Ex-Exxon Engineer: Big Oil Didn’t Track Natural Gas Methane Leaks | The Power of Big Oil |FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE PBS | Official
May 3, 2022

Watch an excerpt from part three of “The Power of Big Oil,” a FRONTLINE docuseries investigating the decades-long failure to confront the threat and impacts of climate change—and the fossil fuel industry’s role. This journalism is made possible by viewers like you.

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“When they were marketing natural gas as clean energy, they didn’t really know what they were talking about because they were fixated on the idea that natural gas, when burned, produces half the carbon dioxide emissions of coal,” says Dar-Lon Chang, who worked at Exxon Mobil from 2003 through 2019, in this excerpt from part three of “The Power of Big Oil.” “But without measurement devices to verify that you’re not significantly leaking, you can’t be sure that your natural gas is actually giving you less of a global warming impact than coal.”

At the time, Exxon Mobil and others in the industry said they were working to reduce methane emissions, which were already within limits set by the EPA. But “The Power of Big Oil: Delay” goes on to recount how some in the environmental community were witnessing widespread leaks — and how, in the years since, numerous studies have pointed to the dangers of methane emissions from oil and gas production.

Learn more at pbs.org/frontline: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/ar…

Part three of “The Power of Big Oil,” “Delay,” premieres May 3 on PBS and online: https://to.pbs.org/3rByEEe

Part one, “Denial,” is now streaming: https://bit.ly/3xTxYhg

Part two, “Doubt,” is also streaming: https://bit.ly/37UjSSm

“The Power of Big Oil” is a FRONTLINE Production with Mongoose Pictures in association with BBC and Arte. The series producer is Dan Edge. The producer and director of episode 3 is Robin Barnwell. The editorial consultant is Russell Gold. The senior producers are James Jacoby and Eamonn Matthews. The executive producer for FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

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