Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has launched an investigation into discrepancies in reports and observations of methane pollution from the Permian Basin, the largest producing oil field in the United States and one of the largest in the world.
The study, released Wednesday, follows a recent report by MethaneSAT, a short-lived methane sensing satellite launched in 2024 by the Environmental Defense Fund, Harvard University and others. The report, released in early February, found that methane emissions from oil and gas production facilities in the Permian Basin from May 2024 to June 2025 were four times higher than official estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“The discrepancies between emissions reported in EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory and satellite data suggest that significant emissions may be occurring that were previously unreported,” Whitehouse, ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a written statement. As a result, “significant opportunities exist to reduce waste, improve operational efficiency, and mitigate climate change.”
Methane is a super pollutant of the climate. It is more than 80 times more effective at warming the planet than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after release, making it the second-largest driver of climate change. Its emissions also pose serious public health risks, contribute to smog formation, and negatively impact agricultural production.
The White House requested information by April 1 from eight major oil and gas producers in the Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico: EOG Resources, ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Diamondback Energy, Devon Energy, Chevron, and Mewborn Oil Company. The senators asked the companies about the steps they are taking to address methane pollution in the region, how they monitor and measure their emissions, and their current estimates.
“We appreciate the senator’s interest in this important topic and look forward to working with him to achieve our shared goals of increasing global natural gas supplies and lowering costs for consumers and industry,” Chevron spokeswoman Alison Cook said in an email.
An EOG Resources spokesperson shared the company’s 2024 sustainability report, noting that methane emissions rates are as low as 0.04% of total U.S. gas production.
The other companies did not respond to requests for comment from Inside Climate News.
A spokesperson for S&P Global Energy, a research firm focused on energy, commodities and financial information, said the discrepancy has to do with how the EPA requires emissions data to be reported. An S&P Global report published last year concluded that methane emissions from the Permian Basin will decline by nearly 20 percent from 2022 to 2024 as oil and gas production increases.
Sharon Wilson, executive director of Oilfield Witness, a nonprofit organization that uses optical gas-imaging cameras to uncover emissions of methane and other pollutants in the Permian Basin and elsewhere, warned that S&P Global’s report did not go through the peer-review process that is typical for research published in academic journals.
MethaneSAT’s findings had not been confirmed in peer-reviewed studies published in academic journals at the time of publication in February. However, the MethaneSAT study, which includes Permian data, is currently under review by the journal EGUsphere.
Stephen Hamberg, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund and Methane SAT project leader, said emissions from the region are “very significant” and the emission intensity, or rate, exceeds industry emissions reduction targets.
“The final emissions are too high. It is technically and economically feasible to significantly reduce emissions,” the canton of Hamburg said in a written statement.
Two of the companies questioned by the White House, ExxonMobil and Occidental Petroleum, have pledged to reduce methane emissions by 0.2 percent of the total gas they put on the market by 2030 under the voluntary industry group’s Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter. MethaneSAT reported significantly higher emission rates (2.4% of total market gas) across the Permian Basin.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.) speaks during a hearing at the Hart Senate Building in Washington, D.C., on February 10. Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
A spokesperson for the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter did not respond to requests for additional information other than to provide a link to the group’s 2025 annual report.
All companies except Mewborn Oil are members of the Oil, Gas and Methane Partnership 2.0, a global emissions reduction program for oil and gas companies overseen by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Member companies commit to individual methane reduction targets based on either absolute emissions or methane intensity.
A UNEP spokesperson said it supports the measurement data provided by initiatives such as MethaneSAT. “The transparency provided by this data is essential for industry to effectively manage emissions and for consumers, investors and others to make informed decisions,” a spokesperson said in an email.
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Reducing methane emissions “can be achieved at almost no net cost,” the White House said in a press release announcing the study. Methane is the main component of natural gas, a valuable commodity whose price has soared due to the ongoing war between the United States and Israel in Iran.
Wilson challenged the concept of reducing emissions at little cost, noting that methane is considered a byproduct in the Permian Basin, requiring significant construction of additional infrastructure along with increased maintenance of equipment. Oil is the region’s main product. The pipelines needed to deliver gas to market are often lacking, resulting in large amounts of gas being flared rather than sold.
Wilson stressed that oil and gas production inevitably creates pollution, and permitting new sites will lead to increased pollution levels.
The White House said stronger federal oversight is needed.
“Fossil fuel companies cannot be trusted to control dangerous methane leaks,” he said. “There are large discrepancies between reported and tracked methane emissions in the Permian Basin that warrant further investigation.”
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phil mckenna
boston reporter
Phil McKenna is a Boston-based reporter for Inside Climate News. Before joining ICN in 2016, he was a freelance writer covering energy and the environment for publications such as the New York Times, Smithsonian, Audubon, and WIRED. Uprising, his book about gas leaks beneath U.S. cities, won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award and the 2014 NASW Science and Society Award. Phil holds a master’s degree in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was an environmental journalism fellow at Middlebury College.
