When natural gas is extracted, processed, and transported, methane -- which makes up as much as 90 percent of natural gas -- is often lost to leaks or vented into the atmosphere. Since methane is a global warming pollutant much more potent than carbon dioxide, methane pollution accelerates and magnifies climate change. Capturing currently wasted methane for sale could reduce pollution, enhance air quality, improve human health, conserve energy resources, and bring in more than $2 billion of additional revenue each year.
A new Nation Resource Defense Council (NRDC) report recommends ten (10) technically proven, commercially available, and profitable methane emission control technologies together can capture more than 80 percent of the methane currently going to waste. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), other federal agencies, and the states should require use of these technologies for methane control, and the oil and gas industry should move quickly to adopt these measures.
In the meantime...
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s deadline for issuing New Source Performance Standards to reduce air pollution from oil and gas drilling and production is expected to be extended from a court-ordered Apr. 3 deadline to Apr. 17 2012. EPA said it needed more time to review public comments. On July 28, 2011, EPA proposed the rules, which involve several processes previously not subject to federal regulations, including hydraulic fracturing. The new standards are aimed at reducing emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC).