Natural Gas, Science, Methane and Public Policy: one NGO’s approach to ‘getting it right’
Featuring: Steven Hamburg, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund
Over the past three years the Environmental Defense Fund has been heavily engaged both in identifying the data gaps in our understanding of methane emissions from the natural gas supply chain and in facilitating the largest effort to date to collect data to fill those gaps. Working with 90 different partners, including academic, industry and government institutions, represented by more than 100 scientists, EDF has organized 16 studies, most of which have been published or are under peer review.
The issue of methane emissions from natural gas has created a lot of interest across civil society. President Obama has spoken directly about the issue, as have governors and cabinet secretaries. EDF has undertaken catalyzing the rapid collection of new data in order to focus the policy conversation on the science. The scientific community has largely rallied around the challenge and the pace of work has accelerated to ensure that the conversation in Washington and state capitals is increasingly science-based. The science results published to date will be reviewed, along with the policy efforts that have emerged and the challenges this effort has encountered.
October 3, 2014 video link: