Gas flares are leaking five times as much methane than previously thought
More lit flares and improved efficiency would be like taking nearly 3 million cars off the road
![photo of natural gas flares in the foreground at the Bakken Formation in the Williston Basin in North Dakota in 2021](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/092822_bb_methane-stat_feat.jpg?fit=1030%2C580&ssl=1)
Flares, like the ones here, burn off the natural gas emitted during oil and gas production, turning methane into less potent carbon dioxide. But the efficiency of these flares is much lower than previously thought.
Alan Gorchov Negron/University of Michigan, Yulia Chen/Stanford University