Environmental Injustices of Leaks from Urban Natural Gas Distribution Systems: Patterns among and within 13 U.S. Metro Areas.

Natural gas leaks in local distribution systems can develop as underground pipeline infrastructure degrades over time. These leaks lead to safety, economic, and climate change burdens on society. We develop an environmental justice analysis of natural gas leaks discovered using advanced leak detection in 13 U.

Toward a Functional Definition of Methane Super-Emitters: Application to Natural Gas Production Sites.

Emissions from natural gas production sites are characterized by skewed distributions, where a small percentage of sites-commonly labeled super-emitters-account for a majority of emissions. A better characterization of super-emitters is needed to operationalize ways to identify them and reduce emissions. We designed a conceptual framework that functionally defines superemitting sites as those with the highest proportional loss rates (methane emitted relative to methane produced).

Constructing a Spatially Resolved Methane Emission Inventory for the Barnett Shale Region.

Methane emissions from the oil and gas industry (O&G) and other sources in the Barnett Shale region were estimated by constructing a spatially resolved emission inventory. Eighteen source categories were estimated using multiple data sets, including new empirical measurements at regional O&G sites and a national study of gathering and processing facilities. Spatially referenced activity data were compiled from federal and state databases and combined with O&G facility emission factors calculated using Monte Carlo simulations that account for high emission sites representing the very upper portion, or fat-tail, in the observed emissions distributions.