President Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, authorized the EPA to levy a fee on wasteful methane emissions from large oil and gas facilities. The fee starts at $900 per metric ton of emissions in 2024, increasing to $1,200 in 2025 and $1,500 in 2026.

If the fee remains in effect through 2035 — an unlikely scenario after Trump’s election — it would prevent 1.2 million metric tons of methane from entering the atmosphere, according to the EPA. That is the equivalent of taking nearly 8 million gasoline-powered cars off the nation’s roads for a year, the agency said.

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  • thejevans@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    This is one of many direct climate consequences of the the failure of the Democratic party to run a compelling candidate and platform. I can only hope that states like Colorado and California can keep doing what they’re doing, and that the rest of the world can do enough to mitigate at least some of the added damage our country will do over the next 4 years.