March 30, 2016 article published by Energy Tomorrow, entitled “Methane Regulations Not Based on Science.” The article states that, “since 2005, methane emissions from hydraulically fractured wells have plummeted 79%.” The article also states the opinion that further regulations are “duplicative and unnecessary in light of industry’s success in reducing emissions under current regulations.”

In the article, data is shown on a chart for methane emissions and gas production between 2011 and 2014, but a reference in the article linked to an EPA inventory with data published only through 2013.

Per the EPA inventory, natural gas systems (which include production, processing and distribution) were the second largest man-made source of methane emissions in the United States in 2013. Also, the EPA inventory indicates that while emissions due to field production had decreased between 2005 and 2013 by about 38%, emissions due to processing, transmission and storage of natural gas had increased by about 17%. As the second largest man-made source, methane emissions from oil and gas operations continue to be of concern because of it’s global warming potential, and also because methane is co-emitted with other pollutants of concern (e.g., VOCs).