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Michael Magoon's avatar

This is pure speculation on my part, but I would think that flying drones that can detect methane leaks would be a cost-effective method to reduce accidental methane leaks.

The federal government could just set a reasonable limit that 90% of wells already meet and then require the industry monitor itself with the government merely spot-checking with its own drones to ensure the self-enforcement is being done.

Based on past experience, my guess is that the vast majority of methane leakage is coming from a small percentage of wells. And the producers have a strong incentive to close the leaks as they are losing product that they can sell for a profit. Producers may not even know that they have a leak, so that is valuable information for them.

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