A natural gas well operated by Exxon that blew out in 2018 released a lot more methane than previously believed, a study by a team of U.S. and Dutch scientists concluded. Bloomberg reports that the study they conducted using satellite imagery showed that the methane emissions following the blast topped what “the oil and gas industries of France, Norway and the Netherlands emit over a 12-month period.” The well, in Belmont County, Ohio, blew out in February 2018. It leaked for almost three weeks before it was plugged. Local communities had to be evacuated because of the release of natural gas into the atmosphere and environmental groups voiced concern about environmental damage. Now, the results of the study suggest the damage may have been greater than expected. Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide but it only recently came to prominence in the media as […]