US takes steps to reduce methane emissions from fossil-fuel industry
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029135
Nature : New regulations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) call for a reduction of methane emissions from oil and natural gas drilling operations. The proposal coincides with a recent study in which scientists found that the amount of methane released through the gathering, processing, and distributing of natural gas in the US has been severely underestimated. Most of the newly identified emissions come from some 4500 natural-gas gathering facilities, which use compressed natural gas to open and close valves, according to Anthony Marchese of Colorado State University in Fort Collins and lead author of the paper. Tweaking the valves and switching to compressed air to activate them would reduce the leakage by half, he says.
