As Trump defunds climate work, California steps up fight to control methane gases

State and local agencies will soon be able to monitor California for methane pollution through satellite-mounted sensors, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Friday morning.

The project, funded through $100 million from the state cap-and-trade program, aims to detect leaks of methane — a greenhouse gas that makes up about 25% of global pollution — which could otherwise go unnoticed.

Newsom’s office said that the methane sensor project will allow California to respond to potential pollution at a time when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is cutting policies aimed at fighting climate change.

Last week, the agency under President Donald Trump said it will seek to roll back 31 environmental and public health policies, including easing emissions rules for coal plants and the recognition of climate change as a danger to humans.

The clear, odorless gas is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in “near-term warming of the planet,” Newsom’s office said. Methane can come from natural sources, like wetlands, but commonly comes from livestock farms, landfills and oil and gas operations.

The project in California includes one satellite-mounted sensor that was launched in August and will include up to seven more that have yet to be launched, said Daniel Villaseñor, a spokesperson for Newsom’s office. Newsom’s office expects data to be available this summer.

Newsom’s office said that the program followed through on a promise by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018. 

“We’re going to launch our own damn satellite to figure out where the pollution is and how we’re going to end it,” Brown said at the time.

Newsom said that the project will allow state and local agencies to move faster in addressing methane pollution. The satellites are owned by Planet Labs, a San Francisco-based aerospace company.

“Decades of progress to protect public health is on the line as the Trump Administration works to roll back critical environmental protections,” Newsom said in a statement. “California isn’t having it.”

California will host a database and a web portal from the methane sensors available to agencies for specific regional observations and to communities to see education, outreach and methane mitigation efforts, Newsom’s office said.

The California Air Resources Board runs the cap-and-trade program funding the methane sensor project. The cap-and-trade program requires polluters to pay for state climate investments.

Liane Randolph, chair of the board, celebrated the project as an improvement on current methane detection, which is not as immediately available to state agencies. Villaseñor said that currently the state monitors methane emissions through reporting from oil and gas operators that are required to periodically inspect and fix leaks.

“This satellite project to monitor methane is unique for a state effort that will help us better identify sources of pollution Californians are already seeing and feeling the intensifying impacts from firsthand,” Randolph said in a statement. “The effort provides information that is much closer to real time than the data now available.”

The project is part of California’s effort to encourage subnational governments worldwide to address the methane emissions building on the Global Methane Pledge, which was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2021.

Reach Molly Burke (she/her): molly.burke@hearst.com; Bluesky: @mollyburke.bsky.social