Facility managers who work on greenhouse gas inventories know an all-hands-on-deck approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is necessary. That’s especially true for methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas.
But oil and gas companies would not have to monitor and report methane leaks under a Trump Administration proposal to roll back an Obama-era rule. The proposed rule would result in 380,000 more tons of methane released into the atmosphere between 2019 and 2025, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is about 25 times better at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
The measure would save oil and gas companies about $75 million per year, according to analyses, but it also would result in the United States foregoing $54 billion in economic benefits that would have come from reducing the impacts of climate change, according to EPA. The proposal essentially would“give oil and gas producers leeway to waste energy,” according to Inside Climate News.
The proposal is on the heels of the Trump Administration proposal to cancel the Clean Power Plan, a move that they EPA estimates would result in 1,400 more deaths per year. The Trump Administration also has proposed cancelling vehicle fuel efficiency standards.
This Quick Read was submitted by Greg Zimmerman, executive editor, Building Operating Management. Read his cover story profiling John Chadwick of Arlington (Va.) Public Schools.
