Louisiana Probes Source of Methane Cloud Spotted From Space

Louisiana is investigating the source of a cloud of methane that was spotted from space near multiple natural gas pipelines.

The state began its probe after Bloomberg News contacted the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources about a concentration of the planet-warming gas detected May 28 by a European Space Agency satellite. The plume had an emissions rate of 44 tons of methane an hour and was the most severe detected in the US since March 19, according to an analysis of the data by Kayrros SAS.

If the release lasted an hour at the rate estimated by the geoanalytics firm, it would have roughly the same short-term ...