News
New Demands to Measure Emissions Raise Cautious Hopes in Pennsylvania Among Environmental Sleuths Who Monitor Fracking Sites
The new EPA rules govern wells as well as wastewater tanks, which can emit substantial amounts of methane and volatile organic compounds.
By Jake Bolster
For the first time, Pennsylvania fracking companies are facing real-time scrutiny from federal and state regulators over emissions of methane and other harmful air pollutants at drilling sites and storage facilities for toxic wastewater left over from oil and gas extractions.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
State of Play
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.