[TheClimate.Vote] December 30, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

*/December 30, 2019/*

[future foods]
*As the planet warms, unusual crops could become climate saviors -- but 
only if we're willing to eat them*
JENNY MORBER - ENSIA on 12/29/2019
WHAT ROLE CAN LESSER-KNOWN CROPS THAT THRIVE UNDER ADVERSITY PLAY IN 
EFFORTS TO MAKE OUR GLOBAL FOOD SUPPLY MORE RESILIENT TO CLIMATE CHANGE?
In southern Israel's stifling heat, rows of salicornia, commonly known 
as sea asparagus or sea beans, grow under translucent tarps, planted 
into ground more sand than soil, irrigated with saltwater. This 
environment would kill most plants, but these segmented succulents look 
beautiful -- green and healthy. In partnership with researchers at Ben 
Gurion University of the Negev, local farmers are exporting them to 
markets in nearby countries.

    Sea beans taste like salty cucumber and grow wild in coastal areas
    around the globe. But in recent years researchers have begun to
    focus on them for agriculture, especially in dry coastal regions
    such as India, Israel, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

These researchers' efforts are defining what extremes the plant can 
withstand, its nutrient needs, and how to get it to grow faster and with 
greater yield. As the planet warms and the seas rise, resilient crops 
like sea beans might become climate saviors. But only if we are willing 
to eat them.

*Everybody Matters*
Climate change is already affecting our food supply. In a paper 
published this year, researchers calculated that the available calories 
from the world's top 10 food crops were 1% less annually than they would 
have been without the impact of climate change. Surveys show the 
potential for drought tops people's climate concerns worldwide, but when 
it comes to growing crops, says Hope Michelson, an assistant professor 
of agriculture and consumer economics at University of Illinois at 
Urbana-Champaign, "it's not just the amount of rain" that matters. Crops 
are also sensitive to variations in how quickly that rain falls, high 
and low temperature extremes, the frequency and intensity of storms, and 
the length and timing of growing periods.

Food crops that can withstand such conditions will be increasingly 
important, and much discussion around climate-friendly food focuses on 
consumer choices and what they mean for broader adoption of these crops.

    Essentially, there has to be a market for climate-resilient foods to
    have a significant impact. Consumers can vote with purchasing
    dollars to support farmers who grow foods that will persist in
    difficult conditions, and those that require fewer resources.

But outside factors, the food and beverage industries among them, exert 
influence over our choices. While data on adults is mixed, research 
shows that food marketing strongly influences children. A 2009 article 
in the Annual Review of Public Health found evidence "that television 
food advertising increases children's preferences for the foods 
advertised and their requests to parents for those foods." A more recent 
look at the data in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 
concluded, "Evidence to date shows that acute exposure to food 
advertising increases food intake in children but not in adults."

Federal, state and local governments shape our eating habits, too, 
through tax initiatives, zoning laws, food assistance programs, school 
lunch nutrition standards, research funding and more. Government policy, 
Michelson says, is very influential "with respect to agriculture and 
what people are growing and where they're growing it." Eli Wheat, a 
farmer and lecturer at the University of Washington's Program on the 
Environment, also sees the outsized influence the government has on food 
production and choice. "The federal government is so deeply engaged in 
subsidizing food production in our nation that it basically is not 
allowing free market forces to act," he says.

Still, while most researchers recognize the importance of large-scale 
actions, such as those by large companies and government regulations, to 
influence the food system, many emphasize that individual food choices 
can also have an impact.

"You can most definitely…make a movement with your pocketbook," says 
Samantha Mosier, an assistant professor in the political science 
department at East Carolina University. She points to trends in soda 
consumption, which has declined significantly in recent years. "Some of 
this has been brought on by the millennial generation trying to be 
healthier and to avoid some of the pitfalls of our older generation," 
Mosier says. Soda giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi are now investing in lower 
sugar options like kombucha, coconut water and sparkling water.

"When you think about land use and the predictions for climate change, 
much of it depends on consumer preferences," says Christine Foyer, a 
professor of plant sciences at University of Birmingham in the U.K. 
"People decide what they eat, and economics drives the crops which 
drives the science," she says. "Everybody matters."

*Climate-Resilient Plants*
Environmentally sensitive eating often focuses on reducing meat 
consumption, and for good reason. "The environmental cost particularly 
of beef is enormous," Foyer says. Last year in the journal Science, 
researchers estimated that globally, "[m]oving from current diets to a 
diet that excludes animal products has transformative potential, 
reducing food's land use by 3.1 billion" hectares (7.7 billion acres) 
and greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 6.6 billion metric tons 
(7.3 billion tons).

But plant-based choices matter too.

In the future, plants' ability to withstand extreme conditions will 
become critical. Scientists are working to increase hardiness in today's 
staple crops like wheat and corn through gene editing, genetic 
engineering, and traditional breeding to increase the efficiency of 
photosynthesis, reduce water requirements and resist pests. In China, 
for example, researchers have used CRISPR to develop a strain of wheat 
that resists powdery mildew, a damaging fungal growth predicted to 
worsen with climate change. Meanwhile in India, the International Crops 
Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) developed 
early-maturing groundnuts to help farmers harvest before drought. 
Farmers who adopted these varietals earned an additional US$119 per 
hectare (2.5 acres), according to the organization.

    What we eat has deep cultural significance, rich in memories and
    meaning. We cling to what we know, and changes require work.

Another strategy is to find and cultivate crops already thriving in 
harsh environments and work to improve their attributes. A study 
published last year in Plant, Cell & Environment and co-authored by 
Foyer notes that environmental stresses such as extreme heat "are among 
the main causes for declining crop productivity worldwide leading to 
billions of dollars of annual losses." Each region has different growing 
challenges. Some plants like sea beans are salt tolerant, while edible 
cactus and millet can withstand severe temperature stress.

Foyer also points to legumes and pulses -- which include fava beans, 
cowpeas, chickpeas and lentils -- because "they have their own nitrogen 
fertilization," reducing the need for fertilizers. Nitrogen-based 
fertilizers require energy to produce, can cause pollution and marine 
die-off when runoff enters streams and waterways, and may contribute to 
global warming as source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Yet another climate-friendly option is sea vegetables. Seaweeds such as 
kelp are farming powerhouses: high nutrition value, fast growing and 
zero land use for growing. Not only that, but "when you grow kelp, 
you're growing it in ocean water and [the kelp is] absorbing carbon 
dioxide," Wheat says. "And when you suck up that carbon dioxide, you 
also change the pH and reduce the consequences of ocean acidification."

*Changes Require Work*
Not all climate-resilient foods are new and unusual. Okra, mushrooms, 
sweet potatoes and pomegranates are all resilient choices in many 
regions. So, too are edible "weeds," such as dandelion and burdock, 
which are hardy enough to survive our efforts to eliminate them. Yet as 
warming gets more extreme, researchers say we may have to adopt less 
familiar foods.

For many people that won't be easy. What we eat has deep cultural 
significance, rich in memories and meaning. We cling to what we know, 
and changes require work. Then there are economic considerations, says 
Mosier. When people are concerned about the economy, food choices based 
on environmental impacts can take a back seat to simply putting enough 
food on the table.

Yet, some recent examples point to how changing diets isn't impossible. 
Quinoa and the Impossible Burger, a plant-based burger masquerading as 
beef, are two recent success stories that at first seemed unlikely to 
win over consumers in the U.S. The Chicago Tribune reported in 2016 that 
"Americans consume more than half the global production of quinoa, which 
totaled 37,000 tons [34,000 metric tons] in 2012. Twenty years earlier, 
production was merely 600 tons [544 metric tons]." The Impossible 
Burger, though it currently makes up a small percentage of the U.S. meat 
market, is now for sale in more than 15,000 restaurants in the U.S., 
Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. It has been so popular that the company 
experienced a production shortage last summer, soon after announcing a 
partnership with Burger King. Production has caught up with the surging 
demand, and diners can now find Impossible meat at White Castle, Red 
Robin and a host of smaller restaurants, as well as at grocery stores.

These foods owe their rise in large part to marketing and lobbying 
dollars, but there are other ways to find success. Anastasia Bodnar, 
policy director of Biology Fortified, a nonprofit organization focusing 
on issues in agriculture and biotechnology, says that chefs and 
restaurants can also have an impact on how people think about food.

"If you can make it cool, make it sexy, make it something that people 
want to see, that's going to end up in the news, then that interest gets 
perked up and then the market goes along with it," Bodnar says. "You see 
all kinds of weird invasive fish on menus that have been rebranded with 
different names."

Meanwhile, Wheat sees a parallel between the acceptance of new foods and 
society's acceptance of LGBTQ people. "It's that point of personal 
connection that helps people change their attitudes," he says. "I feel 
like a lot of that happened because of parents being brave and saying to 
their neighbors you know, 'I love my son, I love my daughter.'…This 
question of kelp, it is maybe different than the question of queerness, 
but I think the actual agent of change is the same. It really comes down 
to a personal introduction."

Whether familiar or foreign, our food crops will need to feed an 
increasing number of people in an increasingly hostile environment in 
the future.

    While structural, top-down change may be necessary to shift the
    entire food system to one that will weather the effects of climate
    disruption, such changes can be influenced by individual choices.

Back in Israel, on farms in the dry and salty desert, sea beans grow 
green in seawater. In India, rows of millet persist through drought. And 
in the frigid but warming waters around Seattle, kelp forests undulate 
with the tides. Such foods reduce pressure for climate-unfriendly land 
use change and thrive in environments that make other plants shrivel. 
That is, they are suited for the future -- which means we, too, can be 
more resilient to change.

Editor's note: Jenny Morber's travel and access to researchers at 
Israel's Ben Gurion University of the Negev was paid for and provided by 
the Murray Fromson Journalism Fellowship.
https://www.sixdegreesnews.org/archives/27890/as-the-planet-warms-unusual-crops-could-become-climate-saviors-but-only-if-were-willing-to-eat-them



[dangerous politics]
*Science Under Attack: How Trump Is Sidelining Researchers and Their Work*
In three years, the administration has diminished the role of science in 
policymaking while disrupting research projects nationwide. Experts say 
the effects could be felt for years.
By Brad Plumer and Coral Davenport - Dec 28 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/climate/trump-administration-war-on-science.html

WASHINGTON -- In just three years, the Trump administration has 
diminished the role of science in federal policymaking while halting or 
disrupting research projects nationwide, marking a transformation of the 
federal government whose effects, experts say, could reverberate for years.

Political appointees have shut down government studies, reduced the 
influence of scientists over regulatory decisions and in some cases 
pressured researchers not to speak publicly. The administration has 
particularly challenged scientific findings related to the environment 
and public health opposed by industries such as oil drilling and coal 
mining. It has also impeded research around human-caused climate change, 
which President Trump has dismissed despite a global scientific consensus.

But the erosion of science reaches well beyond the environment and 
climate: In San Francisco, a study of the effects of chemicals on 
pregnant women has stalled after federal funding abruptly ended. In 
Washington, D.C., a scientific committee that provided expertise in 
defending against invasive insects has been disbanded. In Kansas City, 
Mo., the hasty relocation of two agricultural agencies that fund crop 
science and study the economics of farming has led to an exodus of 
employees and delayed hundreds of millions of dollars in research.

"The disregard for expertise in the federal government is worse than 
it's ever been," said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for 
Climate Change Law at Columbia University, which has tracked more than 
200 reports of Trump administration efforts to restrict or misuse 
science since 2017. "It's pervasive."

Hundreds of scientists, many of whom say they are dismayed at seeing 
their work undone, are departing.

Among them is Matthew Davis, a biologist whose research on the health 
risks of mercury to children underpinned the first rules cutting mercury 
emissions from coal power plants. But last year, with a new baby of his 
own, he was asked to help support a rollback of those same rules. "I am 
now part of defending this darker, dirtier future," he said.

This year, after a decade at the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr. 
Davis left.

"Regulations come and go, but the thinning out of scientific capacity in 
the government will take a long time to get back," said Joel Clement, a 
former top climate-policy expert at the Interior Department who quit in 
2017 after being reassigned to a job collecting oil and gas royalties. 
He is now at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group.

Mr. Trump has consistently said that government regulations have stifled 
businesses and thwarted some of the administration's core goals, such as 
increasing fossil-fuel production. Many of the starkest confrontations 
with federal scientists have involved issues like environmental 
oversight and energy extraction -- areas where industry groups have 
argued that regulators have gone too far in the past.

"Businesses are finally being freed of Washington's overreach, and the 
American economy is flourishing as a result," a White House statement 
said last year. Asked about the role of science in policymaking, 
officials from the White House declined to comment on the record.

The administration's efforts to cut certain research projects also 
reflect a longstanding conservative position that some scientific work 
can be performed cost-effectively by the private sector, and taxpayers 
shouldn't be asked to foot the bill. "Eliminating wasteful spending, 
some of which has nothing to do with studying the science at all, is 
smart management, not an attack on science," two analysts at the 
conservative Heritage Foundation wrote in 2017 of the administration's 
proposals to eliminate various climate change and clean energy programs.

Industry groups have expressed support for some of the moves, including 
a contentious E.P.A. proposal to put new constraints on the use of 
scientific studies in the name of transparency. The American Chemistry 
Council, a chemical trade group, praised the proposal by saying, "The 
goal of providing more transparency in government and using the best 
available science in the regulatory process should be ideals we all 
embrace."...
- - -
Nevertheless, in other areas, the administration has managed to chip 
away at federal science.

At the E.P.A., for instance, staffing has fallen to its lowest levels in 
at least a decade. More than two-thirds of respondents to a survey of 
federal scientists across 16 agencies said that hiring freezes and 
departures made it harder to conduct scientific work. And in June, the 
White House ordered agencies to cut by one-third the number of federal 
advisory boards that provide technical advice.

The White House said it aimed to eliminate committees that were no 
longer necessary. Panels cut so far had focused on issues including 
invasive species and electric grid innovation.

At a time when the United States is pulling back from world leadership 
in other areas like human rights or diplomatic accords, experts warn 
that the retreat from science is no less significant. Many of the 
achievements of the past century that helped make the United States an 
envied global power, including gains in life expectancy, lowered air 
pollution and increased farm productivity are the result of the kinds of 
government research now under pressure.

"When we decapitate the government's ability to use science in a 
professional way, that increases the risk that we start making bad 
decisions, that we start missing new public health risks," said Wendy E. 
Wagner, a professor of law at the University of Texas at Austin who 
studies the use of science by policymakers.
[- - -snip - ]
*An Exodus of Expertise*
"In the past, when we had an administration that was not very 
pro-environment, we could still just lay low and do our work," said 
Betsy Smith, a climate scientist with more than 20 years of experience 
at the E.P.A. who in 2017 saw her long-running study of the effects of 
climate change on major ports get canceled.

"Now we feel like the E.P.A. is being run by the fossil fuel industry," 
she said. "It feels like a wholesale attack."

After her project was killed, Dr. Smith resigned.

The loss of experienced scientists can erase years or decades of 
"institutional memory," said Robert J. Kavlock, a toxicologist who 
retired in October 2017 after working at the E.P.A. for 40 years, most 
recently as acting assistant administrator for the agency's Office of 
Research and Development.

His former office, which researches topics like air pollution and 
chemical testing, has lost 250 scientists and technical staff members 
since Mr. Trump came to office, while hiring 124. Those who have 
remained in the office of roughly 1,500 people continue to do their 
work, Dr. Kavlock said, but are not going out of their way to promote 
findings on lightning-rod topics like climate change.

"You can see that they're trying not to ruffle any feathers," Dr. 
Kavlock said.

The same can't be said of Patrick Gonzalez, the National Park Service's 
principal climate change scientist, whose work involves helping national 
parks protect against damages from rising temperatures.

In February, Dr. Gonzalez testified before Congress about the risks of 
global warming, saying he was speaking in his capacity as an associate 
adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also 
using his Berkeley affiliation to participate as a co-author on a coming 
report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United 
Nations body that synthesizes climate science for world leaders.

But in March, shortly after testifying, Dr. Gonzalez's supervisor at the 
National Park Service sent the cease-and-desist letter warning him that 
his Berkeley affiliation was not separate from his government work and 
that his actions were violating agency policy. Dr. Gonzalez said he 
viewed the letter as an attempt to deter him from speaking out.

The Interior Department, asked to comment, said the letter did not 
indicate an intent to sanction Dr. Gonzalez and that he was free to 
speak as a private citizen.

Dr. Gonzalez, with the support of Berkeley, continues to warn about the 
dangers of climate change and work with the United Nations climate 
change panel using his vacation time, and he spoke again to Congress in 
June. "I'd like to provide a positive example for other scientists," he 
said.

Still, he noted that not everyone may be in a position to be similarly 
outspoken. "How many others are not speaking up?" Dr. Gonzalez said.
more at - 
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/climate/trump-administration-war-on-science.html 




[Cost this year]
*Climate crisis linked to at least 15 $1bn-plus disasters in 2019*
Fiona Harvey - Dec 2019
Christian Aid report highlights costs of floods, fires and storms around 
the world

Climate breakdown played a key role in at least 15 events in 2019 that 
cost more than $1bn (760m) in damage, with more than half of those 
costing more than $10bn each.

Extreme weather including floods, storms, droughts and wildfires struck 
every inhabited continent in the past year, causing devastation and loss 
of life. Christian Aid, which tracked climate-related destruction in 
2019, said the costs in human terms and insured losses were likely to 
have been underestimated.

Floods in Argentina and Uruguay in January this year forced 11,000 
people from their homes. Cyclone Idai killed 1,300 people in Zimbabwe, 
Mozambique and Malawi in March, and Cyclone Fani struck India and 
Bangladesh in May and June. A stronger than usual monsoon killed 1,900 
people in India.

Richer countries were also badly affected, with Storm Eberhard hitting 
Europe in March and the typhoons Faxai and Hagibis battering Japan in 
September and October, disrupting the Rugby World Cup. Wildfires laid 
waste to farming areas in California and caused more than $25bn in 
damage, and Hurricane Dorian swept along the US east coast, killing 673 
people.

The study published on Friday was compiled before the full effects of 
the Australian wildfires could be assessed.

Kat Kramer, a co-author of the report and the global climate lead at 
Christian Aid, said time was running out to tackle the climate crisis.
- - -
Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at 
Pennsylvania State University, said: "If anything, 2019 saw even more 
profound extreme weather events around the world than last year, 
including wildfires from the Amazon to the Arctic, and devastating 
out-of-season simultaneous wildfires in California and Australia, winter 
heatwaves and devastating superstorms.

"With each day now, we are seemingly reminded of the cost of climate 
inaction in the form of ever-threatening climate change-spiked weather 
extremes."

Governments failed to make much progress at the UN climate talks in 
Madrid earlier this month, but campaigners hope the public concern and 
activism around the world, as well as reminders of the vast and growing 
economic and social costs of inaction, will act as a spur.

Nations will meet in Glasgow in early November to update their plans 
under the Paris accord, which binds them to take action to ensure global 
temperature rises do not exceed 2C above pre-industrial levels.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/27/climate-crisis-linked-to-at-least-15-1bn-plus-disasters-in-2019


[Down Under]
*Scientists model dynamic feedback loop that fuels the spread of wildfires*
Interaction between rising air, ambient winds determines how quickly a 
fire spreads.
JENNIFER OUELLETTE - 12/28/2019
- - -
Most models currently in use are based on seminal work done back in 1972 
by Richard Rothermel, an aeronautical engineer who developed the first 
quantitative tool for predicting the spread of wildfires. Every kind of 
fuel has an ignition point (also known as a flash point), a measure of 
how much energy is required to ignite that fuel. Rothermel's model 
determined that ignition point, and then factored in wind speed, the 
slope of the ground, and other critical factors to calculate the rate of 
ignition required for a nascent wildfire to spread quickly...
- - -
Linn and his LANL colleagues have drawn on the lessons they've learned 
to develop new computer programs for simulating the spread of wildfires, 
with an aim towards achieving better prevention and more effective 
firefighting strategies. For instance, FIRETEC specifically models a 
fire's interactions with the atmosphere. The user just needs to feed in 
information about the landscape, ignition pattern, and ambient wind 
conditions, and the program will calculate how the fire is likely to 
evolve and spread through that landscape.

Linn et al. are now developing another software program called 
QUIC-FIRE, which will be able to operate on a laptop. It will 
incorporate such variables as weather, terrain, fuels, aerodynamics, 
combustion, turbulence, and heat transfer to help firefighters devise 
the best strategies for implementing prescribed burns...

DOI: Physics Today, 2019. 10.1063/PT.3.4350  (About DOIs).
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/scientists-model-dynamic-feedback-loop-that-fuels-the-spread-of-wildfires/

- - -

[classic 1972 academic paper]
*A MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR PREDICTING FIRE SPREAD IN WILDLAND FUELS*
Richard C. Rothermel
Forest managers as well as those engaged in research involving fires in 
forests, brush fields, and grasslands need a consistent method for 
predicting fire spread and intensity in these fuels. ..
- - -
The development of a mathematical model for predicting rate of fire
spread and intensity applicable to a wide range of wildland fuels is 
presented
from the conceptual stage through evaluation and demonstration of results
to hypothetical fuel models...
- - -
*THE FIRE SPREAD MODEL*
Rate of spread and intensity predicted by the model are based on 
equations (52)
and (27) . These equations had to be modified,however, to accept fuels 
that were
composed of heterogeneous mixtures of fuel types and particle sizes. 
Such fuels as
pine needle litter, grass, brush, and logging slash are the easiest to 
model. Patchy
fuels--accumulations of broken branches, treetops, snags, foliage 
litter, brush, and
other lesser vegetation are more difficult to model because of the 
discontinuous
patterns in which they are found. For the model, however, these various 
size fuels
are assumed to be uniformly distributed within the fuel array. This 
assumption is
especially critical for the fine fuels (foliage and twigs under 114 inch 
in diameter).
It is also assumed that the fuel can be grouped into categories according to
similar properties. For example, there would be one category for living 
fuel and a
second for dead fuel. It is also desirable to have separate categories 
for foliage and
branchwood. Grouping by species is not sufficient because foliage and 
branchwood can
have significant differences in particle properties. A further breakdown 
by size class
is required within these categories if the fuel particles vav greatly in 
size. The
size classes used can be arbitrarily established but should include a 
class for fine
fuels. Experience will show to what extent size class breakdowns are 
necessary. Our
initial work indicates that the larger fuels have a negligible effect on 
fire spread;
thus, these can often be eliminated from consideration...
https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_int/int_rp115.pdf


*
****This Day in Climate History - December  30, 2014 - from D.R. Tucker*
The Washington Post reports:

    "The methane that leaks from 40,000 gas wells near this desert
    trading post may be colorless and odorless, but it's not invisible.
    It can be seen from space.

    "Satellites that sweep over energy-rich northern New Mexico can spot
    the gas as it escapes from drilling rigs, compressors and miles of
    pipeline snaking across the badlands. In the air it forms a giant
    plume: a permanent, Delaware-sized methane cloud, so vast that
    scientists questioned their own data when they first studied it
    three years ago. 'We couldn't be sure that the signal was real,'
    said NASA researcher Christian Frankenberg.

    "The country's biggest methane "hot spot," verified by NASA and
    University of Michigan scientists in October, is only the most
    dramatic example of what scientists describe as a $2 billion leak
    problem: the loss of methane from energy production sites across the
    country. When oil, gas or coal are taken from the ground, a little
    methane -- the main ingredient in natural gas -- often escapes along
    with it, drifting into the atmosphere, where it contributes to the
    warming of the Earth.

    "Methane accounts for about 9 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas
    emissions, and the biggest single source of it -- nearly 30 percent
    -- is the oil and gas industry, government figures show. All told,
    oil and gas producers lose 8 million metric tons of methane a year,
    enough to provide power to every household in the District of
    Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

    "As early as next month, the Obama administration will announce new
    measures to shrink New Mexico's methane cloud while cracking down
    nationally on a phenomenon that officials say erodes tax revenue and
    contributes to climate change. The details are not publicly known,
    but already a fight is shaping up between the White House and
    industry supporters in Congress over how intrusive the restrictions
    will be.

    "Republican leaders who will take control of the Senate next month
    have vowed to block measures that they say could throttle domestic
    energy production at a time when plummeting oil prices are cutting
    deeply into company profits. Industry officials say they have a
    strong financial incentive to curb leaks, and companies are moving
    rapidly to upgrade their equipment.

    "But environmentalists say relatively modest government restrictions
    on gas leaks could reap substantial rewards for taxpayers and the
    planet. Because methane is such a powerful greenhouse gas -- with up
    to 80 times as much heat-trapping potency per pound as carbon
    dioxide over the short term -- the leaks must be controlled if the
    United States is to have any chance of meeting its goals for cutting
    the emissions responsible for climate change, said David Doniger,
    who heads the climate policy program at the Natural Resources
    Defense Council, an environmental group.

    "'This is the most significant, most cost-effective thing the
    administration can do to tackle climate change pollution that it
    hasn't already committed to do,' Doniger said."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/delaware-sized-gas-plume-over-west-illustrates-the-cost-of-leaking-methane/2014/12/29/d34c3e6e-8d1f-11e4-a085-34e9b9f09a58_story.html 


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