Methane in the News: How does methane affect our climate change policies?
Recently in the news there
has been quite a bit of discussion about methane emissions and their effect on
climate change. The Obama administration has been focusing its efforts to
reduce methane emissions in order to reduce its effects on climate change. The
plan is called President Obama’s Climate Action Plan. Many environmental
agencies are now using key elements of this plan to help reduce climate change.
This week the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) also announced that they will help prevent methane pollution by reducing
the waste made through natural gas processing. The new mandate would prevent
natural gas emissions from drilling, venting, flaring, leaking, pneumatic
devices, and equipment upgrades.
According to the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), methane is the “second most prevalent
greenhouse gas emitted in the United States from human activities”, accounting
for as much as 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is important that plans such
as the plan proposed by the Bureau of Land Management take effect, and that
bureaus and agencies make effort in this reduction. While some argue that these
plans will place a burden on taxpayers, Western Values Project reports that
taxpayers are actually losing more money without the new policy; in the next
decade an estimated $800 million is lost without the new regulations set in
place. It could also have a significant impact on methane emissions. The U.S.
Department of Interior estimates that it could reduce methane emissions up to
169,000 tons per year. This reduction of methane emissions is just one small step to fighting climate change.
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