Oil and natural gas companies for the first time would have to pay a fee for methane emissions that exceed certain levels under a rule proposed Friday by the Biden administration.
The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule follows through on a directive from Congress included in the 2022 climate law. The new fee is intended to encourage industry to adopt best practices that reduce emissions of methane and thereby avoid paying.
Methane is a climate “super pollutant” that is more potent in the short term than carbon dioxide and is responsible for about one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. The oil and natural gas sector is the largest industrial source of methane emissions in the United States, and advocates say reduction of methane emissions is an important way to slow climate change.
Excess methane produced this year would result in a fee of $900 per ton, with fees rising to $1,500 per ton by 2026.
Unfortunately, not enough of a fine to fine them out of existence.
It’s almost always theatrics without substance these days. Nobody in power gives a shit about anything except how to stay in power.
But just enough to justify a small price hike
I’m bad at math, but if fossil fuels are causing around 190,000,000 tons of methane per year, at the max $1500 per ton, that comes out to a fine of $285,000,000,000 per year. I definitely feel like my zeros aren’t right.
Doesn’t beef create more methane than oil and gas?
Wikipedia says O&G beats out animal agriculture … but not by much.
One major caveat… much of “plant agriculture” is to feed animals. So I think if you count that stuff under meat, it wins
Animal feed is not listed as a part of plant agriculture on Wikipedia.
If you have another source I’d be interested in seeing it.
A lot of plants on the globe are grown for animal feed. https://www.vox.com/2014/8/21/6053187/cropland-map-food-fuel-animal-feed
Nothing in the plant agriculture stuff on Wikipedia says “this is all grown for human consumption,” so idk what you’re getting at?
The wiki article literally says we need to give up animal agriculture to stop climate change
