California’s oil and gas industry emitted approximately 270,000 tons of methane in 2014 – nearly three times the gas released during the Aliso Canyon storage facility disaster. This wasted methane – primarily natural gas – is worth over $50 million, and would have met the heating and cooking needs of about 400,000 homes in the state, had it not been lost to the atmosphere.
Notwithstanding the fact that methane pollution damages the climate and co-pollutants can cause dramatic public health problems, losing natural gas is a wasteful practice.
