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Massive amounts of methane are venting into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations across the Permian Basin, new aerial surveys show. The emission endanger U.S. targets for curbing climate change.

A flare burns off methane and other hydrocarbons as oil pumpjacks operate in the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021. Massive amounts of methane are venting into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations across the Permian Basin, new aerial surveys show. The emission endanger U.S. targets for curbing climate change. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Patches of land housing oil pumpjacks dot the landscape of the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. Carbon Mapper, a partnership of university researchers and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, documented massive amounts of methane venting into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations across the Permian, a 250-mile-wide bone-dry expanse along the Texas-New Mexico border that a billion years ago was the bottom of a shallow sea. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Well site supervisor Jason Brown looks out toward the Permian Basin from the control room of Latshaw oil drilling rig #43 in Odessa, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The constant need for skilled workers drives blue-collar incomes that can easily reach six figures a year, supporting spouses and children who often live hundreds of miles away. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Forehand Kory Mercantel works on Latshaw drilling rig #43 in the Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The Permian is the top oil and gas producing region in the United States. On any given day, about 500 rigs are drilling new wells within the basin to boost production. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The Texas state flag flies above workers at Latshaw oil drilling rig #43 in the Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. More than 5,000 new well-drilling permits were issued in the Texas portion of the Permian in 2021, as demand for fossil fuels rebounded after a COVID-era slump in demand. Numbers from the first quarter of 2022 show the industry on pace to eclipse that figure. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A lone plant grows from the dry soil next to a flare burning off methane and other hydrocarbons in the Permian Basin in Pecos, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The accumulation of carbon dioxide and methane in the blanket of gases encircling the Earth is holding more heat in. And there is now nearly three times as much methane in the air than there was before industrial times. The year 2021 saw the worst single increase ever. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A cow walks through a field as an oil pumpjack and a flare burning off methane and other hydrocarbons stand in the background in the Permian Basin in Jal, N.M., Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Pipes sit in a cotton field waiting to be installed for new oil pipelines in Lenorah, Texas, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. The frenetic search for more gas and oil is happening just as President Biden and world leaders are promising to cut methane emissions across the world. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A crop dusting plane flies over a field next to an oil well in the Permian Basin in Lenorah, Texas, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Methane emissions are notoriously hard to track because they are intermittent. An old well may be wafting methane one day, but not the next. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

In this photo made with an Optical Gas Imaging thermal camera, a plume of heat from a flare burning off methane and other hydrocarbons is detected in the background next to an oil pumpjack as a cow walks through a field in the Permian Basin in Jal, N.M., Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Motorman Danny Perez, right, and forehand Kory Mercantel, work on Latshaw oil drilling rig #43 in Odessa, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. Most rigs run day and night, with crews of roughnecks rotating in 12-hour shifts. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A resident sits by the pool at the Ocean Front RV Resort in Kermit, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The oil and gas boom has led to the creation of "man camps," where workers and sometimes their families live in sprawling tracts of temporary housing in the middle of the desert. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Tristan Yperman, 37, holds her son, Grant, 1, in the makeshift yard outside their RV at the Ocean Front RV Resort in Kermit, Texas, Oct. 13, 2021. Yperman’s husband is an engineer with a construction contractor widening the highway into Kermit, a sleepy desert crossroads that has seen its population grow with the oil boom. They have been living in their RV they’ve named Freya for about a year and move around as his job dictates. Spots in the 291 space RV park go for $780 a month, $1,200 for a small one-room cabin. “We never really know where we go next,” said Yperman who is expecting their second child in March. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Flares burn off methane and other hydrocarbons at an oil and gas facility in Lenorah, Texas, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Massive amounts of methane are venting into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations across the Permian Basin, new aerial surveys show. The emission endanger U.S. targets for curbing climate change. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Utility poles line a road through the Permian Basin in Mentone, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. The Permian, a 250-mile-wide bone-dry expanse along the Texas-New Mexico border, was the bottom of a shallow sea a billion years ago. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Cowboy hats hang on a deer head next to a portrait of John Wayne at Big John’s Feed Lot in Big Spring, Texas, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. At the burger and barbecue restaurant the parking lot was filled at lunchtime with gas-guzzling American-made pickup trucks. “Can you imagine anyone in here driving an electric car?” asked Brenda Stansel, the owner, who insisted Trump was still the rightful commander-in-chief. Asked if she believed in climate change, Stansel responded: “I believe in God.” (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A statue of Jesus stands next to graves in a cemetery beside an oil and gas facility in Pecos, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. Oil was discovered here in 1921, and in the intervening century wildcatters have drilled more than a quarter million wells into the layer cake of shale rock under the desert, many more than a mile deep. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A sign warns passing motorists that hitchhikers may be escaping inmates in Midland, Texas, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. Centered around the boomtowns of Midland and Odessa, the Permian Basin is now the top oil and gas producing region in the United States, which in turn is the world’s No. 1 producer. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Raylee Bothwell, 8, holds up her Minnie Mouse blanket in the wind while watching her first drive-in movie from the back of her family’s pickup truck in Midland, Texas., Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021. Centered around the boomtowns of Midland and Odessa, the Permian is now the top oil and gas producing region in the United States, which in turn is the world’s No. 1 producer. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

An oil pumpjack operates under a partial moon in the Permian Basin in Stanton, Texas, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. Massive amounts of methane are venting into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations across the Permian Basin, new aerial surveys show. The emission endanger U.S. targets for curbing climate change. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

New aerial surveys show massive amounts of methane venting into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations across the Permian Basin. An AP investigation pieced together the companies most likely responsible.

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