In order to check the rising levels of greenhouse gases responsible for the global warming, US President Barack Obama said that he will be using his executive powers to impose new set of regulations on the energy sector to reduce the methane emissions by up to 45 percent by the year 2025.
This is for the first time when the US government-run by Barack Obama has targeted the increasing levels of emissions of the greenhouse gas.
The announcement came in the backdrop of the talks scheduled later this year in French capital Paris, called by the United Nations in hopes that the countries participating in the meet will contribute in slowing global warming.
Defense Council Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources, said, “Today’s methane announcement is a crucial start toward giving protection to families, communities and overall the planet Earth from this dangerous pollution.”
“Curbing the rampant methane waste from the oil and gas industry is the biggest new step the White House can take to fight climate change,” Suh added.
The Environmental Protection Agency will be proposing some set of regulations for methane emission cut this summer, while the complete regulations will be out by 2016.
According to the reports, the regulations would only be applicable to the new and modified oil and gas production sources. Rest of the sources will conduct the methane reductions indirectly as a byproduct of other pollutants’ reduction.
The main source of methane leaks are oil and gas wells, pipelines and valves. The majority of pollution from greenhouse gas comes from carbon dioxide (CO2) due to burning of coal, natural gas and oil.
Even if the methane accounts for the nine percent of US greenhouse gas pollution, its greenhouse effect is a shocking 20 times more potent than that of the carbon dioxide.
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