The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently released its Air Emissions Inventory, and our Rob Altenburg took the opportunity to break down this dense packet of data to make it more easily understood.
The folks at PublicSource, an investigative news outlet based in southwestern Pennsylvania, took it a step further by creating a series of interactive charts that address key takeaways of the DEP inventory once you take a deeper dive.
Among the items we can now see, in living color, these two stand out:
1. While methane emissions from natural gas operations have decreased statewide, the vast majority of the decline is in categories subject to federal regulation such as "green" well completions. Unregulated sources of methane emissions, such as those from pumps and dehydrators, continue to increase.
2. Six companies accounted for nearly half of all methane emissions in Pennsylvania.
Two things are clear here:
1. Regulations work as evidenced by the decline in the one category subject to federal regulation. But federal rules aren't enough -- Pennsylvania needs to directly regulate methane emissions if it wants to get a handle on this potent greenhouse gas, a climate killer that along with other toxic co-pollutants is contributing to serious public health issues.
2. A comprehensive regulatory framework on methane will ensure that ALL operators in the Commonwealth are adhering to the rules and capturing/controlling emissions. When the level of emissions varies wildly between companies, it's easy to see that we need enforceable standards.
But don't just take my word for it. You can see for yourself, clearly, at PublicSource.
Elaine Labalme is Strategic Campaigns Director at PennFuture and is based in Pittsburgh. She tweets @NewGirlInTown.
