Boston (August 29, 2019) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chair of the Senate Climate Change Task Force and member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, released the following statement following the announcement of the Trump administration’s proposal to rollback methane emissions regulations. This proposal will eliminate Obama-era methane regulations for new sources in the oil and gas industry. Today’s proposed rule will remove oil and gas industry transmission, storage, production, and processing from Environmental Protection Agency new source performance standards that regulate methane. Additionally, the proposal would also remove oil and gas industry transmission and storage from new source regulation of volatile organic compounds. Methane accounts for approximately ten percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, a third of which is from oil and gas systems, and is thirty times more potent of a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

“Methane, formaldehyde, benzene, carbon dioxide, arsenic, mercury – the list of the Trump administration’s air pollution and climate sins against the American people grows longer every day,” said Senator Markey. “Reducing harmful methane emissions is good for people and pocketbooks. As the Amazon burns, hurricanes bear down, and world leaders commit to solutions, Donald Trump hastens his push to climate catastrophe with this roll-back. Instead of delivering ‘the cleanest air in the world’, the Trump administration is proving itself the dirtiest administration ever.”

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