“Methane makes up a much smaller portion of America’s greenhouse gas footprint than carbon dioxide … so the proposal might seem like small potatoes. But it’s actually a pretty huge deal, for a few reasons.”

“Methane, the principal emission of natural gas consumption, is 20 times more powerful than CO₂ over a 100-year timespan.”

“If we replace our coal with natural gas but let methane go unchecked, we won’t be much closer to meaningfully mitigating climate change,’ said Mark Brownstein of the Environmental Defense Fund. ‘Leak rates as low as 1 to 3 percent undo much of the benefit of going from coal to gas.’”

“Stringent methane rules could alleviate some of the climate-related concerns about the fracking boom and could help refocus the debate around local pollution and land rights issues. These rules are also an opportunity, Brownstein said, for the gas industry to show good faith. ‘If the industry resists basic regulation for a relatively simple issue to solve, what is the public to think about the industry’s willingness to solve more complex issues?’”