More methane please

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

And the last one: EPA halts Obama-era rule on methane pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has halted an Obama administration rule to cut down on pollution of methane, a greenhouse gas produced at oil and natural gas drilling wells.

The EPA on Wednesday said it had issued a 90-day stay of agency rules designed to limit methane leaks at drilling sites, as well as rules setting standards for equipment and employee certification.

President Trump ordered the EPA to reconsider the methane standards in March when he signed an executive order to repeal several Obama administration climate regulations.

Let’s just go ahead and trash the climate. What difference does climate make anyway? If you don’t like the one you live in, just move to somewhere else!

The decision to roll back its methane standards comes as Canada begins the process of tightening its standards. Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced their methane reduction strategies together in 2016.

Environmental groups have said they will sue over the decision to reconsider the methane rules. In a Wednesday statement, the Natural Resources Defense Council said the Trump administration is “giving its friends in the oil and gas industry a free pass to continue polluting our air.”

Oh stop whining. We can always wear gas masks.

Comments

3 responses to “More methane please”

  1. Omar Avatar
    Omar

    From the Groan:

    China and the EU will forge an alliance to take a leading role in tackling global warming in response to Donald Trump’s expected decision to pull the US out of the historic Paris agreement.

    Amid growing fears that the US will soon join Nicaragua and Syria on the small list of countries refusing to back the climate accord signed in 2015, Beijing and Brussels have been preparing to announce their intention to accelerate joint efforts to reduce global carbon emissions.

    Trump is reportedly poised to pull out of Paris – prompting murmurings that the world would be better off without American involvement

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/31/china-eu-climate-lead-paris-agreement

    This is a major quackthrough for the Ostrich School of Climatology, with Donald Trump making a clear bid for global leadership of it.

    Probably the greatest quackthrough since the Emperor Nero provided musical accompaniment to the burning of Rome. It’s that big.

    It’s that big a tradition of quackery that Trump is now making a big leadership bid for.

    Yes, It’s big. Oh yeah. Huge.

    Really big.

  2. Jeff Engel Avatar
    Jeff Engel

    Well. Given that civilized countries are having to reduce economic growth more than they would otherwise in order to compensate for American failure to be adults, it would be entirely fair for them to put tariffs on U.S products to help make up for that.

    As an American, I don’t care for that, but I can’t contest the fairness and maybe THAT would make the Toddler in Chief wake up.

  3. iknklast Avatar
    iknklast

    Environmental groups have said they will sue over the decision to reconsider the methane rules

    Now we have incentive for Trump to fill all the vacancies on the various federal courts. And for the Senate to suspend rules that allow Democratic Senators to vote on confirmation, so they can make sure no one puts a stop to any of it…

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