Here is an Environmental Defense Fund blog by Tim O-Conner, to help us understand the natural gas leak in Southern California.   He reports the following:

” Natural gas is mostly methane; a powerful pollutant that contributes to smog formation and global climate change, packing 84 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years it is in the atmosphere.   Aliso Canyon is the largest natural gas storage site in the Western U.S., operating under intense injection pressures and holding huge amounts of methane.”

This is a natural disaster, and the company had removed a safety valve which could have sealed off the leak.

This picture is from another EDF blog, and it visualizes the leak.  This piece also says,

“Every day, the Aliso Canyon well is responsible for over a quarter of the state’s daily methane emissions from all sources, and these images show us just what those numbers look like. The mega-leak seen here has not only caused serious health problems for nearby residents, it’s also making a huge climate impact.

The Aliso Canyon incident is an example of the type of risks we face as natural gas infrastructure ages, and is a sobering reminder of how important it is to have rules that ensure gas stays in the pipeline — not in our air.

This post originally appeared on EDF’s Energy Exchange blog. 

on January 13, 2016  Mashable ‘s Andrew Freedman said that the gas leak is emitting as much pollution every day as 4.5 million cars.   He also said that the newest regulations will not cover such existing facilities.

We cannot afford this!

David Babson wrote a Union of Concerned Scientists blog in which he said that we need more accountability, and more responsibility on the part of the industry.