Agencies' Voluntary Methane Plans Renew Calls For EPA Gas Sector Rules

摘要

Recent steps by the Obama administration to encourage voluntary reductions of methane from the downstream natural gas sector, including recent Energy Department (DOE) measures aimed at curbing leakage along the supply chain, are failing to satisfy environmentalists who are intensifying calls for EPA to regulate releases of the potent greenhouse gas (GHG), especially in the natural gas distribution system. "Voluntary commitments can only take us so far - we need coordinated federal and state regulations to address methane pollution and tighten emissions standards," Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) said in a July 29 statement. But such calls could be stymied because of the long-standing difficulty EPA faces showing that methane the only pollutant released from gas pipelines - causes air quality harms, the bar set by the Clean Air Act.