News
After Fighting Back a Landfill Expansion, Houston Residents Await EPA Consideration of Stricter Methane Regulations
Environmental groups said the rule revisions constitute “low hanging fruit” to lower emissions of the potent greenhouse gas, which would benefit both neighbors and the climate.
By Keaton Peters
When the Hawthorne Park Landfill opened in 1977, it transformed everyday life for residents of Carverdale, a historically Black neighborhood in northwest Houston. Myra Jefferson has seen pests and roaches from the dump multiply over the decades and remembers yellow dust from the rot sticking to everything.
Related Knowledge Center: Methane
State of Play
As the production of natural gas from shale fields has expanded, so have methane emissions. U.S. methane emissions grew 27 percent from 1990 to 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration. Methane contributes about 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.