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Monitoring and reducing methane emissions
According to the World Bank, over 7,500,000 kt of methane were released into the atmosphere worldwide as a result of agriculture and industry. The United States government is developing regulations to reduce methane emissions from the oil industry by more than 40% over the next decade. At the same time, the government is investing money in research to seek reliable ways to measure the level of methane emissions in the atmosphere that have come directly from natural gas production.
Measuring methane emissions
Natural gas makes up about a quarter of the energy used in the United States. New production methods, including those related to hydraulic fracturing, are expanding access to natural gas and have increased natural gas based power, which is credited with decreasing greenhouse gas emissions in the country. Recent estimates for methane emissions from natural gas industries in the United States have been widely divergent.