How Google Street View could save us from climate change and gas explosions

Turns out its camera cars make perfect methane leak detectors

Monitoring methane leaks is a huge pain in the neck. Why? Because the extraction and distribution infrastructure is spread out all over the place. You've got the production and refining process, the big transmission pipelines, and the minor pipelines going to literally millions of different businesses and houses, fueling stoves and water heaters.

The leaks in minor pipelines are especially tough to tackle, because getting good measurements over such an enormous area takes a ton of effort and time. According to the EPA, about 20 percent of the methane emitted by the natural gas industry comes from local distribution systems. They're not the biggest source of the industry's methane emissions, but they will probably be the hardest to fix.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.