Policy Roadmap to Support a Market for Differentiated Gas

Over the past decade, an increasing number of companies have voluntarily set clean energy targets and taken steps to reduce emissions as part of their business strategy. Similar to corporate buyers pursuing clean energy commitments, buyers of natural gas (both domestic and international) are increasingly seeking trusted, transparent, and verifiable emissions data across the full natural gas value chain.

Natural gas operators in the U.S. are increasingly utilizing measurement-based practices, often using advanced monitoring technologies, to provide empirical data about their operations at both the basin and site level. These measurement-based practices are playing a critical role in domestic and international initiatives to improve site-level monitoring and measurement of methane emissions.

Differentiated gas is geologic natural gas characterized by the assessment and verification of its superior environmental performance criteria, particularly methane measurement, across the natural gas value chain. The market for differentiated gas is made possible by new measurement practices, emissions verification and validation, and established transparency. Differentiated gas’s rapid evolution is underscored by the industry's commitment to producing reliable, high-quality data that translates into significant on-the-ground environmental benefits. This shift is instrumental in transitioning the energy sector towards a more sustainable and transparent future, aligning closely with global environmental objectives.

The reliable verification of a cleaner product using robust Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) protocols means that such a product can be valued at a premium by stakeholders who seek a trusted and transparent method of verifying emissions reductions. To participate in this market, natural gas producers, midstream companies, and buyers must track, measure, and communicate their methane and carbon dioxide emissions to investors, customers, and regulators.

Key Policy Recommendations

  1. Harmonize methane regulations and policies to avoid overlapping, duplicative, or contradictory programs;

  2. Support the Department of Energy’s “Greenhouse Gas Supply Chain Emissions Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, Verification Framework” to promote best practices, common criteria, and definitional consistency;

  3. Establish differentiated gas procurement programs at a federal and state level;

  4. Bolster technical support from national laboratories;

  5. Improve workforce development to deploy advanced emissions measurement technologies and develop differentiated markets;

  6. Promote global U.S. leadership on methane measurement and reporting;

  7. Allow regulated utilities to recover the cost of differentiated gas adoption; and

  8. Allow utilities to integrate differentiated gas into their decarbonization plans.