Thread by @HunterCutting

The new and mindboggling numbers on the methane emissions from the Permian Basin makes me wonder: has most of the progress to date in reducing U.S. GHG emissions been illusory, given much of it has been secured by coal-to-gas switching? #energytwitter #climatetwitter 1/n

Alvarez et al established an overall methane leakage rate for the natural gas sector at 2.3%, much higher than EPA estimates, and disturbing given that at 2.7% there is no net gain from coal-to-gas switching. 2/n

Now, with Zhang et al and Negron et al, we know that the Alvarez et al estimate is too low, and the EPA estimates are WAY too low. 3/n

The Trump Administration isn't going to revise the EPA estimates upwards, in fact they just LOWERED the estimates. So, what about the independent analysts. Is anyone calculating overall U.S. GHG emissions using the latest estimates of the #methane leaks? 4/n

Here's a helpful graph from @hausfath illustrating how U.S. GHG emissions reductions are far less than officially projected when accounting for #methane leaks. Given the new results from Zhang et al and Negron et al, leakage is close to (if not above) the 2.7% line.