Washington, D.C. – The American Gas Association (AGA) today released the following statement regarding a paper in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences on enhanced methods for assessing climate impacts from natural gas:
“We agree that to maximize the potential for natural gas to enhance our energy security and protect our environment, methane emissions should continue to be reduced,” said Jake Rubin, AGA’s Director, Public Relations. “America’s natural gas utilities are committed to enhancing safety and lowering emissions through upgrading our natural gas infrastructure. More robust data is needed to address confusion regarding the benefits of increasing the use of natural gas and we believe that the data that EPA receives from its greenhouse gas reporting requirement is likely to demonstrate that methane emissions are vastly lower than those assumed in this paper.”
“Advanced American technology has given us the ability to produce an abundance of clean natural gas. As technology continues to improve the way we produce natural gas, the pipelines and wellheads of tomorrow will have even lower methane emissions than we have today. It would be premature to draw any policy conclusions about natural gas vehicles based solely on this report. Natural gas is an affordable transportation fuel that improves air quality and increases our nation’s energy security,” said Rubin.
AGA members participate in the EPA’s voluntary Natural Gas STAR Program, which seeks to identify and implement strategies to reduce methane emissions from industry operations, and has been instrumental in identifying and controlling methane emissions.