In Pennsylvania, Methane Emissions Higher Than EPA Estimates

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https://eos.org/research-spotlights/in-pennsylvania-methane-emissions-higher-than-epa-estimates

Source:  By Aaron Sidder, Eos/AGU.

Excerpt: As a greenhouse gas, methane packs quite the punch: Its warming potential is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide over 20 years and 28 times more potent over 100 years. Methane, mostly released into the atmosphere by livestock, landfills, and biomass burning, is also released during the production of coal and natural gas. Although the overall methane emissions from the coal and natural gas sectors have decreased over the past 20 years, they still account for over 30% of anthropogenic methane emissions in the United States. ...Barkley et al. used the top-down approach recently to estimate methane emissions from underground coal and natural gas production in southwestern Pennsylvania. ...Coal and natural gas have different ratios of ethane to methane, and biogenic sources do not emit ethane. ...methane emissions from coal production mostly match the EPA’s calculations. In contrast, natural gas methane emissions in the region are underreported by a factor of 5....

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