EDF Applauds the Administration's Steps to Prevent Future Natural Gas Storage Leaks

(Washington D.C., April 1, 2016) Energy Secretary Moniz and Administrator Dominguez of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration today announced a multi-agency task force that will lead a review of the nation’s aging natural gas storage facilities. This step comes in response to the massive four-month leak at the Aliso Canyon storage facility in Los Angeles where a ruptured well spewed nearly 100,000 metric tons of methane pollution into the atmosphere, dislocating and sickening many in the local community.

“Aliso Canyon is the poster child for what happens when dilapidated oil and gas infrastructure meets poor maintenance, weak regulations and lax oversight. This disaster is just one of a series of troubling failures among the 400 other natural gas storage facilities nationwide – some of which that have resulted in loss of life. The safety and environmental impact of leaks at these facilities, particularly for the climate, continues to be enormous.

“We applaud the administration for making this challenge a national priority. This new task force has a crucial opportunity to prevent the next disaster, and to reduce the ongoing, invisible damage caused by leakage from hundreds of these facilities spread all across the country. Now the task force must move swiftly to deliver new standards that address a problem that’s been ignored for far too long.

“The eyes of the world are now open to our global oil and gas methane problem and its unacceptable consequences for human health, safety and the environment. Fortunately, low cost solutions are in hand to cut oil and gas methane pollution by at least 40 percent. But to do the job of getting all operators to play by the same rules requires strong national methane policy that covers all current and future sources.”

                           -Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund