BP’s global operations emit the equivalent of 50.5 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. That’s down from 54.1 million four years ago, and by 2025 the aim is for 3.5 million more tons of “permanent, quantifiable greenhouse gas reductions.” That’s a lot of cuts — equal to what comes out of the tailpipes of 2.6 million passenger cars. One of the best spots to reduce emissions is right in its oil and gas fields. BP figures that half of its fugitive methane emissions — a fancy way of saying natural gas leaking out of pumps and pipelines — come from its operations in the Lower 48. And a good portion of those happen in mature fields like the one near Wamsutter, in the Great Divide Basin of Wyoming.
