The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently requesting speakers for three virtual “listening sessions” to receive input on the EPA’s upcoming standards for methane pollution from existing oil and gas facilities. Please email rzerbo@cleanair.org if you would like to register to speak or are interested in talking points.
The listening sessions will be held from noon to 9 p.m. Eastern time over three days. Each day will focus on different stakeholder groups; however, you may register to speak on any day. The deadline to sign up is Friday June 11.
- Tuesday, June 15, 2021: Focus on Industry and Non-Governmental Organizations
- Wednesday, June 16, 2021: Focus on Communities, Environmental Justice Stakeholders and Tribes
- Thursday, June 17, 2021: Focus on States, Local Governments and Small Businesses
If you would like to speak at the listening sessions, please click here.
Methane is 87 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Reducing methane pollution from the gas industry must be an absolute priority in order to reach President Biden’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. More recently, the Biden administration announced it intends to lower national greenhouse gas emissions 50-52% by 2030, based on a 2005 baseline.
According to the National Association of Space and Aeronautics (NASA) the average global temperature on earth has increased 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, with two-thirds of that warming occurring since 1975. NASA also concluded that global sea levels have risen 8 inches in the past century. In the past two decades, the rate of that sea level rise has doubled compared to the 20th Century and is “accelerating slightly every year,” according to NASA.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has concluded that since 1980, the United States has experienced 291 weather and climate disasters causing a combined 14,492 deaths and over $1.9 trillion in damages. Just in 2020, NOAA counted 22 weather and climate disasters that totaled over $1 billion in damages each, the highest disaster costs ever recorded in a single year since 1980.
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