A group of progressive senators have in a letter to federal regulators on Monday said that certified natural gas – or methane gas that is purportedly produced in a low-emissions manner – is a “dangerous greenwashing scheme”.
The letter, which was addressed to Federal Trade Commission chair, Lina Khan, comes as the agency prepares to release its updated Green Guides, which clarify when companies’ marketing claims around sustainability violate federal laws barring consumer deception, giving regulators stronger legal cases against polluters.
Those guidelines should “crack down” on claims made by gas certification programs, the lawmakers, led by Massachusetts’s Ed Markey, wrote.
“The reality is that gas certification schemes allow the oil and gas industry to justify the continued expansion of methane gas use and undermine efforts towards a just transition to renewables,” the senators said in the letter,
It was also signed by the senators Jeff Merkley, Sheldon Whitehouse, Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker.
The gas sector has long branded itself as climate-friendly, noting that when burned, the fuel generates less planet-heating carbon dioxide than other fossil fuels. But gas – called “natural gas” by fossil fuel interests – is made of methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more planet-heating than carbon dioxide in the short term. Some research even indicates the fuel is worse for the climate than coal.
Amid increasing public concern about gas usage and the climate crisis, a new industry of third-party gas “certifiers” has cropped up. These companies develop standards that they use to proclaim that certain producers are reducing emissions from their fracking wells, pipelines and storage facilities, and therefore generating gas sustainably.
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The companies can then deem certain gas “certified”, “responsibly produced” or “differentiated”, allowing producers to sell it at a premium, according to the letter. Utilities in New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Michigan and Virginia have purchased certified natural gas and plan to pass on the additional costs to customers, the non-profit watchdog organization Revolving Door Project found last year.
“Those same consumers are still exposed to hazardous air pollution from burning gas in their homes, and combusting that gas is still contributing to the climate crisis,” said Hannah Story Brown, senior researcher at Revolving Door Project.
The senators are now demanding an FTC investigation into gas certification processes. They also call for the agency to issue guidance for third-party natural gas certification regimes in its revised Green Guides, which are set to be released this year.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
