Althoughmethane itself is not regulated as a water pollutant, the study could lead to federal regulation of the heretofore largely unregulated practice of the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of deep layers of shale to tap vast reservoirs of natural gas in the United States.
Although carbon dioxide is the more important greenhouse gas, methane measurements will be a more practical early application to test the market for this sort of data.
Moreover, although controversial, life-cycle analysis indicates that fugitive methane emissions make shale gas obtained by hydraulic fracturing as carbon-intensive as coal.