The Decades-Long Campaign to Brand Natural Gas as Clean

The Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) released a report on Monday detailing how gas companies systematically downplayed the dangers of methane, which is roughly 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over two decades. While internal research acknowledged significant leakage from distribution systems and oil fields, the industry simultaneously funded public relations efforts to link gas with nature and cleanliness. These campaigns often framed gas as a superior alternative to coal, despite private industry data suggesting it could be just as harmful to the climate.

Industry groups like the American Gas Association played a central role in this effort, even establishing research institutes to manufacture uncertainty around methane emissions. In the 1990s, the industry provided data for an Environmental Protection Agency study that labeled natural gas a "bridge fuel," a designation that relied on vastly underestimated emission figures. Richard Wiles, president of CCI, stated that this "myth of clean natural gas" was manufactured to protect profits, leading to a massive expansion of infrastructure that continues to be justified by outdated and manipulated science.