I think we need to do it in a way that respects people's privacy rights.
If it is to be done, it needs to be done in a way that respect's people's civil rights.
Supporters of the NSA spying program have been rephrasing the concerns with it as a privacy rights issue. The concerns with it go deeper than that: fundamentally it is a violation of the constitutional and civil rights afforded by law. Reframing it a privacy issue is a dishonest way of downplaying the serious constitutional violations that the NSA is infringing upon.
Typically these leaks are very small and are no danger to the public, which is why they are allowed to persist.
It's not about the danger of explosion from these leaks; it's about the large volume of methane escaping from these small leaks around the country. Given that methane is a potent greenhouse gas (20x more than CO2), the volume of leaks so far detected would make natural gas a dirtier fuel than even coal! The implications to national energy policy should be of concern to the public.
Physician: One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well. -- Ambrose Bierce