Business | Methane leaks

A dirty little secret

Natural gas’s reputation as a cleaner fuel than coal and oil risks being sullied by methane emissions

METHANE is invisible to the naked eye and does not make for good television. So when about 100,000 tonnes billowed out of a natural-gas system in Aliso Canyon, Los Angeles, over 112 days last winter (pictured in infra-red above), it drew relatively little media attention—even though it forced the evacuation of thousands of homes and the plume was big enough to be detectable from space. Compare that with coverage of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which was the top item of news for weeks in America, much of it focused on the environmental impact on the Gulf coast.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “A dirty little secret”

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