Green groups press Interior and EPA on methane emissions

More than 90 green groups across the U.S. are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department to regulate methane emissions from oil and gas industry operations.

“EPA needs to take immediate steps to produce regulations to directly reduce methane pollution from new and existing equipment from this industry,” the groups wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and EPA chief Gina McCarthy on Thursday.

The groups include the Clean Air Task Force, Center for Biological Diversity, and National Wildlife Federation.

They go on to say that without firm controls on methane, the nation will not reach the targets laid out by the Obama administration to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

The Interior Department must also revise its rules on air pollution from offshore oil and gas sources to accommodate a “fragile” Arctic environment, the letter adds.