Last week, Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to roll back regulations on methane gas emissions resulting from its the production and transportation. Methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas problem than carbon dioxide, and technologies like hydraulic fracturing aimed a producing more natural gas have also created opportunities for methane to leak into the atmosphere. In 2016, the Obama Administration issued regulations for the oil and natural gas industries to limit methane leakage in production and transportation, The regulations were actually embraced by most natural gas producers, because the regulations were aimed at the worst polluters and made economic sense to capture leaked methane gas which would be sold. Of course, the fact that the rules were instituted under President Obama made it a target for Trump's vindictive and envious action.
As to the EPA's proposed roll back, the gas industry is divided, with the biggest polluters happy with the proposed rules. It's also a small gift to Trump's coal country bitter enders, who could point to competing natural gas and claim inaccurately that methane leaks level the playing field with coal burning. The proposed regulations will be open for public comment for 60 days and the EPA will hold public hearings. As an editorial in today's Washington Post observed:
"The EPA’s proposal would substantially weaken the Obama-era rules and keep natural gas’s reputation tarnished — all to save the industry a mere $17 million to $19 million a year. It is counterproductive in every conceivable sense."(photo: A natural gas well in Pennsylvania. Via Ars Technica)
