Whitehouse Investigates Alarming Mismatch Between Reported Methane Emissions and Actual Methane Emissions in Permian Basin

Recent satellite data show methane emissions four times higher than industry reports

Washington, D.C. – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today launched an investigation into the discrepancy between reported and observed methane emissions in the Permian Basin—the highest-producing oil field in the United States. 

Data collected from May 2024 through June 2025 by MethaneSAT, an advanced methane-detecting satellite, indicates that actual methane emissions in the Permian are approximately four times higher than the emissions companies report to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory.  The Senator wrote to the eight largest oil and gas producers in the Permian Basin, noting this discrepancy and asking what the companies are doing to measure and reduce their own methane waste.

“The inconsistency between emissions reported to EPA’s Greenhouse Gase Inventory and satellite data suggest that significant, previously unreported emissions may be occurring,” the Senator wrote.  As a result, “substantial opportunities exist to reduce waste, improve operational efficiency, and mitigate climate change.”

Methane is a super-pollutant 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the first two decades after its release.  Methane emissions contribute to severe health problems, smog formation, and stunted crop yields.  It is responsible for roughly 30 percent of global warming.  Senator Whitehouse notes that “leaked methane is wasted methane”, because captured methane—also known as natural gas—is a commodity.  

“Methane abatement in the oil and gas sector can largely be done at no net cost.”  Senator Whitehouse adds, “this is particularly true at a moment in time when natural gas and LNG prices are spiking due to the ongoing war in Iran.  Capturing all of this wasted methane would help increase global supplies of natural gas and reduce prices for consumers and industry.”

Many large oil and gas companies, including some of the recipients of this letter, already conduct methane-detection flyovers or use satellite-based data to track emissions.  Several companies operating out of the Permian have pledged to reduce methane emissions, including by the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, which commits signatories to achieving near-zero methane emissions by 2030.  The Senator warns that “leaving substantial quantities of methane emissions unaddressed would be inconsistent with those commitments and other industry-wide climate goals.”  

Ranking Member Whitehouse is requesting answers by April 1, 2026 from EOG Resources, ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Diamondback Energy, Devon Energy, Chevron, and Mewbourne Oil Co. about the steps they are taking to address methane emissions in the Permian, the technologies and monitoring programs they use to measure methane emissions, and their current methane emissions estimates for the region and how they are measured.

Early this year, Ranking Member Whitehouse led 24 members of Congress in urging the European Union to maintain strong methane emissions standards in the face of Trump Administration attacks.  Last summer, he led Committee Democrats in a spotlight forum on how methane emissions from the oil and gas industry harm children, raise the cost of living, and accelerate climate change—all while the Trump Administration makes it easier for companies to pollute.  Whitehouse was the author of the original methane fee proposal that was negotiated into Democrats’ historic Inflation Reduction Act that passed into law in 2022.