Climate Change:

Studies Find Methane Emissions in California and U.S. 1.5 Times Greater Than Expected (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Berkeley Lab research suggests a method for more accurate methane estimates.

Berkeley Lab researcher
Marc Fischer

Current official inventories of methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas released from landfills, livestock ranches and oil and gas facilities, may be underestimated both nationally and in California by a factor of about 1.5, according to new research from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and others.

A pair of new studies by Berkeley Lab scientist Marc Fischer and colleagues strongly suggest that methane emissions from oil and gas production may account for a significant portion of the underestimated emissions both in California and nationwide, and may be as much as five times greater than the current inventory estimates of EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research), the most comprehensive global methane database.

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