“If the Trump administration cared one iota about science-based reality, these results would cause EPA Administrator Pruitt and Interior Secretary Zinke to end their efforts to roll back oil and gas methane pollution safeguards. Because they won’t, state-based efforts to do so in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and other states are all the more important. Even with the best of methane rules, however, we would still need to transition as quickly as possible from all fossil fuels to a renewables based economy.” — Earthworks Policy Director Lauren Pagel
“This study confirms the growing body of peer-reviewed science indicating oil & gas extraction’s methane pollution makes it as harmful to climate as coal burning’s carbon dioxide pollution. This confirms there is no ‘bridge fuel’. To stave off catastrophic climate change we need to immediately drop all fossil fuels in favor of conservation and renewables.”
— With Dr. Robert Howarth, Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, P.E. in 2011 published the first research suggesting upstream and midstream oil & gas methane pollution erases its “clean burning” climate advantage over coal. Dr. Ingraffea is Vice Chair of Earthworks’ Board of Directors, and Cornell University’s Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering Emeritus and Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow.
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For More Information
Science: Assessment of methane emissions from the U.S. oil and gas supply chain
EDF: New Study Finds U.S. Oil and Gas Methane Emissions Are 60 Percent Higher Than EPA Reports