Why rollback of methane rules is catastrophic
Ashugeswaths of the nation deal with wildfires, hurricanes, excessive heat and flooding, it is clear we must immediately implement policies to fight climate change and protect our communities.
Yet as we’re experiencing what many experts say are the early impacts of the mankind-created climate crisis across the country, many politicians are working overtime to move us further in the wrong direction.
A clear and recent example of this is the Trumpadministration’s catastrophic rollback of methane rules that will increase emissions of this potent greenhouse gas by eliminating oversight of hundreds of thousands of gas and oil facilities while loosening regulations.
Methane, which is commonly released during the extraction of fossil fuels such as natural gas, is 86 times more potent as a global warming pollutant than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and 34 times stronger than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over a 100-year period. So, like all other fossil fuels, it is only adding to our growing climate crisis.
With the reckless decision to roll back methane protections, the Trumpadministration will ratchet up the volume of this planet-warming gas in communities across our state and country for years to come.
Wenolonger have the luxury of treating our atmosphere like a waste dump for global warming pollutants such as methane. Pennsylvania is already suffer
ing from the impacts of climate change with a long-term warming of more than 1 degree Celsius, worsening air quality, more extreme and frequent downpours and flash flooding, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
These are impacts that will only increase as we pump more methane pollution into the air.
Of course, this problem doesn’t stop at the Pennsylvania border. All across the
country, the impacts of climate change have never been clearer. The South is dealing with a record-breaking hurricane season and the earliest named storms on record, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Midwest is reeling from an unexpected storm that demolished millions of acres of crops. And, farther west, wildfires are raging in California and Colorado. Death Valley recently hit one of the
hottest temperatures ever recorded on Earth.
Despite all of these clear signs of the climate crisis, the Trump administration is moving full steam ahead with its climate denial campaign. Over the past few years, the president and his staff have rolled back several efforts to regulate climate pollution from power plants and transportation, locking in pollution for years to come and endangering our families and communities.
This latest decision to roll back important regulations on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry adds to that devastating list.
These actions are particularly disappointing when you consider how methane is already silently damaging our climate. Recent findings showthe oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania is releasing twice as much methane as previously reported, up to 1.1 million short tons of methane annually, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. This is more than 15 times higher than what oil and gas companies reported to the state DEP.
It is clear that we need stronger regulations, not less accountability. And we need to cut climate pollution faster, not give a green light to the fossil fuel industry to pollute even more.
This latest movebythe Trumpadministration is so extreme that even the world’s largest oil and gas companies are calling onthe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency not to move forward with the changes.
So next time you go outside and get caught in unbearable heat or an unexpected downpour, we hope you’re inspired to act. Pull out your smartphone and write to EPAAdministrator Andrew Wheeler, asking him to repeal the New Source Performance Standards for the oil and gas industry.
And while you’re at it, send a note to your elected officials at the state and federal level to ask them to do everything in their power to rein in methane pollution, including asking Gov. Wolf to strengthen Pennsylvania’s pending standards in the face of this rollback.
Let’s use our voices to speak truth to power. The country is on fire and we’re not going to take it anymore.