Interior Guts BLM Methane Waste Rule

[PHILADELPHIA, PA – September 18, 2018] Today, U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced a final rule effectively gutting methane pollution standards for natural gas facilities on public and tribal lands.  The move eviscerates an Obama-era rule designed to reduce natural gas from venting, flaring, and leaking at oil and gas operations. The original version, adopted in 2016, would have lowered greenhouse gas emissions, improved air quality and the health of residents living near operations, and saved $33 million in tax revenue that would have otherwise been lost entirely (according to estimates by the Bureau of Land Management).  

Before 2016, these standards had not been updated for over three decades, and the impact of rolling them back will not be limited to the Western States.  Pennsylvania is home to almost 10,000 acres of federal land leased for oil and gas operations, nearly 5,000 of which are producing acres.

Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director and Chief Counsel of Clean Air Council, issued the following statement:

“Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has chosen to steamroll impacted communities, the American public, and bipartisan opposition in Congress by gutting the BLM methane waste rule.  Zinke’s decision threatens public health, exacerbates threats to our climate, and takes revenue away from taxpayers. In Pennsylvania, this will affect the nearly 10,000 acres of federal land leased for oil and gas development, essentially guaranteeing additional methane pollution from gas infrastructure there.  This action only emphasizes the need for continued state-level leadership to cut methane, like we saw from Governor Wolf this year when he finalized methane permits for new and modified sources. This rollback also calls into serious question the role natural gas can play in an increasingly competitive energy landscape, where a premium is placed on both economic efficiency and environmental outcomes.”  

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