California will launch methane-detecting satellites, Gavin Newsom announces
After making a show of deference to Donald Trump in the wake of deadly Los Angeles County wildfires earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to be back to challenging the federal government on climate change policies.
Newsom announced Friday that his administration will launch satellite-mounted sensors to track emissions of methane, an odorless gas pollutant that is a major contribution to global warming, making good on a promise originally made by former Gov. Jerry Brown.
In 2016, then-Gov. Brown promised that California would “launch its own damn satellite” to track methane emissions after Trump threatened to cut off access to federal climate data. Last year, the California Air Resources Board followed through and launched a satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base, with help from the philanthropic Carbon Mapper Coalition.
In a news release Friday, Newsom said the state is launching the new satellites as the federal Environment Protection Agency, under Lee Zeldin, has rolled back or is considering revoking climate rules that address climate change and pollution levels.
“Decades of progress to protect public health is on the line as the Trump administration works to roll back critical environmental protections,” Newsom said in a statement. “California isn’t having it.”
The satellites will be funded using $100 million from the state’s cap-and-trade program, according to Newsom. While Planet Labs owns the satellites, the state will maintain a database to “coordinate and document” mitigation efforts. It will share the information with local communities for research and educational purposes.
The data culled from the satellites would allow the board to “get ahead of one of the major contributors to what has become an immediate threat to public health and the environment,” CARB chair Liane Randolph said in a statement.
“It also provides an opportunity for California to work with other jurisdictions which want to develop their own, similar satellite methane monitoring and reduction programs.”
