"Durham, NC – A watchdog group today charged that a high-ranking federal official
connected to the fossil fuel industry committed scientific fraud and possibly
criminal misconduct in a case with sweeping ramifications for global climate change
and the safety of workers and neighbors of natural gas sites across much of the
United States. The group called for an expedited investigation due to the urgent
climate and safety implications of the EPA’s failure to curb widespread methane
emissions.  

NC WARN, a 28 year-old climate and energy justice nonprofit, filed a 68-page
complaint today with the Inspector General of the US Environmental Protection Agency
based on written evidence and testimony provided by the engineer who invented the
primary technology used to measure leakage and deliberate venting of natural gas.
The complaint says the device’s severe underreporting of emissions during two
high-profile studies has ramifications for releases of methane at hundreds of
thousands of tanks, drilling sites and other gas equipment around the world. 

The complaint alleges that Dr. David Allen, then-head of EPA’s Science Advisory
Board, has led an ongoing, three-year effort to cover up underreporting of the
primary device, the Bacharach Hi-Flow Sampler, and a second device used to measure
gas releases from equipment across the natural gas industry. Allen is also on the
faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, where he has been funded by the oil
and gas industries for years. 

NOTE: There will be a press briefing on this complaint tomorrow. See more below. 

The studies were published in 2013 and 2014 by the Environmental Defense Fund as
concerns were rising about the climate impacts of methane emissions from hundreds of
thousands of gas wells being drilled as the fracking gas boom raged in a number of
US states. While many other studies during the period increasingly showed alarming
levels of methane emissions, the 2013 EDF study, led by Allen, showed far lower
emissions, and it has been used persistently by the gas industry to argue that
methane leakage is low and that EPA should back off efforts to begin reducing
methane emissions. 

Leading researchers now consider the natural gas industry to be the foremost
greenhouse gas problem in the US, largely due to methane emissions. That’s because
methane is 100 times stronger than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over the first
ten years, and because methane levels in the atmosphere above the US have risen
sharply since the fracking boom began, according to researchers from Cornell,
Harvard, Stanford and elsewhere. 

NC WARN director Jim Warren said today, “The EPA’s failure to order feasible
reductions of methane leaks and venting has robbed humanity of crucial years to slow
the climate crisis. The cover-up by Allen’s team has allowed the industry to dig in
for years of delay in cutting emissions – at the worst possible time.” 

The underreporting flaw with the Bacharach device is well-documented. It had been
raised by an EPA researcher before the Allen 2013 study – and now even its
manufacturer admits to the flaw, although hundreds of the devices are still being
used in gas-producing countries. But it was engineer Touché Howard, the inventor of
the technology, who proved the flaw existed and showed that 
emissions could be underreported in the Allen studies by up to 100-fold. 

In its complaint, NC WARN says that, despite Howard’s warning and years of
experience as a leading expert and consultant on measuring methane emissions for
various study teams, Allen moved ahead with promotion of the two studies that used
the flawed data. He also refused to discuss the problems with Howard while telling
EDF, EPA and others that all was okay. NC WARN says it appears other EPA officials
and researchers declined to confront Allen due to his stature. 

A group of state attorneys general has pressed EPA since 2012 to get a handle on
just how much methane is leaking across the natural gas industry. NC WARN said it
will seek support for the investigation from those attorneys general, and from
social justice, labor and environmental groups. 

As with other federal agencies, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General is a watchdog
over potential misconduct within the agency. The OIG has investigative powers and
can refer criminal matters to the Justice Department. In 2014, the OIG criticized
EPA for poor work on methane emissions. 

Touché Howard and NC WARN emphasize that leakage and routine emissions at well sites
and other gas facilities could be damaging local community health while creating
explosion risks for workers. 

Howard said today, “We simply don’t understand the level of emissions across this
industry. It’s almost certainly higher than studies have shown, and EPA’s reliance
on inaccurate information has created a disincentive to take feasible steps that
could greatly reduce the emissions.” 

NC WARN found and approached engineer Howard during research for an ongoing battle
to stop Duke Energy from making a rapid shift toward the burning of shale gas. 

Cornell University’s Dr. Robert Howarth, a leading researcher of methane emissions,
said today that engineer Howard’s concerns must be openly resolved: "Touché Howard
has done an impressive job of synthesizing information on the problems with the
Bacharach instrument. From the start, the paper by Allen and colleagues in 2013
seemed to have unusually low estimates for methane emissions from shale gas,
certainly in comparison to most of the other recent literature. Howard makes a
convincing case that instrument failure explains at least part of the problem with
the work of Allen and colleagues, and quite possibly with other studies upon which
the US EPA has relied.”  

Cutting methane is crucial. Rapid heating is underway over the past six months that
could signal abrupt acceleration of global heating, other weather extremes and sea
level rise that could spell worldwide chaos within just a few dozen years. Prominent
scientists believe there remains very little time to reverse that process. 

Cornell’s Howarth argues that cutting gas-industry methane emissions is essential to
slowing global warming quickly enough to avoid the tipping point toward runaway
changes. In the complaint, NC WARN calls for EPA to institute a zero emissions
policy for methane venting and leakage throughout the natural gas industry, noting
that engineer Howard insists that great reductions are practical. 

Jim Warren added today: “Fracking for gas and oil must also be stopped for a host of
reasons. We’re reaching out to communities, workers, advocates and elected officials
to join the call for an investigation into EPA’s scientific fraud. The People of
this nation must demand that regulators and politicians reject the pervasive
pressure of corporate money, stop coddling the polluters – and do their jobs on
behalf of the public.”