The country’s biggest oil and gas basins emit four times more methane than federal estimates, according to new research based on flight surveys.
The assessment, released Wednesday by the Environmental Defense Fund, adds to existing concerns that the federal government is undercounting planet-warming emissions from U.S. oil and gas operations. Methane breaks down faster in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but has about 80 times the heat-trapping capability over a 20-year period.
“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,” said Ritesh Gautam, a lead senior scientist at EDF, in a statement.
MethaneSAT, a satellite EDF launched in March, is scheduled to start delivering public data later this year. For the assessment released Wednesday, EDF collected data using a chartered jet aircraft outfitted with an imaging spectrometer that measures methane in the atmosphere.
