Pennsylvania and the Marcellus Shale Basin have historically been a dominant player in domestic natural gas and oil production; even more so with the advent of fracking to access the Marcellus Shale Basin. With hundreds of thousands of wells—active and abandoned, conventional and unconventional—across the state, the leakage of methane has been identified as a serious concern and recognized by recent administrations. Both the Shapiro and Biden administrations have allotted resources towards curbing methane emissions to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and improve health outcomes.

Through this policy analysis study, current policy regimes and legislation was found to have over-reliance on self-reporting and regulating and underutilization of third-party monitoring regimes. Pennsylvania policy currently fails to adequately address fugitive emissions from abandoned and shut-in wells and does not provide strong enough legislative coverage for orphaned wells. Policy recommendations to strengthen methane emissions reductions regimes include strengthening and standardizing approved monitoring methods, encouraging professional and civic engagement in third-party monitoring, holding owners accountable for fugitive emissions on non-operational wells, and more aggressively targeting orphaned wells.