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(New Mexico News Connection) The first satellite launched by a nonprofit organization is now circling the globe, getting ready to deliver data on methane pollution from oil and gas facilities worldwide.

The MethaneSAT satellite backed by the Environmental Defense Fund will help track methane emissions, a major contributor to global warming.

Jon Goldstein, senior director of regulatory and legislative affairs for the fund, said the advocacy group is focused on making the data transparent, accessible to anyone, and actionable. 

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"It's going to help the government, it's going to help industry, and it's going to help communities that want to know, 'What's going on in my backyard?'" Goldstein explained. "They'll have this publicly accessible, online data source."

Goldstein emphasized data collected should provide accountability from the more than 50 oil and gas companies that pledged at last year's Dubai "COP-28" climate summit to "zero-out" methane and eliminate routine gas flaring.

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency published new methane regulations adopted in 2023. New Mexico adopted its own rules in 2021 to crack down on leaks, particularly from smaller facilities.

The new satellite is designed to measure known sources of methane and discover and quantify previously unknown sources. Goldstein noted it would allow companies and countries to take action sooner to help reverse the Earth's rising surface temperature.

"It is a very powerful greenhouse gas; more than 80 times more powerful, pound-for-pound, than carbon dioxide at driving climate change," Goldstein outlined. "That makes it a huge opportunity for folks that want to address this problem quickly, to get out there and get these leaks fixed."

New Mexico is second only to Texas as the largest oil-producing state in the U.S. MethaneSAT was launched last week from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.