The 16-week-long gas leak at California’s Aliso Canyon Storage Facility, located about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, has been temporarily stopped, an important first step towards permanently capping what has become the largest single release of methane into the atmosphere ever recorded. The leak has been called the largest environmental disaster since the 2010 BP oil spill. More than 6,000 families have been forced from their homes by the leak.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas 84 times more efficient at trapping heat, in the short term, than carbon dioxide. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, roughly 96,000 metric tons of methane leaked from the well between October 23 and February 11, which is the short-term greenhouse gas equivalent of roughly half a million cars driving for an entire year.
That’s the same as:
8,000,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide released
900,000,000 gallons of gasoline burned
$15,000,000 dollars worth of natural gas wasted
— source thinkprogress.org, edf.org