SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's top oil and natural gas regulator says a giant cloud of the greenhouse gas methane hanging over the Southwestern United States comes in large part from natural seeps from underground formations and coal mining operations.
At a confirmation hearing on Wednesday, acting New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Kenley McQueen said the methane hot spot over the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah dates back 10 million years in his opinion.
The former natural gas executive believes a NASA survey missed the "larger contributions" of methane from coal-seam outcroppings and coal mining.
States are being left alone to calculate methane emissions at oil and gas operations after the Environmental Protection Agency this month withdrew an Obama-era request that drillers provide emissions data.