An anti-fracking and energy justice group in North Carolina is alleging scientific fraud in a complaint to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), claiming a key official ignored a whistleblower’s warnings about the instruments it used to calculate methane leaks from the natural gas industry.
“What we are alleging is a cover-up, scientific fraud, and possibly criminal misconduct by a high-ranking EPA official and perhaps others,” said NC Warn Executive Director Jim Warren. “Due to this cover-up, humanity has been robbed of several years during a critical period of the climate crisis where we should have been working cooperatively to greatly reduce emissions.”
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The debate turns on methane studies released in 2013 and 2014 by the U.S. Environmental Defense Fund as part of a 16-study, US$18-million research project to assess methane emissions from natural gas fracking. “The studies’ findings have been used by the natural gas industry to argue that methane leaks are low,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
The 68-page complaint alleges that David Allen, an engineering professor at the University of Texas who chaired the EPA’s external Science Advisory Board, “should have corrected studies about methane leaks after the equipment used for the reports was proved faulty,” the Times notes. “NC Warn’s conclusion is largely based on efforts by whistleblower Touché Howard, an engineer who invented the technology used to measure methane leaks. Howard identified a flaw in the technology that showed Allen’s studies could be underreporting emissions as much as 100-fold.”
Allen replied that the researchers used various instruments and considered their findings sound. “Our study team strongly asserts that the instrument we used and the measurements we made were not impacted by the claimed failure,” he said in a statement released by the university.
InsideClimate News observes that the arguments behind this story have been going on for some time. “EDF, one of the largest national green groups, has advocated for tougher regulations of methane emissions, a hotly debated climate policy issue,” ICN notes. “But it has also been criticized for working closely with the industry in conducting the studies.”
Howard, who has since retired, said the alleged flaws in the EPA’s reporting could be relevant to the disastrous Aliso Canyon methane leak, and to other natural gas projects across the U.S. “The equipment in question has been used at all stages of natural gas processing, transmission, storage, and distribution to determine methane emissions,” the Times writes, citing NC Warn.
ICN’s Phil McKenna notes that “this technical debate has been fully aired in peer reviewed publications. Neither side has budged; so an inspector general’s report might help resolve the technical questions, as well as settling whether there was any impropriety.”
“What we are alleging is a cover-up, scientific fraud, and possibly criminal misconduct by a high-ranking EPA official and perhaps others,” said NC Warn Executive Director Jim Warren. “Due to this cover-up, humanity has been robbed of several years during a critical period of the climate crisis where we should have been working cooperatively to greatly reduce emissions.”
The debate turns on methane studies released in 2013 and 2014 by the U.S. Environmental Defense Fund as part of a 16-study, US$18-million research project to assess methane emissions from natural gas fracking. “The studies’ findings have been used by the natural gas industry to argue that methane leaks are low,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
The 68-page complaint alleges that David Allen, an engineering professor at the University of Texas who chaired the EPA’s external Science Advisory Board, “should have corrected studies about methane leaks after the equipment used for the reports was proved faulty,” the Times notes. “NC Warn’s conclusion is largely based on efforts by whistleblower Touché Howard, an engineer who invented the technology used to measure methane leaks. Howard identified a flaw in the technology that showed Allen’s studies could be underreporting emissions as much as 100-fold.”
Allen replied that the researchers used various instruments and considered their findings sound. “Our study team strongly asserts that the instrument we used and the measurements we made were not impacted by the claimed failure,” he said in a statement released by the university.
InsideClimate News observes that the arguments behind this story have been going on for some time. “EDF, one of the largest national green groups, has advocated for tougher regulations of methane emissions, a hotly debated climate policy issue,” ICN notes. “But it has also been criticized for working closely with the industry in conducting the studies.”
Howard, who has since retired, said the alleged flaws in the EPA’s reporting could be relevant to the disastrous Aliso Canyon methane leak, and to other natural gas projects across the U.S. “The equipment in question has been used at all stages of natural gas processing, transmission, storage, and distribution to determine methane emissions,” the Times writes, citing NC Warn.
ICN’s Phil McKenna notes that “this technical debate has been fully aired in peer reviewed publications. Neither side has budged; so an inspector general’s report might help resolve the technical questions, as well as settling whether there was any impropriety.”
