Methane arising

Graphic by Kaiguang Zhao

Natural gas as clean as proponents might want you to think, and its global warming potential is 20 times higher than carbon dioxide. A researcher from Boston University went looking for gas leaks around Boston and he found a few – 3,356, to be exact:

“We know there’s a lot of leaks in Boston and outside of Boston, too, and we know that there is a good chunk of industry-reported lost and unaccounted-for gas,” Dr. Phillips said. “What we don’t know, and what we, and a bunch of other people are trying to get a handle on, is how much methane is coming out of all of these leaks. What is the rate of flow? Is some of it just metering problems, or accounting issues?”