"WASHINGTON -- Regional and national environmental and health organizations, joined by sporting and faith-based allies, are asking Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to reduce emissions of methane from the oil and gas industry on both public and private lands, as well as from offshore oil operations."

"In an open letter dated December 5, the 90 signatory organizations invoked President Barack Obama’s June 2013 statement that “curbing emissions of methane is critical to our overall effort to address global climate change,” and recommended three ways to clean up methane emissions and set the nation on a path to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, the President’s stated goal.

Methane CH4 is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas emitted in the United States from human activities. In 2011, methane accounted for about nine percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities."

Environment News Service had the story December 11, 2013. [2]