A natural gas leak that happened at the end of 2022 in Pennsylvania is one of the worst U.S. gas leaks in recent history.
It took almost two weeks to stop the leak, but not before enough methane, which is the main component of natural gas, was released into the atmosphere to “erase the emission reductions from half of the electric cars sold in the United States last year”.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that is much more potent than carbon dioxide. In fact, in the first 20 years of its release into the atmosphere, it has 84 times the potential to trap and heat the air. Warmer atmospheric temperatures can lead to more extreme and frequent events such as heat waves, floods and wildfires.
While we can’t turn back time to prevent this from happening, we can keep advocating the government to support greater adoption of cleaner, renewable energy such as wind and solar.