The Boston Globe - 31.08.2019

12
AUGUST 31, 2019

CHRISTOPHER WEYANT

L

eave it to the Trump ad-

ministration to see an

environmental success

as a problem.

Over the last three

decades, a rare climate bright spot

in the United States has been the

nation’s steady reduction in emis-

sions of methane, which accounts

for about 10 percent of America’s

greenhouse gas emissions.

Methane isn’t as well known as

carbon dioxide, the more common

greenhouse gas, and it doesn’t last

for centuries in the atmosphere the

way that CO2 does. But the gas,

which is generated by agriculture,

coal mining, the oil and gas indus-

try, landfills, and other sources,

packs a far stronger planet-warm-

ing punch for the few decades be-

foreitdissipates.

The gas is also the main compo-

nent of natural gas, and that adds

an important economic wrinkle.

Methane that leaks into the atmo-

sphere isn’t just an environmental

threat. It’s also wasted energy.

Since 1990, according to the En-

vironmental Protection Agency, the

nation’s methane emissions have

declined by more than 15 percent,

mostly because of progress reduc-

ing emissions from landfills, coal

mining, and oil and gas operations.

That’s especially notable because

domestic oil and gas production

skyrocketed during the same time

frame.

In other words, the oil and gas

industry can do just fine while also

taking steps to limit its methane

emissions.

What a responsible presidential

administration would do is build

on that progress, while also looking

for ways to tackle methane in the

agricultural sector, where emis-

sions have actually gone up since

1990, according to the EPA.

Instead the Trump administra-

tion, bowing to the demands of

small oil and gas companies, wants

to roll back common-sense regula-

tions that require the companies to

plug leaks, inspect wells and pipe-

lines, and install technology to pre-

vent methane emissions.

Some of the biggest oil and gas

giants, including Exxon, Shell, and

BP, had lobbied to keep the current

rules or even expand them.

Independent producers, though,

say they don’t have the resources of

Big Oil to comply with the regula-

tions. And now the Trump adminis-

tration has taken their side, propos-

ing to eliminate the methane rules.

Those companies will still have

some economic incentive to limit

methane leaks — natural gas is

worth money, after all — but that’s

clearly not enough.

Maybe — hopefully — the

Trump administration will imple-

ment the methane rollback with its

usual incompetence, leaving the

change vulnerable to legal chal-

lenges. In the meantime, the big oil

and gas companies ought to follow

the lead of America’s automakers.

The administration also wants to

eliminate Obama-era rules requir-

ing carmakers to improve mileage

in new vehicles, but auto giants

have said they’ll keep raising mile-

age anyway.

Since methane has economic

value, limiting the amount that is

wasted ought to be just about the

easiest and least controversial cli-

mate policy. But the fact that the

country has managed to cut meth-

ane emissions with no noticeable

economic impact apparently means

nothing to an administration that

seems almost to takes pleasure in

harming the global environment.

A big leap backward

on climate

Editorial

OPINION

READERS’ FORUM

Thursday, around

9 a.m., somewhere

near North Beverly:

a commuter rail

rider’s lament

Editor’s note: This is an edited

version of a letter the writer

sent to Charlie Baker while sit-

ting on a commuter rail train.

Dear Governor,

I am sitting on yet another

broken-down train between

Hamilton and North Beverly

stations. I have ridden this

line for 27 years from my

home in Ipswich to my job in

Boston. For the first 20 years,

issues were surprisingly rare. I

was a huge booster of the sys-

tem. For the last seven years

or so, the line has been unreli-

able. For the last two or three

years, it has been a nightmare.

Not one week of the last

two years has gone by without

a major disruption — broken

trains, signal crossing issues,

major delays, weather prob-

lems (in years past, the trains

ran reliably throughout the

winter).

I own a business in Boston,

and my employees and I rely

on the MBTA to get to work.

My business is a temporary-

employment agency serving,

primarily, the Boston profes-

sional services sector. Our cli-

ents, from Boston Consulting

Group to Massachusetts Gen-

eral Hospital, all rely on the

employees we source for them

to get to work on time. When

our contract employees can’t

get to work, they don’t get

paid. We don’t get paid. The

economy grinds to a halt,

along with all these broken-

down trains.

As I am typing this long e-

mail into my phone, there

have been no updates. It’s

been 25 minutes.

How can we, as a state,

continue to compete in this

global economy if our leader-

ship cannot make transporta-

tion reliable?

I have traveled widely in

my life. I don’t exaggerate

when I say that today’s MBTA

is the worst system I have ever

used. It’s shameful and embar-

rassing. But worst, it is killing

the livelihood for many resi-

dents of our state.

PETER O’CONNOR

Ipswich

T could do much

now to ease

service to

Providence

The editorial suggesting better

rail service to Providence

(“Providence might be divine,

but the trip takes too long,”

Aug. 28) is right on target: The

trip takes too long, and the

Massachusetts Bay Transpor-

tation Authority could take

small steps to make it much

faster and more frequent.

The MBTA should pur-

chase electric multiple units

for the line (basically beefed-

up subway cars, with faster ac-

celeration and a higher top

speed than today’s commuter

rail) to reduce scheduled trav-

el times between Boston and

Providence without cutting

service to stops in between.

Faster service would mean

the same number of trains

could make more trips every

day. In the short term, the T

should run hourly service to

Providence during the midday

and more frequent service on

weekends (especially Sundays,

when the earliest train from

Providence to Boston doesn’t

arrive until after noon).

However, characterizing

level-boarding platforms as a

“long-term change” misses the

point. It would take focus, but

the MBTA should be able to

upgrade the Providence Line’s

stations within a matter of

years, not decades, using stan-

dardized designs to save time

and money. The time to start

is now.

ARI OFSEVIT

Cambridge

The writer is a member of

the board of TransitMatters.

For commuters

west of Boston, it’s

the land of missed

opportunity

As I read your editorial about

establishing better rail service

between Providence and Bos-

ton, I wondered when the

Globe, as well as Governor

Baker, will turn their eyes west

to the second-largest city in

New England, a mere 40 miles

down the Mass. Pike — to

Worcester.

We relocated to Worcester

County, from Pennsylvania,

for its affordable homes and

quaint towns, with the prom-

ise of a commuter rail to get us

to work in Boston. After one

month of 90- to 120-minute

commutes by rail from the

Grafton station, we opted to

get up at 4 a.m. and drive.

My husband is still making

those drives, and I’m retired.

In the meantime, I haven’t

even visited Boston in years

because of the hassle of sitting

on the Pike and the lack of ex-

press trains. What a shame. I

hear it is a lovely city. So close

yet so far.

CYNTHIA ROBINOV

North Grafton

Mass., Maryland

governors are not

great models of

transit leadership

In their jointly written op-ed

(“Governors tackle transporta-

tion bottlenecks,” Aug. 27),

Massachusetts Governor

Charlie Baker and Maryland

Governor Larry Hogan indi-

cate that they understand the

transportation woes of their

constituents. But neither has

done much about it. Baker,

under a mantra of “reform,

not revenue,” has implement-

ed fare hikes amid worsening

service and pursued privatiza-

tion in lieu of public invest-

ment. Hogan faced a civil

rights lawsuit for killing a de-

cades-long subway expansion

project that would have bene-

fited communities of color in

Baltimore, and abides by the

long-refuted view that widen-

ing highways will decrease

traffic.

Massachusetts and Mary-

land have a lot in common.

Both are affluent, coastal

states home to large Demo-

cratic legislative supermajori-

ties and Republican gover-

nors. Boston and Baltimore

even have the same share of

their respective states’ popula-

tions. But both states also suf-

fer from a bipartisan political

aversion to raising taxes on

the state’s wealthy populations

and to investing in infrastruc-

ture to the degree required.

Our subway cars might still be

from the 1980s, but that

doesn’t mean our economic

policies should be.

JONATHAN COHN

Boston

All roads lead to...

well, that’s the issue

CRAIG F. WALKER/GLOBE STAFF

Commuters arrive during the morning rush at South Station on July 24.

The United States has cut emissions of

methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, by 15

percent since 1990. But the Trump

administration wants to roll back regulations

for the sake of small oil and gas companies.

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