A relatively small number of so-called "super emitters" are responsible for 40% of the methane emissions in oil and gas hotspots such as California s Central Valley, according to a new report. Experts from Carbon Mappers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and two universities in Arizona flew over the basin and measured the invisible gas with spectrometers. Jon Goldstein, senior director of regulatory and legislative affairs for the Environmental Defense Fund, which co-authored the report, said the health of the planet depends on reducing methane emissions. .
There’s a rush to deploy new technology that can expose methane leaking from oil and gas infrastructure. One effort revealed hundreds of "super-emitting" sites in the Permian Basin along the border of Texas and New Mexico.