Pound for pound, methane traps 25 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. A major source of methane is leakage and routine releases from natural gas facilities: drilling wells, pipelines, and tanks.
Worldwide, methane emissions by the natural gas industry, with US and Russian companies the worst offenders, are equal in their climate change impact to half of all the greenhouse gas emissions of coal-fired power plants in the United States. Methane from all sources, including landfills and farming, is responsible for one-third of the human contribution to global warming.
The Bush administration favored a voluntary program for curtailing methane emissions. The Obama administration says it will issue rules for mandatory reporting of methane emissions by oil and gas companies late next year. It is also calling for firms to adopt the best technologies available when they construct or upgrade facilities.
But that’s not nearly enough. The administration should take the much stronger step of requiring companies to retrofit existing facilities, utilizing new methane-catching technology that costs as little as $11,000 per well.
If all companies would volunteer to make such investments, regulation would not be necessary, but they don’t. The nation’s progress against global warming will be halting at best if gains made on the carbon front are offset by increased releases of methane from natural gas facilities.
