A somewhat surprising corollary: if you have methane and you can burn it, it's better to do that than vent it directly.
(Of course, better still to leave it in the ground, if that's where your methane is coming from...)
(Of course, better still to leave it in the ground, if that's where your methane is coming from...)
Although methane is usually the largest component, natural gas is typically a mixture of methane, propane and butane. So not quite the came as cow burps.
Now, in a power plant context, modern gas plants are going to be more efficient and have better heat rates than their coal and oil equivalents, so you do generally need less total MMBtu input to get an equivalent amount of generation out. But if you’re burning the same amount in terms of energy content, the difference when it comes to only CO2 is not as large as you’re saying.