{"query_echo":{"q":"","filters":{"analysis_type":["empirical data comparison"]},"warnings":[{"code":"facet_value_not_in_vocabulary","message":"Value 'empirical data comparison' for facet 'analysis_type' is not in the controlled vocabulary."}]},"total":{"value":1,"relation":"eq"},"page":1,"page_size":20,"self":"https://climateinsightsdirectory.org/api/v1/search?analysis_type=empirical+data+comparison","stability":"beta","ai_marking":{"digital_source_type":{"uri":"http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/trainedAlgorithmicMedia","name":"Created using Generative AI"},"notice":"Summary and key insights are generated using artificial intelligence."},"results":[{"id":"rmi-000571","url":"https://climateinsightsdirectory.org/document/rmi-000571","title":"Oil and gas companies are missing significant methane emissions. Here’s how to fix that.","publisher":{"name":"RMI","organization":"rmi"},"document_type":"policy brief","language":"en","date_published":"2023-10-19","source_url":"https://rmi.org/resources/oil-and-gas-companies-are-missing-significant-methane-emissions-heres-how-to-fix-that/","generator":"Climate Insights Directory","generated_fields":["summary","key_insights","climate_tags","geography_discussed","analysis_type"],"summary":{"text":"The policy brief highlights a systemic gap between self-reported methane emissions in the US oil and gas sector and actual emissions measured via remote sensing. It argues that current EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) guidelines rely on simplistic assumptions that miss 'super-emitting' events, leading to underestimations of emissions by factors of two to four. This data gap threatens the efficacy of the Inflation Reduction Act's (IRA) Waste Emissions Charge, potentially resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost fees. The author calls for the integration of empirical data and updated reporting categories to improve transparency, incentivize mitigation, and ensure accurate pricing of methane emissions.","ai_generated":true,"unit":"rmi-000571#summary","date_modified":"2026-10-23"},"key_insights":[{"text":"Self-reported emissions inventories from large US oil and gas operators are significantly underreported because federal guidelines rely on simplistic assumptions of routine operations and fail to account for 'super-emitting' events.","ai_generated":true,"unit":"rmi-000571#insight-1","date_modified":"2026-10-23"},{"text":"Analysis suggests that 2021 GHGRP emissions underestimate US oil and gas sector emissions by more than a factor of two, and this undercount may increase to a factor of four if methane's 20-year global warming potential is used instead of the 100-year potential.","ai_generated":true,"unit":"rmi-000571#insight-2","date_modified":"2026-10-23"},{"text":"Empirical studies in the Permian Basin and New Mexico show that measured methane intensities are far higher than EPA estimates; in the Permian Basin, super-emitting events alone were on average over six times higher than GHGRP reports, while New Mexico emissions were 6.5 times larger than EPA estimates.","ai_generated":true,"unit":"rmi-000571#insight-3","date_modified":"2026-10-23"},{"text":"The data gap in methane reporting leads to significant fiscal losses for the IRA's Waste Emissions Charge; for a sample of Permian Basin operators, using measured super-emitting data instead of GHGRP inventories would increase collected fees from approximately $2 million to $210 million, a difference of about $208 million.","ai_generated":true,"unit":"rmi-000571#insight-4","date_modified":"2026-10-23"},{"text":"The EPA and PHMSA have proposed a new reporting category for \"other large release events\" to capture super-emitting events, and further revisions to Subpart W are expected to be effective in 2025.","ai_generated":true,"unit":"rmi-000571#insight-5","date_modified":"2026-10-23"}],"climate_tags":["methane emissions","petroleum industry","Inflation Reduction Act of 2022","remote sensing","global warming potential","climate finance"],"geography_discussed":["Permian Basin","New Mexico"],"frame_perspective":[],"analysis_type":["policy analysis","empirical data comparison"]}]}