ICYMI: Senate Democrats Expose Methane Threat, Highlight Progress Despite Trump Rollbacks

As the Trump Administration rolls back methane standards, an EPW forum warns methane pollution endangers health, raises energy costs, and worsens climate risks

Washington, DC—Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), led Committee Democrats in a spotlight forum on how the oil and gas industry is releasing methane that is choking our children, raising our cost of living, and warming our planet—all while the Trump Administration makes it easier for companies to pollute.  The forum, titled “Mind Over Methane: The No-Brainer Climate, Economic, and Health Solution,” highlighted progress that many states, companies, and researchers are making to curb methane pollution despite federal rollbacks. 

Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a greenhouse gas over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is responsible for roughly one-third of the rise in global temperatures.  In the United States, the oil and gas sector is the largest industrial source of methane emissions: at every stage of fossil fuel production, this toxic, explosive gas is leaked or deliberately released into our atmosphere, where it drives the creation of smog and accelerates climate change-driven economic risks.  The wasted methane also increases costs for families, who pay for it through hidden surcharges.  Leaks alone from this industry waste more than $1.5 billion of otherwise-sellable natural gas each year.

“Mitigating methane emissions is achievable and affordable.  It saves lives and lowers energy costs for families.  And it is one of the most important things we can do for the climate in the near term,” said Ranking Member Whitehouse. “And yet, the Trump Administration is considering rolling back methane abatement policies alongside its broader attacks on commonsense, money-saving climate safety solutions.  Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress used their majority to cripple the first-ever national climate pollution pricing mechanism—the Waste Emissions Charge on methane.”

Although much methane reduction could be done at no net cost—particularly in the oil and gas sector, where the captured gas can be sold as product—Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently delayed methane mitigation rules for the fossil fuel industry.  By EPA’s own estimate, the delay will waste an additional $170 million in lost natural gas.  The Department of Transportation has already canceled requirements to fix leaky natural gas pipelines.  

“[M]ethane is leaking into our air, warming our planet, raising our cost of living, and choking our children—whether the fossil fuel industry reports it or not,” the Senator concluded. “We will not stand down.  We will not be silent.  We will keep sounding the alarm—because the danger is real.”

Witnesses included Dr. Arvind Ravikumar, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering and Co-Director of the Energy Emissions Monitoring and Data Laboratory; Courtney Smith, First Principal Deputy Executive Officer at the California Air Resources Board; Lori Ehrlich, former Massachusetts State Representative and former FEMA Region 1 Administrator; and Dr. Sarav Arunachalam, Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Research Professor and Deputy Director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute for the Environment.

Highlights from EPW’s spotlight forum:

TRUMP’S GIVEAWAYS TO METHANE POLLUTERS

SENATOR ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): “The Trump Administration and congressional Republicans have done huge favors for polluting industries, taking a sledgehammer to EPA’s methane emissions fee and announcing their intent to roll back EPA’s methane reporting requirements and the agency’s environmental standards for reducing methane emissions—what could possibly go wrong?”

PUBLIC HEALTH COSTS OF METHANE POLLUTION

SENATOR LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER (D-DE): “I don’t think you can talk about health without talking about the environment, or talk about the environment without talking about health. Methane is often discussed as a potent greenhouse gas, but what is less often emphasized is the serious public health threat it poses…When methane pollution is released into the atmosphere, it exacerbates asthma, respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, and increases emergency room visits.” 

DR. SARAV ARUNACHALAM: “[P]ollutants emitted alongside methane directly contribute to ground level ozone and fine particulate matter pollution, which can cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and strokes … [I]n 2023 that air pollution from the oil and gas industry resulted in 410,000 asthma exacerbations, 2200 new cases of childhood asthma, and 7500 excess deaths, costing the us economy $77 billion in total.”

Click HERE to read the full written testimony from Dr. Sarav Arunachalam, Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Research Professor and Deputy Director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute for the Environment.

METHANE SUPER-EMITTERS ARE LOW-HANGING FRUIT

DR. ARVIND RAVIKUMAR: “We know that a small number of sources, often referred to as “super-emitters,” account for over half of all oil and gas sector methane emissions …. For example, in our work in the Appalachian Basin, we found that just five coal mines contributed to nearly 80 percent of all methane from coal mines in the region.”

Click HERE to read the full written testimony from Dr. Arvind Ravikumar, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering and Co-Director of the Energy Emissions Monitoring and Data Laboratory.

METHANE MITIGATION CUTS FAMILIES’ COSTS AND CREATES U.S. JOBS

COURTNEY SMITH: “[A] satellite partner detected a methane plume over an oil and gas field. We identified the responsible operator and immediately notified them …. [T]he company repaired the leak just four days later …. It avoided over $100,000 in lost natural gas value and delivered a quarter of a million dollars in total societal benefits based on methane's climate impact. Similar successes have occurred at pipelines and landfills, where leaks may have gone undetected for months before the launch of the satellite.”

Click HERE to read the full written testimony from Courtney Smith, First Principal Deputy Executive Officer at the California Air Resources Board.

LORI ERLICH: “[P]ipelines nationwide leak upwards of 2.6 million tons of methane each year. The distribution sector accounts for almost one-third of this waste. That third amounts to over half a billion dollars of wasted gas, and consumers are on the hook for all of that wasted gas.” 

Click HERE to read the full written testimony from Lori Erlich, former Massachusetts State Representative and former FEMA Region 1 Administrator.

DR. ARVIND RAVIKUMAR: “The U.S. has become the world leader in methane innovation. Over 80 percent of methane-focused startups were founded here in the past decade, and we now have 268 companies—nearly 150 of which are manufacturing firms—developing methane monitoring or mitigation technologies …. This sector has seen double-digit growth in the last five years and is well-positioned to scale further by exporting American-made technologies and services abroad.”

FEEDBACK LOOP BETWEEN METHANE POLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE

SENATOR ED MARKEY (D-MA): “[Massachusetts] has the second-fastest warming body of water …. And it is setting up the conditions for a superstorm event because the warmer the water, and the warmer the atmosphere, the more potent the storms are going to be.”

LORI ERLICH: “What I’ve seen at FEMA is not just the physical public safety of an explosive gas pipeline being exposed or altered during a disaster, but also the impact of that methane escaping into the environment and energizing, really juicing up these storms, so that the impact when these storms hit is even worse.”