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Methane emissions remain flat even as biggest US oil region opens the tap
A flare burns off excess methane in the Permian Basin, where yearly methane emissions are more than twice as high as regulators’ estimates. Credit: Justin Hamel/Bloomberg/Getty
Oil and gas production in Texas’s Permian Basin has tripled since 2018. But according to satellite monitoring, the invisible methane emissions leaking from the basin’s fossil-fuel infrastructure didn’t change over the same time1. This suggests that the industry has made some progress towards controlling this potent greenhouse gas, which is responsible for an estimated 30% of human-caused global warming.
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Dadheech, N. & Turner, A. J. Geophys. Res. Lett. 53, e2026GL124412 (2026).
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Assistant Professor at the Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) Center at WashU Medicine in St. Louis