Op-ed on Methane leakage in Pennsylvania and beyond

Dr. DeCarlo authored an op-ed in the Morning Call on the importance of curtailing methane emissions from natural gas operations.  This op-ed includes a discussion of methane measurement results by Dr. Doug Goetz when he was a Ph.D. student in the DeCarlo Lab.  Doug found that over the course of 3 years of development (2012 to 2015), methane leakage increased by 300% similar to the rate of increase in natural gas production from the Marcellus Shale basin.  This contrasts with the industry estimate of methane leakage which indicated a decrease of 30%.  Clearly the measured values are not in agreement with the estimate from the reported emission inventory.  The op-ed calls for improved monitoring to track the leakage using measurements.