The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced new rules that "solid waste landfill operators must begin capturing methane emissions from their sites at levels one-third lower than current standards permit," Devin Henry reports for The Hill. EPA said the new standards "will reduce landfill emissions by up to 334,000 tons a year by 2025 and produce climate benefits worth $512 million annually by then."
The rule, finalized Friday after being proposed last year, "updates 20-year-old standards for methane emissions at landfills," Henry writes. "The rule comes as the Obama administration works to crack down on emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas with 25 times the global warming power of carbon dioxide. Officials have committed to cutting methane emissions from the oil-and-gas sector by between 40 percent and 45 percent by 2025, an EPA push that has prompted resistance from the drilling sector." (Read more)