INTERIOR/OBAMA ADMIN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration said Monday [2-12-18] that it is proposing to roll back an Obama-era climate regulation aimed at cutting emissions of methane from drilling operations on federal lands.
The Bureau of Land Management, an arm of the Interior Department, announced it wants to replace a regulation issued by former President Barack Obama that would limit the amount of gas released into the air at the drilling sites, often through venting or burning it off.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and efforts to cut its frequent emissions from oil and gas drilling are seen as a way to help combat global warming. Republicans in Congress last year attempted to reverse the rule, but their efforts were rejected in the Senate. The Trump administration’s proposal would virtually eliminate the rule, replacing it with requirements similar to those in force before the Obama administration’s guidelines were issued just days after Donald Trump won the 2016 election. The new proposal would be subject to 60 days of public comment before it is finalized.
The department has tried to delay the rules’ requirements until 2019—a decision that is being challenged in court—and this updated plan would replace them. The Obama administration had underestimated the rule’s economic impact, the bureau said in its announcement. It also said the Obama rule duplicates provisions from several pre-existing state and federal protections… The American Petroleum Institute, an industry lobby group that has previously said the rule wasn’t needed, cheered the bureau’s announcement.”
-Timothy Puko, “Trump Administration Plans to Undo Methane-Emission Rule,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 12, 2018 08:51pm