Trump Administration Wants to Make It Easier to Release Methane Into Air

[G_j]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/climate/methane-emissions-epa.html

Trump Administration Wants to Make It Easier to Release Methane Into Air

Sept. 10, 2018

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration, taking its third major step this year to roll back federal efforts to fight climate change, is preparing to make it significantly easier for energy companies to release methane into the atmosphere.

Methane, which is among the most powerful greenhouse gases, routinely leaks from oil and gas wells, and energy companies have long said that the rules requiring them to test for emissions were costly and burdensome.

The Environmental Protection Agency, perhaps as soon as this week, plans to make public a proposal to weaken an Obama-era requirement that companies monitor and repair methane leaks, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. In a related move, the Interior Department is also expected in coming days to release its final version of a draft rule, proposed in February, that essentially repeals a restriction on the intentional venting and “flaring,” or burning, of methane from drilling operations.

The new rules follow two regulatory rollbacks this year that, taken together, represent the foundation of the United States’ effort to rein in global warming. In July, the E.P.A. proposed weakening a rule on carbon dioxide pollution from vehicle tailpipes. And in August, the agency proposed replacing the rule on carbon dioxide pollution from coal-fired power plants with a weaker one that would allow far more global-warming emissions to flow unchecked from the nation’s smokestacks.


..more..

(Tell me they aren’t deliberately trying to ruin this beautiful planet.)

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. When a child is told no, he or she acts out, that is what this is.

[G_j]

2. sadly, there seems to be

a lot of truth in that.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Methane is about 40 times more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. . . . nt

[G_j]

5. Yes

While carbon dioxide is typically painted as the bad boy of greenhouse gases, methane in a far more potent as a heat-trapping gas.

[MiniMe]

4. Is he worried about his farts?