Trump’s EPA is thinking about letting a potent greenhouse gas loose

The Trump administration’s “polluter first” agenda has moved on to methane, a greenhouse gas that’s more than 80 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Responding to a request by the oil and gas industry (his old friends), EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt says the agency will reconsider a federal regulation limiting methane emissions at drilling sites. That rule was part of the Obama administration's commitment to cut methane pollution by up to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025. The EPA will take the next 90 days to decide whether to stop requiring industry to track its “fugitive emissions” (a.k.a. leaks) from oil and gas production sites. Methane pollution is a big contributor to climate change that is relatively easy and cheap to capture—but science deniers like Pruitt don’t tend to listen to reason. 

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