Just weeks after EPA proposed new regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions produced by natural gas drilling, a leading energy group issued a report claiming that EPA overestimated the amount of methane thought to be flared or vented from gas drilling operations. 

According to the report from IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (IHS CERA), EPA used out-of-context data sets and poor assumptions, and erroneously doubled its greenhouse gas estimates in 2010.  Written by IHS CERA directors Mary Lashley Barcella, Samantha Gross and Surya Rajan, the report argues that upstream greenhouse gas emissions that appear to make the production of natural gas seem bad for the environment are based on a fundamentally flawed EPA formula.  IHS CERA argues that EPA overstated both the problem and the effect of new regulations.