Oil and gas producers rely on flaring to limit the venting of natural gas from their facilities. New research led by the University of Michigan shows that in the real world, this practice is far less effective than estimated, releasing five times more methane in the US than previously thought. Methane—which can be a byproduct of oil production—is a powerful greenhouse gas. Burning methane by flaring as it is released converts it to carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas but one that is less harmful on a pound-by-pound basis. The new data suggests we have overestimated flaring’s effectiveness and, as a result, underestimated its contribution to methane emissions and climate change. A paper on the work is published in Science . Multiple flares observed in operation in the Bakken Formation in the Williston Basin in North Dakota, 2021. Image credit: Alan Gorchov Negron, University of Michigan and Yulia Chen of […]