Methane and Health-Damaging Air Pollutants from the Oil and Gas Sector: Bridging 10 Years of Scienti

EPA was unable to calculate the benefits of VOC and other HDAP reductions due to “difficulties in modeling the impacts with the current data available.”6 These data gaps indicate that benefits of oil and gas methane regulations are currently underestimated across the oil and gas industry, and therefore, have ramifications for present and future energy policy. [...] There are two major source-types of air pollutants from oil and gas systems: (1) fugitive emissions from leaks and venting of non-combusted gases that emit relatively high proportions of methane and VOCs and (2) combustion emissions that emit comparatively less methane through incomplete combustion and possibly fewer VOCs, but higher levels of other criteria pollutants as byproducts of combustion. [...] In the long term, the most effective strategy to reduce emissions from the oil and natural gas sector is to reduce the overall development, transmission, and use of oil and natural gas. [...] The weight of the scientific literature to date indicates there is significant variability in the magnitude and ratios of methane and HDAP emissions across geographic, temporal, and corporate spaces. [...] The likelihood of co-emissions of methane and HDAPs in many, but not all, parts of the oil and gas sector likely means that the cost-benefits of methane mitigation are underestimated, particularly for those sources in proximity to human populations.