EPA proposes updates to reduce methane.

• Position: Landfills - Brief article

As part of Pres. Barack Obama's Climate Action Plan: Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., is proposing updates to its air standards for new municipal solid waste landfills. They would require certain landfills to capture additional landfill gas, which would reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and help reduce pollution further.

Nonhazardous waste from homes, business, and institutions ends up in municipal solid waste landfills, where it decomposes and breaks down to form landfill gas, which includes carbon dioxide, a number of air toxics, and methane. Methane has a global warming potential 25 times that of carbon dioxide.

"Reducing methane emissions is a powerful way to take action on climate change," says administrator Gina McCarthy. "This latest step from the President's methane strategy builds on our progress to date and takes steps to cut emissions from...