US oil and gas companies emitting four times more methane than EPA estimates
Published: 08:32 31 Jul 2024 EDT
Companies drilling for oil and gas in the US are emitting much more greenhouse gases than regulators believe, new aerial survey research has shown.
There is roughly four times more methane being emitted than estimates published by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the results of an aerial survey by the Environmental Defense Fund.
Aggregate emissions observed across large portions of 12 major production basins would amount to 7.5 million metric tons per year, around 860 metric tons of methane pollution every hour.
This is "enough wasted gas to meet the annual energy needs of over half of US homes", the fund said.
Data was collected by a specially equipped aircraft, which measured regions accounting for 70% of onshore US oil and gas production.
The MethaneAIR plane uses similar imaging spectrometer technology to MethaneSAT, a satellite developed by Environmental Defense Fund and launched this year in March, which is scheduled to start delivering public data later this year.
Imaging spectrometers are able to measure methane in the atmosphere with "unparalleled sensitivity", able to track changes in atmospheric concentrations as small as three parts per billion.
MethaneAIR made 32 flights between June and October last year to gather data.
The data was compared with estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency that are mainly derived from reports by the oil and gas industry.
"Information used to track methane emissions today is based on extrapolations from very limited measurements. Now we can take robust, reliable measurements directly at an unprecedented scale," said Dr Ritesh Gautam, a senior scientist on the MethaneSAT mission.
"These new findings represent a major advance over current methods, but also just a preview of the continuous high-resolution measurements that are coming soon from MethaneSAT and other satellites."
