Why would Oklahoma City, a town of 500,000 people,
have higher levels of some smog-forming hydrocarbons than famously
hazy metropolises like Houston, Chicago and New York? A group of
atmospheric scientists from the University of California, Irvine
collected hundreds of air samples across a 1,000-mile-wide area to
find out. Their conclusions, released in the Oct. 6 online Early
Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
point to a culprit outside the city: oil and gas drilling.
The scientists linked high levels of pollution to oil and natural
gas wells in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado.
Fossil fuel production in those states emits methane and other
hydrocarbons, which contribute to global warming and
asthma-inducing smog. The UCI researchers say leaky oil and gas
facilities and natural seepage throughout the U.S. may release up
to 6 million more tons of methane a year than previously thought
— nearly doubling earlier estimates.
The full report
is available by subscription from the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences at 202-334-1333 or www.pnas.org.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Gas drilling blamed for smog.
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