Statement: Ken Berlin, President & CEO of The Climate Reality Project, on the new EPA methane rules

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency followed up on President Obama’s recent commitment to limit emissions of methane pollution from existing sources in the oil and gas sector – announced at the White House with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau – by releasing final rules to limit dangerous methane pollution from new and modified sources.

May 12, 2016

"Tackling carbon pollution alone is like fighting with one hand tied behind our back; we must also address methane emissions. Tens of thousands of Climate Reality Project supporters urged the EPA to both strengthen the new source rule and develop an existing source rule to further curb dangerous methane emissions.

Together, we applaud the Obama Administration for taking this first sensible step in curbing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. But it is only the first step. Methane is over 80 times more potent at trapping heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide pollution in the near-term.

In order to solve the climate crisis, President Obama’s administration must make good on his broader commitment to reduce methane pollution from the US oil and gas sector by 40-45 percent over the next decade by also curbing emissions from existing methane sources. We are pleased to see the administration start to move forward on such rules – our collective future depends on swift climate action now."