Tag: methane

Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. • 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. • The U.S. may impose sanctions on Chinese officials over the treatment of Muslims. It would be a rare rebuke of Beijing’s human rights record. • The Trump administration threatened the International Criminal Court with sanctions if it pursued an investigation of American troops in Afghanistan, opening a harsh new attack on an old nemesis of many on the political right. • An analysis by the Education Department has found that its proposed new rules for handling allegations of sexual misconduct on campus would substantially decrease the number of investigations into complaints and save educational institutions millions of dollars over the next decade. Watch us poll voters in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District. Gina Ortiz Jones is a former Air Force intelligence officer who later worked as director in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. He voted against the Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. _____________________ Today’s On Politics briefing was compiled by Emily Baumgaertner in Washington.

It was the day before the Senate was set to vote on a measure to repeal a 2016 Obama administration Interior Department rule limiting methane emissions from gas wells on federal land. The Trump administration is working to replace the Interior Department rule with a weaker alternative, while a lawsuit from the oil industry and some Western states threatens to block implementation of the old rule. Even though Lachelt is not barred from environmental work while holding office, three county residents are seeking to recall her, saying her trip is evidence that she’s “repeatedly leveraged our public office for her private gain.” NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Michigan Lachelt had a long history in the environmental movement before taking office. Dave Peters, one of the residents leading the recall effort, pointed to that environmental work as proof that Lachelt is out of step with her constituents. Well before NASA put the Four Corners’ problem on the map, Lachelt had been raising the alarm about what gas drilling was doing to the Durango area. The agency estimated the rule would cut 175,000 to 180,000 tons of methane per year. The Obama EPA also issued a new regulation in 2016 requiring well operators to monitor and repair leaks for both new and modified natural gas wells and had started to lay the groundwork to regulate existing infrastructure. Peters, one of the three people now leading the recall effort, first filed an ethics complaint against Lachelt last summer after the trip to Washington where she lobbied McCain, arguing that she needed to disclose who was funding the environmental group she also works for. Peters said his “concerns on Lachelt’s bias” have increased amid the fiscal trouble, saying it’s “clear to me that Lachelt’s efforts against the oil and gas industry was compounding the county’s revenue problems.” Peters hadn’t found enough support for a recall until a December meeting on proposed revisions to the county’s land use code, which all three county commissioners backed. Environmentalists say Colorado’s methane rules are proof that regulations don’t have to choke industry.

The Trump administration must start enforcing an Obama administration rule limiting methane leaks from oil and natural gas drilling on federal land, a court ruled. In the late Thursday decision, Judge William Orrick of the District Court for the District of Northern California, granted a preliminary injunction against the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), blocking a November action that tried to delay enforcement of the Obama-era rule for one year. “The BLM’s reasoning behind the Suspension Rule is untethered to evidence contradicting the reasons for implementing the Waste Prevention Rule, and so plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the merits,” Orrick, who was appointed to the bench by former President Obama, wrote in the ruling. “They have shown irreparable injury caused by the waste of publicly owned natural gas, increased air pollution and associated health impacts, and exacerbated climate impacts,” he went on to say. The lawsuit was brought by Democratic states and environmental groups. It required oil and gas drillers on federal and tribal land to take numerous steps to limit emissions of methane, which is the main component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas. Thursday’s ruling was only on the one-year delay, so it does not directly affect the proposed repeal. But Democratic states and environmental groups are likely to sue when the repeal action is made final. The decision is yet another in a series of court losses by the Trump administration in its aggressive drive to repeal, delay or change Obama’s environmental legacy. Last week, another judge ruled that the Energy Department must implement four Obama energy efficiency rules.

More than 80 Democrats have asked the Interior Department not to delay or repeal a rule updating limits on methane leaks from oil and natural drilling sites on federal land. The Interior Department last month proposed delaying implementation of an Obama administration rule to cut down on pollution of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking to hold off on instating the rule until January 2019, and it is reassessing whether the rule should be fully “rescinded or significantly revised” in the meantime. But in a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, 81 House and Senate Democrats said the rule should stay on the books. The group cited methane’s impact on public health and the amount of wasted natural gas producers burn off each year, which leads to the pollution. “We support the BLM’s rule because it prevents the unnecessary waste of a public resource, and makes sure that American taxpayers get fair value in return for commercial use of that public resource,” the group, led by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) wrote. "Protecting the health and safety of the American people is inarguably a core function of government and the rule’s requirements are based on well-reasoned science. Capturing and preventing methane emissions will reduce exposure of hazardous pollutants in our local communities and will provide economic benefits to industry." The oil industry and its supporters have urged the Interior Department to scale back the methane rule, saying it's burdensome, duplicative and could cost jobs throughout the sector.