At a collection area, gas is pumped in from fractured wells in northern New Mexico, here some of the VOC compounds are burnt in plumes of fire. The Four Corners Area of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona has the biggest methane hot spot in the United States, and can be seen from space. Methane is 40 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than Carbon Dioxide. Hydraulic fracturing has created America’s energy boom, but it has also created major environmental problems that are only now being fully researched and understood. Throughout the country “fracking” has local communities up in arms over highly dangerous airborn pollutants, and reasearchers from NASA, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Assosciation (NOAA) and the University of Colorado are confirming that massive amounts of Methane and other Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are being released at levels between 2 and 5 times higher than Environmental Protection Agency estimates.