This blog was written by John D. Wilson, former Deputy Director for Regulatory Policy at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Guest Blog | January 6, 2016 | Energy Policy

Environmental Defense Fund has released a video of an awful, enormous natural gas leak in Aliso Canyon. Many people are drawing a close connection between fracking and the increased rate of leaks being discovered.

The problem of methane leaks has been around for decades, but with federal attention and new technology, hopefully we will begin solving this problem. For example, last September, I wrote about research that shows that about half the natural gas leaked from natural gas processing facilities was not being reported to the EPA.

As I wrote last September, it is clear that industry can and should do more to stop natural gas leaks. But it is also clear that even with years of attention to this problem, a climate disaster is invisibly spreading across the globe from Los Angeles. And industry was not prepared to prevent it, nor is industry capable of stopping it quickly. Perhaps the noxious effects of the Aliso Canyon natural gas disaster will be gone by next summer, but like the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf, the impacts will still be with us for many, many years to come.