Robert Howarth

David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology

Robert Howarth is a professor of ecology and environmental biology and a faculty fellow at Cornell’s Atkinson Center for Sustainability. He studies the greenhouse gas footprint of methane extracted from shale formations and his research has demonstrated that increased emissions from the oil and gas industry prompted a global spike in atmospheric methane.

Howarth says:

“The Biden administration must hold all producers, including the smaller ones, responsible if we are to meet climate goals such as the one laid out a year ago by President Biden at COP26 in Glasgow to reduce methane emissions in the U.S. by 30% by 2030.

“Methane emissions are responsible for one-third of all global warming to date since the industrial revolution and reducing methane emissions is the fastest and perhaps easiest way to slow global warming. 

“My research shows that increased emissions from the natural gas industry in the U.S. are perhaps the single largest source of the increase in global atmospheric methane globally. Per unit of natural gas produced, small producers are responsible for a disproportionate part of these methane emissions.” 

John D. Albertson

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

John Albertson is a professor of civil and environmental engineering focused on sourcing and monitoring industrial methane emissions. His research is aimed at providing solutions to industrial emissions through the mAIRsure project. A 2019 study led by Albertson used a Google Street View car equipped with a high-precision methane sensor and found that methane emissions from the industrial sector have been vastly underestimated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Albertson says:

“It appears from recent studies that small, low-producing producing wells represent a disproportionately large fraction of the methane and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. It is understandable that the economics of these wells make intensive sensing problematic. The fact that the benefits are relatively low with respect to the societal costs of these wells is no strong argument for doing nothing. Instead we need to look to creative solutions.  

“For example, there are recent innovations that provide highly scalable solutions, such as through mobile sensing to identify anomalously large emitters among a regional population of small wells. One can mount sensors on the very maintenance vehicles tasked with moving about oil and gas producing assets to opportunistically provide the sensor coverage.”