Government Task Force Will Examine Massive California Natural Gas Leak

A new U.S. government task force will look into the country’s biggest ever accidental release of methane, which occurred over several months in Los Angeles, Calif., hoping to prevent future leaks of the potent greenhouse gas from storage wells, the Obama administration said.

The Interagency Task Force on Natural Gas Storage Safety to look at the leak at the Aliso Canyon leak will be chaired by officials from the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation’s pipeline safety office.

A months-long leak at the Aliso Canyon storage field made scores of people ill and forced more the temporary relocation of more than 6,600 households from the northern Los Angeles community of Porter Ranch.

Scientists said the global warming potential of the release, which began last October and was not plugged until February, was equal to the annual carbon emissions of nearly 600,000 cars.

Aliso Canyon, owned by Southern California Gas Co. a division of Sempra Energy, is the country’s fourth largest gas storage field. The utility has minimized the extent of the greenhouse gas impact of the leak, saying the release represented less than 1 percent of the state’s entire annual greenhouse gas emissions.