Dr. Sarmitha Majumdar presents on Fracking at annual ASPA Conference

Bullard Center Faculty Associate Dr. Sarmistha R. Majumdar completed a presentation on Administrative Challenges in Control of Methane Emissions from Fracking during the Annual American Society for Public Administration Conference in March 2023.

Fracking is an advanced drilling procedure used in the extraction of oil and natural gas from sedimentary rocks. Methane gas is released during energy extraction and production. 

It is forty times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat energy on Earth and contributes to global warming. Although there is self-reporting of methane emissions by counties, the data is not accurate and unreliable. 

From 2016 onwards, NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System has been generating maps that show the exact location of sites from where methane emissions occur during production, flaring, from pipelines, storage facilities, and refineries. Despite the federal government’s wavering attempts to control methane emissions from energy production, the real challenges lie with the states’ initiatives to control methane emissions.

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