Natural gas.
It sounds environmentally friendly, like natural, organic,
grass fed farm to table gas.
For a long time it was pitched
as a crucial bridge to a cleaner, greener future.
I got a plan, which is to use natural gas
as a cleaner, cheaper bridge fuel.
Natural gas is a bridge fuel
to reduce our carbon footprint.
I think the natural gas boom is good.
It's an important bridge fuel.
Natural gas if extracted safely
it's the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less
of the carbon pollution that causes climate change.
It's true that natural gas burns cleaner than oil or coal
so in theory, it should be better for the climate.
Unfortunately, that theory ignores a dirty
filthy little secret: methane.
It's the primary component of natural gas
and an extremely potent greenhouse gas
with over 80 times the warming power
of carbon dioxide over the short term.
Most of the world's methane emissions come
from human activity, our landfills, rice patties
and meat consumption.
And a huge amount comes
from our fossil fuel production, including natural gas.
As natural gas is extracted and transported
methane can leak into the atmosphere.
That's really important to pay attention
to because even if about 3% of it leaks
it becomes worse for the climate than coal.
So if we wanna determine whether natural gas is a bridge
to a cleaner future or say the Squid Game bridge
we need to find out how much methane is leaking.
Now, know what you're thinking.
How much methane is leaking?
Fair question, important question.
And the answer is we don't know.
In fact, there are currently no laws
in the US against most methane leaks
so companies don't have to keep accurate track of it.
Fortunately, scientists are keeping track and a few
from Stanford recently flew over
tens of thousands of wells in the Permian Basin to
get a thorough accounting of methane leaks.
Unfortunately, what they found was terrifying.
They were able to generate data
showing that more than 9%
of the methane produced
in the area was actually leaking into the atmosphere.
More than 9%.
That's three times the amount that would make
natural gas worse than coal.
You know how you sometimes get paranoid
about leaving the gas stove on
so you double check before you go to bed?
Now imagine one night you forgot to double check
and you left on 400,000 gas stoves in the Permian Basin.
On a related note, for any obsessive stove checkers
a recent study found
that your gas stove might be leaking methane
even if it's off.
So sleep tight.
So look, how did we overlook this problem for so long?
Maybe because we literally can't look at it.
Unlike oil spills, methane spills are invisible.
There are exceptions like that flaming doom hole that opened
up in the Gulf of Mexico or Turkmenistan's
even scarier flaming doom hole.
Thankfully, there's technology that allows us to
visualize methane leaks without lighting them
on fire and potentially summoning a demon.
Special infrared cameras can reveal methane chimneys
hiding in plain sight.
Images like this help raise awareness of methane leaks
and apply political pressure to regulate them
and that's starting to have an impact.
Policy makers are realizing that cutting methane
leaks can give them a quick win on climate.
Unlike CO2, methane breaks
down in the atmosphere relatively fast.
So capping methane leaks could prevent as much as one third
of the warming expected in the next few decades.
It's why the big 2022 climate bill imposed a new fee
on those leaks, and that's
on top of the stricter rules from the EPA.
But those rules and fees will only be effective
if methane leaks are measured and reported accurately.
And that's a big if.
A Bloomberg investigation found
that companies are allowed
to ready "self-report their pollution based
on their own interpretation of the EPA's rules."
I mean, obviously that feels counterproductive.
We wouldn't let restaurants interpret health
codes themselves or they'd be like, oh no.
Yeah, that's not a rat.
That's Remy.
He's the finest chef in all of France.
You should try his ratatouille it's delicious.
Reporting loopholes will need to be closed
if we want to get serious about regulation.
But beyond regulation
there should be a big financial incentive to
cut methane leaks.
The less of your inventory that leaks away
the more you can sell, right?
And I don't know if you've checked gas prices lately
but you can make a lot of money selling this stuff.
I wanted to take a closer look at this issue.
So I traveled to the Permian Basin
in West Texas where one company, Triple Crown Resources,
realized how much methane they were leaking and said,
"Oh crap." And then they said,
"Ho ho, crap. We can totally save money on this."
Take a look.