POV: Rollback of Federal Rules to Limit Methane Emissions Poses Serious Threat

From our friend Prof. Nathan Phillips. Always be armed with information, Campers!

BU Today - POV: Rollback of Federal Rules to Limit Methane Emissions Poses Serious Threat (link)

Excerpt: “This past August, the Trump administration announced a rollback of federal rules established under President Obama to limit methane emissions from the natural gas industry. Based on our decade-long BU research on natural gas, I recognized right away how seriously this would contribute to furthering climate breakdown. This research, combined with learning of health impacts of natural gas from colleagues in the BU School of Public Health, has allowed me to see the danger this presents for the health and safety of residents right here in Greater Boston. As serious as these global and local threats are, the bottom line is, our science can help protect health, safety, and climate.

The consequence of the EPA methane rollback is serious damage to global climate, because methane currently contributes about 17 percent of all greenhouse gases to climate heating and is rising at a faster rate than carbon dioxide.

Natural gas is further damaging to human health, because natural gas is more than just methane. Leaks of natural gas emit dozens of volatile organic compounds, including carcinogenic and neurotoxic compounds, into the air we breathe. Some of these compounds, like benzene, have no lowest limit determined to be safe for human health. These leaks occur where people live and work across the gas-production chain, from the wellheads in Pennsylvania and Texas to the streets and sidewalks and the stove burners in our homes in Massachusetts. I know this from research and from personal experience. After I began studying natural gas leaks, I discovered I had a low-level gas leak in our own basement. There is a leak on the street in front of our house right now. And I walked my kids to school over a gas leak noticeable by odor, for years.” (Nathan Phillips)