Down a short gravel track in a largely nondescript corner of Louisiana sits a gas processing facility, operated by a company whose chief executive is a major donor to Donald Trump. It may be the largest emitter of methane in the US.<\/p>\n
The Energy<\/a> Transfer site, located near the city of Shreveport, is named as the biggest single \u201csuper emitter\u201d in new rankings of US oil and gas operations for the largest releases of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is rapidly overheating our planet, according to a new UCLA study, which is based on satellite data.<\/p>\n From January 2025 to June this year, the Shreveport facility spewed out methane<\/a> at an average emission rate of 1.56 tonnes an hour, which is 15 times larger than the threshold defined<\/a> in a Biden era program by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a super emitter event, according to the study<\/a>. The Trump administration has put implementation of that program on hold but climate experts and advocates say reducing methane emissions is vital to limit the climate crisis.<\/p>\n The new rankings combine satellite data and public records to indicate a \u201cpotentially responsible operator\u201d for each of the largest methane plumes, researchers at UCLA\u2019s Emmett Institute say. Such a task can be complicated by a lack of official records naming sites with large methane emissions as well as ascertaining ownership of pollution coming from tight clusters of differing oil and gas leases.<\/p>\n Dallas-based Energy Transfer oversees a huge network of pipelines and processing properties in the US and is linked to four of the 15 sites highlighted in the new rankings, with the company responsible for 75 methane plumes in total over the study period \u2013 three times as much as the next operator. Other major corporate methane producers include Enterprise Products, Targa Resources and Enlink.<\/p>\n Kelcy Warren, Energy Transfer\u2019s billionaire chief executive, donated millions of dollars<\/a> to Trump\u2019s last election campaign and has previously described as an \u201cinsanity\u201d<\/a> when asked what he thought about a newspaper editorial that said net-zero carbon emissions policies would ultimately mean oil was no longer needed.<\/p>\n A map showing the plume from Energy Transfer facility on 24 February 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Energy Transfer did not respond to questions on what it is doing to stem methane from its facilities or whether the Shreveport site has been intentionally venting the gas or has experienced some sort of leak. The company has previously described efforts it was taking to reduce methane emissions in company reports including optical gas imaging inspections across hundreds of its facilites.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMany of these sites are repeat offenders linked to not one but multiple mega plumes,\u201d said Cara Horowitz, executive director of the UCLA Emmett Institute and author of the new report. \u201cAs America\u2019s oil and gas industry ramps up production, it can no longer ignore what can only be described as super-sized pollution events seen from space.\u201d<\/p>\n Horowitz said that the satellite record is \u201cspotty but important\u201d, as it shows emissions \u201cthat used to be frankly invisible and historically undercounted. Now they are plainly visible, they deserve public and regulatory attention. These numbers are unacceptably large, these emissions seem very wasteful and very inefficient.\u201d<\/p>\n A chart showing top \u2018super emitters\u2019 of methane in US\u2019s three biggest oil and gas basins, according to analysis<\/a><\/p>\n The new report draws upon data from the Tanager-1 satellite, compiled by the non-profit Carbon Mapper<\/a>, of spotted plumes in the Permian, Appalachian and Haynesville-Bossier basins, resource-rich hotspots which span several states and account for about two-thirds of US gas production.<\/p>\n A total of 1,097 methane plumes were detected from oil and gas sources in these regions between January 2025 and June this year. The UCLA team was able to assign an operator responsible for a plume in around a third of these cases, using publicly available data. Horowitz said, though, it is \u201ca real cause for concern when it comes to transparency\u201d that so few operators can be identified as responsible for this pollution.<\/p>\n While satellites have helped reveal previously unknown methane emissions, such pollution is still vastly underreported, with researchers recently estimating<\/a> actual US oil and gas methane emissions are around 64% higher than official EPA figures.<\/p>\n Activists have long argued that drilling sites and pipelines often experience regular, sometimes dangerous<\/a>, leaks or purposely vent methane into the air, to release the pressure of gas build-up in equipment, with little reporting or oversight. Even satellites are unable to capture the full extent of these emissions<\/a> when they are obscured on cloudy days. It is not illegal to release methane in these ways and operators face no penalizing regulations for doing so.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been in the Permian basin and seen methane blowdowns happening everywhere for days but nothing got picked up on the satellites because it was overcast,\u201d said Sharon Wilson, director of Oilfield Witness<\/a>, an advocacy and monitoring group.<\/p>\n Wilson, a former fossil fuel industry worker, has spent the last 14 years acting as a \u201cmethane hunter\u201d by filming oil and gas sites with a special camera that makes methane emissions visible. In 2024 she documented a Energy Transfer facility in Pecos county, Texas, that is fifth on UCLA\u2019s top 10 producers list. The video from her visit shows gusts of methane, resembling smoke, spiraling from the site.<\/p>\n \u201cJust a fraction of what is happening is being reported,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI don\u2019t see any improvement from the industry, what I see is just continued expansion. I have been to a lot of Energy Transfer sites and they are by far, in my opinion, the worst midstream operator I\u2019ve seen. They always have massive methane plumes.\u201d<\/p>\n The UCLA researchers chose to focus on the three large oil and gas basins, rather than every single emitter in the US, as they are the fulcrum of a booming liquified natural gas (or LNG) export industry. The US has leapfrogged<\/a> other countries in recent years to become the world\u2019s leading exporter of LNG, constructing a slew of vast terminals<\/a> where gas is chilled and then shipped overseas. Trump has sought<\/a> to fast-track the growth of this industry.<\/p>\n Proponents of LNG exports contend burning gas is cleaner than coal, although the repeated expulsion of methane during the export process can in fact make it even worse than coal for the climate, research has found.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile US industry players often talk about reductions in methane intensity, this analysis reveals a concerning number of super-emitter events from the regions that ship LNG overseas,\u201d said Mary Nichols, former chair of the California air resources board and now distinguished counsel for the UCLA Emmett Institute.<\/p>\n Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, trapping around 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period<\/a>, and is responsible for nearly a third<\/a> of the global heating that has occurred since the industrial revolution. It is released via oil and gas drilling and transportation, as well as from landfills and agriculture.<\/p>\n There has been a \u201cscary\u201d surge in global methane emissions since 2007, according to scientists, although the gas doesn\u2019t linger in the atmosphere as long as CO2. This means that reducing methane emissions from leaky pipes, venting and burning gas as a fuel can act as a rapid \u201cemergency brake\u201d amid a climate crisis that is dangerously barreling past safe limits.<\/p>\n Some progress can be achieved by identifying unseen methane leaks and fixing them, as has occurred recently in Turkmenistan<\/a>. The country was previously releasing more methane than the entire emissions of the UK, a situation described as \u201cmind-boggling\u201d and \u201cinfuriating\u201d, but has since started to plug some of the leaks emanating from its aging oil and gas infrastructure.<\/p>\n Such remedial work has been happening in some instances in the US, too, with the industry claiming<\/a> a recent \u201cprofound shift\u201d in pinpointing and dealing with leaks. In the UCLA study, three of the top 10 methane producers, including the first and second placed sites, had no methane plumes detected in their most recent satellite observations, suggesting some improvements may have taken place.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal of shining a light on these emissions is to prompt action, which may already be under way at a few of these sites,\u201d said Horowitz.<\/p>\n But critics argue that leaks of methane will continue for as long as the oil and gas industry faces little financial or regulatory pressure to change its ways, or until it is eclipsed entirely by clean energy.<\/p>\n Trump has set about eliminating enforcement, reporting requirements and fees<\/a> aimed at driving down US methane emissions, with his EPA pushing ahead with the rollback<\/a> of Joe Biden-era rules aimed at slashing this pollution. Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, has previously said these requirements \u201cweaponized environmental regulations to regulate the oil and gas industry out of existence\u201d.<\/p>\n Wilson said the only way to force down methane emissions is to stop issuing new permits to the fossil fuel industry. \u201cWe have all these emissions blasting into the air and no one even knows about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n