14 DAY TRIAL // On Friday, the Obama administration rolled out a new strategy intended to combat climate change and global warming by reducing the United States' overall methane emissions.
As shown by several studies, methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is, hence the fact that, in order to put a leash on said phenomena, efforts must be made to keep it from building up in our planet's atmosphere.
On its website, the White House details that, according to recent data, methane presently accounts for 9% of the greenhouse gas emissions human activity in the United States puts into the atmosphere on a yearly basis.
The good news is that, since 1990 until present days, the country's methane emissions have dropped by about 11%. The bad news is that, under a business-as-usual scenario, said emissions could up to the equivalent of 620 million tons of carbon dioxide by the year 2030.
To keep this from happening, the Obama administration wishes to roll out a series of measures that it hopes will limit the amount of methane that human activities in the United States cough out annually.
These measures are part and parcel of President Barack Obama's Climate Action Plan, and they are expected to yield noteworthy benefits both financially- and health-wise, the White House explains in a statement on the matter at hand.
Information available to the public says that, as part of its efforts to curb methane emissions, the Obama administration is to focus on landfills. Specifically, the country's Environmental Protection Agency has been asked to propose new standards to reduce methane originating from landfills, and also accept comments on how existing standards for landfills should be updated.
According to a fact sheet released by the White House this past March 28, the Environmental Protection Agency is to roll out its proposed updated standards and also take public comments on methane emissions from landfills sometime this coming summer.
Coal mines are not to be ignored either. Thus, in April 2014, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management is to release a so-called Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. This initiative is intended to gather public input concerning the development of a program that would allow for the capture and sale or disposal of waste mine methane originating from lands leased by the Federal government.
In this year's June, on the other hand, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy are to release a Biogas Roadmap documenting voluntary strategies to promote methane digesters and other means to help the country's dairy sector cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020.
By the looks of it, the United States oil and gas industries are to receive special attention. Thus, this spring, the Environmental Protection Agency will get busy analyzing the potentially significant sources of methane and other greenhouse gas emissions linked to the oil and gas sector. In the fall, the Agency is expected to pin down what the best ways to green up these industries are, and, should it feel like rolling out additional regulations, it will have until the end of 2016 to do so.
The Agency must also collaborate with companies and businesses operating in these industries on voluntary efforts to cut methane emissions and, later this year, the Bureau of Land Management will also get involved in the issue and will come up with updated standards concerning venting and flaring from oil and gas production on public lands.
“Reducing methane emissions is a powerful way to take action on climate change; and putting methane to use can support local economies with a source of clean energy that generates revenue, spurs investment and jobs, improves safety, and leads to cleaner air,” the Obama administration explains.
“When fully implemented, the policies in the methane strategy will improve public health and safety while recovering otherwise wasted energy to power our communities, farms, factories, and power plants,” it further stresses.