Fixing leaks in the natural gas supply chain is critical to reducing Pennsylvania’s greenhouse gas emissions, and proposed new requirements for gas facilities would hold operators accountable for detecting and repairing them. With estimated emissions from gas operations exceeding a million tons a year in Pennsylvania alone, that’s a big job — even though the draft rule, as currently written, exempts broad swaths of facilities that other states treat as potential emitters.
Fortunately, there’s a whole industry dedicated to efficiently detecting gas leaks using cutting-edge technology — and as these tools get more sophisticated, methane mitigation becomes more cost-effective by the day. But will the finished rule take full advantage of these resources and hold all producers to the same standard?
Links:
- Center for Methane Emissions Solutions
- Montrose Environmental
- Target Emission Services
- Isaac Brown in Pennsylvania Capital-Star: “Methane reduction rules make environmental, economic sense. This is why.”
- PEC and EDF Comment on Proposed Methane Rulemaking
- Pennsylvania Legacies #124: The Stakes
- PEC Blog: Within Reach
- Video: A Sense of Urgency