Methane Network News Today

Eugene was all set to host, just about now, one of Oregon’s top culture war battles of the year … and then it evaporated.

MIT Associate Professor Desiree Plata has a lifelong mission of making sustainability a bigger factor in design decisions.

One of the most notable climate change provisions in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act is the first U.S. federal tax on a greenhouse gas (GHG). That the fee targets methane (CH4), rather than carbon dioxide (CO2), emissions is indicative of the urgency the scientific community has placed on reducing this short-lived but powerful gas.

Desiree Plata is an MIT associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and the director of the Plata Lab. Her research focuses on developing technologies and strategies for environmental sustainability, with a special focus on methane emissions.

Faculty from three finalist teams in the MIT Climate Grand Challenges explain how they are drawing upon geological, biological, chemical, and oceanic processes to develop game-changing techniques for carbon removal, management, and storage.

This is the second article in a four-part interview series highlighting the work of the 27 MIT Climate Grand Challenges finalists, which received a total