U.S. epa names unchecked methane emissions from landfills as top priority for enforcement

The U.S. EPA announced its enforcement priorities for the next four years - 2024-2027 - today, and landfills made the top of the list, as a major source of unchecked methane emissions. The EPA press release states, in part:

“Mitigating Climate Change - Tackling the climate crisis is an urgent priority. EPA will use its enforcement and compliance tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, helping to limit the worst effects of climate change. The initiative will focus on three separate and significant contributors to climate change: (1) methane emissions from oil and gas facilities; (2) methane emissions from landfills; and (3) the use, importation, and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). EPA has documented widespread noncompliance in all three of these areas, resulting in potentially tens of thousands of tons of unlawful emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. This initiative will help achieve EPA’s goals to combat climate change while also addressing significant noncompliance in specific industry sectors.”

There are hundreds of industries and priorities for the U.S. EPA to choose from - the fact that landfills made the top of the list is a major indicator that landfill emissions need to be better mitigated. it’s good news that the EPA will focus its limited resources on checking up on landfills and identifying methane leaks - and the next move it should make is to update its Clean Air Act regulations, the New Source Performance Standards and Emission Guidelines, for municipal solid waste landfills, so that landfills never emit those potent emissions in the first place.