In discussions about climate change we talk a lot about carbon dioxide, and with good reason. But did you know that per molecule, methane actually traps more atmospheric heat than CO2? This week on Sea Change Radio, we are speaking with Jon Goldstein of the Environment Defense Fund to learn about the fight to regulate and reduce methane emissions. We look at data from his organization’s recent nationwide survey on oil and gas-related emissions, discuss potential benefits from the methane provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, and get an update on efforts to address leakage from old, abandoned oil wells.

00:02 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

00:21 Jon Goldstein (JG) - Senators like Ben Ray Lujan from New Mexico and Senator Cramer from North Dakota saw this problem, and were successful in getting in to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Millions of dollars from the federal government to states to get these wells plugged. And so that's work that's going on right now is creating jobs in these communities cleaning up a source of pollution that have been sitting out there for far too long?

00:50 Narrator - In discussions about climate change we talk a lot about carbon dioxide, and with good reason. But did you know that per molecule, methane actually traps more atmospheric heat than CO2? This week on Sea Change Radio, we are speaking with Jon Goldstein of the Environment Defense Fund to learn about the fight to regulate and reduce methane emissions. We look at data from his organization’s recent nationwide survey on oil and gas-related emissions, discuss potential benefits from the methane provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, and get an update on efforts to address leakage from old, abandoned oil wells.

01:47 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Jon Goldstein. He's the senior director of legislative and regulatory affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund, the EDF. Jon, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

01:58 Jon Goldstein (JG) - Thank you for having me. Great to be here.

02:01 Alex Wise (AW) - So you and your team have been focusing a lot on methane emissions and tasked with trying to support regulations that will reduce methane emissions, EDF action and some of your partners just came out with a pretty wide-ranging poll in terms of geography, some pretty encouraging. Why don't you share them with our list?

02:25 JG - Happy to, so yeah. So I work on reducing methane emissions from oil and gas development and that's important because it's such a powerful greenhouse gas. You know more than 80 times more powerful pound per pound than carbon dioxide in driving climate change in the short term. It's also the primary component of. Natural gas, so you know methane when you stop a you're doing good for the climate and you're keeping more energy in in the pipe and you know, so it's kind of a win-win and I think that's reflected in this polling. Just did that shows really strong. Support for the efforts that the Biden administration, through the Environmental Protection Agency, are taking to try and get regulations in place nationwide to reduce methane pollution from oil and gas development. So what this poll found was that 68% of voters. Across battleground states. So these are places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, you know the states that are you're going to be watching on election night and seeing, you know, who's going to win that that presidential election. 68% of voters in those states support the EPA's proposal to put strong limits on oil and gas pollution, and that's, I think, really interesting. We know a lot. We hear a lot about you. Know how divisive? Certain environmental issues are, and you know the  tripwires that they can cause with voters. The methane issue is one that we really see strong bipartisan support for, and that's I think again, because of, you know, its climate benefits and the fact that, you know, you,