From the Clean Air Council (http://www.cleanair.org/):
After the second warmest January to March since national temperature began being recorded in 1880, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is projecting a 75% chance that 2020 will be recorded as the hottest year ever, beating 2016. Yet the administration is still determined to have the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) remove the powerful greenhouse gas methane from the 2015 New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for oil and gas facilities. The Administration recently directed the Office of Management and Budget to approve the EPA’s complete removal of methane from the 2015 NSPS by late July. In order to avoid the accelerating effects of climate change the EPA must maintain existing emissions limitations while expanding research to accurately account for and reduce methane pollution.
Carbon Dioxide emissions have fallen 12% in the U.S from 2005 to 2019, but recent studies of methane emissions have determined that oil and gas facilities are emitting methane at rates vastly underestimated by the EPA and state governments. Methane is 87 times more potent a heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide over a 20 year time period and researchers at Cornell University recently published a study concluding that from 2014-2018 Pennsylvania officials underestimated methane leakage by 15%.
Please go to https://cleanaircouncil.salsalabs.org/cutmethane/index.html to tell your federal elected officials you are concerned that allowing methane pollution to increase will lead to the further acceleration of climate chaos.
Penn State researchers recently concluded that compared to the year 2000, average temperature will rise by 4.9 degrees Fahrenheit between 2040 and 2070.
Please click here to contact your federal elected officials.
Leave a Reply