DECEMbEr 2025
Oil and gas companies have a long history of communications and advertising that are designed to gaslight the public about the real impacts of their air pollution.
But even by fossil fuel industry standards, EQT Corporation, the United States’ second-largest gas producer, has found a new way to dial-up the bombast around its own performance claims. Since June 2024, the company has prominently claimed “EQT Has Achieved Net Zero”, which it reaffirmed in the release of its “Promises Made, Promises Delivered” report in June 2025. EQT’s CEO Toby Rice has even taken to calling expanded exports of the company’s gas as “The biggest green initiative on the planet.”
Of course “net zero” for EQT comes with a multitude of caveats: Applying only to emissions from the company’s operations (so called Scope 1 and 2 emissions only), not emissions from the fossil fuels they produce. Reliance on carbon offsets the company says it generates on its own. Excluding emissions from the company’s pipelines subsidiary. No independent auditor verifying its net-zero claim. But hey, to the average person or investor seeing the company’s materials, it certainly sounds good!
Do you really believe EQT’s operations are “net zero”? And if an oil and gas company’s operations are net zero, should evidence of methane super-emitter incidents keep appearing next to its well sites? Read on and decide for yourself.
Stats
Pollution events large enough to be visible from space. Just since late June, at least 6 super-emitter events appearing next to EQT facilities in West Virginia and Pennsylvania were captured in Carbon Mapper’s data portal (four near the gas giant’s well sites and two from their Equitrans pipeline subsidiary). These plumes adjacent to the company’s sites were estimated to be releasing methane into the air at rates of:
~6,149 kilograms per hour near the company’s, Jefferson well pad near Jefferson, PA on May 25th;
2,200 kilograms per hour near the company’s Bryan well pad in Proctor, West Virginia, on June 22nd;
2,300 kilograms per hour near the company’s Old Crow well pad in Proctor, West Virginia, on July 12th;
A not yet quantified plume near the company’s Erlewine well pad in New Martinsville, West Virginia, on July 12;
660 kilograms per hour near the company’s Gregor well pad in Marianna, Pennsylvania, on August 3rd;
760 kilograms per hour near EQT subsidiary Equitrans’ Snapping Turtle compressor station in Wind Ridge, Pennsylvania, on August 3rd; and
307 kilograms per hour near EQT subsidiary Equitrans’ Calisto compressor station in Sycamore, Pennsylvania, on August 3rd.
Evidence filmed on-the-ground. Earthworks has recorded dozens of videos documenting air pollution from EQT facilities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia over the last several years preceding their pledge – and also afterward.
Multiple fines, hundreds of thousands in penalties. Just since the start of 2023, EQT has racked up more than $4.5 million in penalties for 4 environment-related offenses, according to Violation Tracker data.
Using industry’s influence to weaken methane pollution rules. EQT claims it is a “committed leader in emissions reduction.” But thorough analysis of the company’s positions by InfluenceMap gives it a failing grade, stating that EQT “exhibits active policy engagement that is oppositional to science-aligned climate policy to deliver the goals of the Paris Agreement.” The company is a member of several obstructive industry groups. It serves on the executive committee for the American Exploration and Production Council (AXPC), the oil and gas industry trade association that was reportedly spearheading the plan to unravel federal methane rules. Among the group’s top demands was eliminating the nation’s methane waste emissions fee, which was officially scuttled in the spending bill signed into law by President Trump on July 4th. EQT is also the founding member of the PAGE Coalition, which presents itself as pro-climate but advocates strategically for fossil gas expansion (the company reported giving this group $4.2 million in 2024, more than $600,000 of it for lobbying).
