A report from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) found that the rate of flaring in the Permian basin is twice as high as the industry has been reporting. In 2017, the amount of natural gas that was flared could have met the gas needs of Texas’ seven largest cities. Put another way, “that’s roughly $322 million dollars of natural gas that went up in smoke,” EDF concluded. EDF used satellite data, estimating that in 2017, oil and gas drillers in the Permian flared roughly 104 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas, or about 4.4 percent of all gas produced. However, the industry only reported burning 55 bcf of gas, or half the amount that EDF found. In the Delaware basin alone, EDF estimates that industry burned nearly 8 percent of the gas that came out of the ground. The report shines a spotlight on a huge problem with […]