Washington, DC – U.S. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today welcomed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement of a new rule to crack down on emissions of potent methane pollution from the oil and gas industry and establish a $190 per ton social cost of carbon. The Biden Administration made the announcement in Dubai at COP28, the annual climate summit convened by the United Nations.
“This is another major move from the Biden Administration to solve the climate problem,” said Whitehouse, who has long advocated for dramatically reducing methane emissions and for a strong social cost of carbon. “The new methane rule will crack down on the wasteful super-emitters causing outsized damage to the planet. I applauded the Administration’s social cost of carbon when the all-of-government directive was announced in the fall, and I applaud this rule that gives it teeth – $190 per ton is a serious price on fossil fuel pollution.”
Methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the first two decades after its release. The oil and gas industry accounts for at least a third of man-made methane emissions. Recent research suggests that methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations are 60 percent higher than previously estimated.
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Meaghan McCabe, (202) 224-2921
