Accounting for methane from natural gas infrastructure in United States greenhouse gas emission estimates

Kevin J. Kircher

Energy Policy, 2025, vol. 206, issue C

Abstract: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that United States net greenhouse gas emissions have declined over the last two decades and are now about 17 % below their 2005 level. However, a large body of independent measurements suggests that over the same time frame, surging oil and natural gas production from shale formations increased emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas and the main component of natural gas, well beyond EPA estimates. Accounting for these increased methane emissions removes over two-thirds of the apparent post-2005 decline in United States net greenhouse gas emissions. This result suggests that Americans may need to work harder than expected to reduce emissions at a speed and scale consistent with international climate goals, highlights the need to mitigate methane emissions, and calls into question the role of natural gas in climate action plans. Other nations should carefully consider methane emissions when evaluating the climate impacts of oil and natural gas imported from the United States.

Keywords: Methane emissions; Natural gas infrastructure; Emissions accounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142152500254X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:206:y:2025:i:c:s030142152500254x

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114747

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().