RMI Joins Major Oil and Gas Companies to Support Methane Monitoring

RMI and several major oil and gas companies, including BP, Equinor, Exxon, and Shell, have condemned the US EPA's decision to stop methane emissions monitoring. RMI argues that monitoring and abatement are essential for natural gas to have any future role in the energy system, as methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with 28-36x the warming potential of carbon dioxide over 100 years. The document asserts that affordable detection technologies, such as optical gas imaging cameras, are available and that regulation is necessary to ensure all operators meet performance standards.

• RMI and major oil companies including BP, Equinor, Exxon, and Shell oppose the US EPA's decision to end methane emissions monitoring, urging the administration to maintain monitoring for upstream, midstream, and downstream operations.
• Methane is identified as a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential 28-36 times that of carbon dioxide over a century, making its reduction critical for natural gas to be considered a bridge fuel to a clean energy system.
• Industry members of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative established methane emissions intensity goals below 0.25% in 2018, while Shell set a target below 0.2% by 2025.
• RMI rejects the administration's claim that smaller producers cannot afford monitoring, noting that affordable technologies like optical gas imaging cameras are available.

APA

RMI (2020). RMI Joins Major Oil and Gas Companies to Support Methane Monitoring. https://rmi.org/resources/rmi-joins-major-oil-and-gas-companies-to-support-methane-monitoring/

Chicago

RMI. RMI Joins Major Oil and Gas Companies to Support Methane Monitoring. 2020. https://rmi.org/resources/rmi-joins-major-oil-and-gas-companies-to-support-methane-monitoring/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=RMI |title=RMI Joins Major Oil and Gas Companies to Support Methane Monitoring |date=14 August 2020 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/rmi-joins-major-oil-and-gas-companies-to-support-methane-monitoring/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{rmi2020rmi, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{RMI Joins Major Oil and Gas Companies to Support Methane Monitoring}}, publisher = {RMI}, year = {2020}, month = aug, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/rmi-joins-major-oil-and-gas-companies-to-support-methane-monitoring/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }