardice. Oil and gas, you had one hundred years to turn climate change into an economic opportunity for your businesses. Instead of investing in and leading the renewable energy revolution while winding down non-renewable efforts, you weaponized police, incited wars, and spread misinformation campaigns for short term profit. So you will be treated as you would treat a one hundred year employee who failed to deliver on trillions of dollars of investments. The people of the world are – how would you put it? – “letting you go.”

  • We have far surpassed our time for transition away from fossil fuels and now must race as fast as we can in an attempt to salvage what will remain of planet earth, the only home that humans currently can to live on.

  • Project Canary monitors consistently fail to detect pollution events: Oil and gas certified-thermographers captured alarming evidence of Project Canary monitors failing to detect emissions in the field.
    Greenwashing: Project Canary’s marketing aggressively positions its certification services as a means to justify continued fossil fuel extraction, despite IPCC and IEA insistence that fossil fuel production and consumption must rapidly decline to avoid climate catastrophe. (i.e. Project Canary CEO Chris Romer told an interviewer, in September 2022, that “people need to understand that this is the cleanest carbon on the planet, and we need to bring two billion people out of poverty with this enormously clean carbon fuel.”
    Lack of Transparency: Despite claims of ‘radical transparency’ and third-party verification, there is limited access for regulators, academics, or the public to confirm data generated in the certification process.
    Conflicts of Interest: Evidence suggests that a key Project Canary Director and Advisory Board Members have direct financial investments in the same gas companies it certifies.

  • How sad we all become helpless victims due to someone else’s greed.
    This must end!

  • We need proper measuring tools. Natural gas is mostly burning methane which is the the worst global warming greenhouse gas!!!!

  • We KNOW that fossil fuels are killing our one and only planet, We have seen the fires and the floods and yet those who have the power to end the use of fossil fuels are sitting on their hands. We are on the brink of global disaster – the signs are there, and action must start NOW, without any delay.

  • As a person living with COPD, the elimination of methane from the environment can not occur fast enough!

  • It is imperative to transition away from methane gas and to provide strict federal oversight until it is fully phased out.
    – Project Canary monitors consistently fail to detect pollution events: Oil and gas certified-thermographers captured alarming evidence of Project Canary monitors failing to detect emissions in the field.
    – Greenwashing: Project Canary’s marketing aggressively positions its certification services as a means to justify continued fossil fuel extraction, despite IPCC and IEA insistence that fossil fuel production and consumption must rapidly decline to avoid climate catastrophe. (i.e. Project Canary CEO Chris Romer told an interviewer, in September 2022, that “people need to understand that this is the cleanest carbon on the planet, and we need to bring two billion people out of poverty with this enormously clean carbon fuel.”
    – Lack of Transparency: Despite claims of ‘radical transparency’ and third-party verification, there is limited access for regulators, academics, or the public to confirm data generated in the certification process.
    – Conflicts of Interest: Evidence suggests that a key Project Canary Director and Advisory Board Members have direct financial investments in the same gas companies it certifies.

  • Project Canary and other organizations certifying gas leaks must be monitored by federal authorities with expertise on the field. Their greenwashing, lack of transparency and serious conflicts of interest are disturbing.

  • Big Oil has willfully, wantonly, and with full knowledge continued to endanger our planet for well over five decades. They knew the consequences of what they were doing and they continue to proceed with what constitutes malice-afore-thought. All over the world, Oil and Gas concerns commit shocking and morally reprehensible crimes, including the unaddressed destruction of wilderness areas, flouting environmental laws and standards, ignoring local statutes and paying off police to oppress, attack, and even send thugs to commit the murder of activists defending the rights of indigenous peoples. How many times must a multinational petroleum corporation simply proceed with dangerous, unapproved, and illegal actions only to slink off to court to use their billions to bully their way into endangering the planet and all of its creatures with minimal accountability. The history of fossil fuels is rife with criminal and predatory behaviors, rampant, irresponsible and myopic greed, it’s about corruption in high places, it is accompanied by horrific human rights and health abuses, and it must again be noted that all of this continues unabated with the full knowledge of the harm that is being done and the accelerated rate with which it is proceeding. It is immoral, unsupportable, and untenable. I believe it merits charges of eco-terrorism, criminal negligence, and numerous other serious criminal consequences, including moratoriums on additional fossil fuel projects of any kind and full liability for REVERSING the effects of their despicable business practices globally and immediately!

  • Our leaders are also greedy, which may be the same as stupid. We need to have all new housing be built as their own mini power stations with solar, wind, thermal. Already built houses need to be retrofitted. Oil development needs to become obsolete.

  • Fossil fuel companies receive Fed. subsidies under (research and development) Our tax pays everything involved; until the gas/oil comes out of the ground. Biden can and should pull the subsities. This action would quickly make most oil/gas companies unprofitable. All countries subsidise Fossil Fuels.

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