If test wells prove safe and economic, commercial methane production could begin as early as 2016.
Now others are attracted: no fewer than 17 states, including many in the Ohio River basin, are studying coal-bed methane production.
Government officials have said that they aim to establish methane hydrate production technologies for practical use within five years.
In colorful detail the original lawsuit said that Calvert and Guido created partnerships purportedly owning methane gas production facilities at landfills in Puerto Rico, Illinois, New York and Connecticut.
Everything has been done with estimates and modeling, leaving industry to claim less than 3 percent of all methane is lost in natural gas production, while scientists estimate losses of 9 percent or more.
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To date, Japan has made the biggest bet on methane hydrates and appears to be the closest to commercial production.
It treats the wastewater more effectively, and doesn't have any of the environmental drawbacks of that technology, such as production of unwanted hydrogen sulfide or possible release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Oil and gas drilling companies had pushed for the change, but there have been differing scientific estimates of the amount of methane that leaks from wells, pipelines and other facilities during production and delivery.
Those estimates are based on full fuel-cycles, combine all steps in the use of a fuel from production to consumption, and include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane, the three major greenhouse gases emitted by motor vehicles.
There is also a risk that large amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, could escape during shale-gas exploration and production.
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Not very long ago, coal bed methane, which currently accounts for almost 10% of all U.S. natural gas production, was considered too expensive for commercial production.
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