The Biden administration has finalized a rule to significantly cut the US oil and gas industry’s emissions of methane, a powerful planet-warming gas that scientists and climate advocacy groups have pressed nations to rapidly reduce as global temperature soars.
The announcement came amid a wave of commitments at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai on Saturday, including a pledge from at least 117 countries to triple renewable energy by 2030. Vice President Kamala Harris also announced the US was committing another $3 billion to global climate action.
Methane, the main component of natural gas and a byproduct of fossil fuel drilling, is a potent source of climate pollution with more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere. The oil and gas industry is one of the main sources of global methane emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.
The new US rule, which will be implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected to slash methane emissions by nearly 80% through 2038, compared to what they would have been without the rule. The EPA estimates it will stop about 58 million tons of methane from escaping into the atmosphere during that period – the equivalent of taking more than 300 million gas-powered cars off the road for a year.
That part is doing a lot of work here. The U.S. is still going to subsidize the cattle farming industry, which is a gigantic source of methane emissions.
You’re not wrong, but a reduction is progress. It looks like farming emits more methane than the fossil fuels industry, but it’s close.
It is a form of progress, but too little and way too late. It’s putting a tiny finger band-aid on a slashed cartioid artery.
May as well do nothing, I guess.
When this will basically make no difference, may as well do nothing in this regard. If you’re going to do something about methane, like I said, this is a band-aid on a gushing wound.
Last I checked, the US still subsidizes fossil fuels and that production has gone up (US), not down.
But hey! 80% less methane and Teslas are now only $35,000! Climate change solved.