A Reuters report said that the White House on Friday announced its plans to draft potential regulations to curb methane emissions in oil and gas businesses. The move was reportedly part of US President Barack Obama's mandate to combat climate change.
According to Reuters, methane is a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide, and is the main part that composes natural gas. Obama's new strategy will also seek to address methane being produced by landfills, certain coal mines and even dairy cattle.
Obama's concern about methane emissions came at the right timing. The news agency said that the US is currently enjoying a boom in natural gas production, and had seen many power plants switching to the fuel, which releases half as much carbon dioxide when compared to the amount of carbon dioxide produced when coal is burned. Scientists connected with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had also said that methane is 84 times more effective in trapping heat than carbon.
The White House courtesy of Obama's top energy and climate aide Dan Utech had disclosed that regulators will first propose new rules focused on reducing venting and flaring from oil and gas wells on public lands late this year, which is seen as one way to slash emissions of the dangerous greenhouse gas. Utech also added in a conference call that the Environmental Protection Agency will conduct a study on whether there is indeed a need for additional broader regulations for methane emissions under the country's Clean Air Act. Should the need for more regulations arise, Utech is confident that the regulations will be completed before Obama completes his term by the end of 2016. Obama is reportedly aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the US to 17% below 2005 levels by 2020.
"This methane strategy is one component, one set of actions the administration is going to take to get there," Utech had said.
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