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In 2019, a Colorado scientist found that methane levels in Weld County, which has the highest concentration of oil and gas development in the state, were on some days reported to be lower than at the South Pole, home of the world’s cleanest air. While the methane concentration at the South Pole remains consistently around 1800 parts per million (ppm), some data points in Weld County dropped to 1090 ppm. Similar data flaws were found in 2014 as well, marking a pattern of clear deficiencies in the state's data. Scientist Gabrielle Petron, who discovered this pattern, stated, “We had once again data for methane measurements that were much lower than the cleanest place on Earth. And that was not realistic.”
Colorado has adopted aggressive goals to curb methane emissions, which impact the health of communities and contribute to climate change. The state’s policies are widely considered successful, but accurate tracking is necessary to determine whether progress is actually being made. However, methane monitoring is expensive, and there is disagreement over whether limited resources should be spent on monitoring or directed towards efforts to decrease methane emissions. Either way, as the state progresses towards its climate goals, the current data will be inadequate to determine whether or not they are meeting their targets. State Senator Steve Fenberg summarized these concerns, saying, "The state government doesn’t have the data that everybody has confidence in to make sure we know how to set ambitious goals and how to meet them."
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Since day one, Secretary Bernhardt has operated as though Interior was his own personal lobby shop by doling out favors for his former clients with impunity. This offshore royalty rate reduction deal is short selling our shared resources and ripping off taxpayers... With Trump's own corruption dominating headlines, Bernhardt probably thought this sweetheart giveaway to his former oil and gas client would slip by unnoticed.”
