Posted on 12/03/2019 7:49:23 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Several groups that often are at odds over environmental rules are on the same side when it comes to easing methane regulations at oil and gas sites.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection joined major oil and gas companies, environmental groups and lawmakers from both parties last week in urging the Trump administration not to go through with its proposal to eliminate methane control requirements from well sites and pipelines across the country.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to roll back rules adopted in 2016 that require companies to identify and stop methane leaks from new and modified oil and gas production, pipeline and storage equipment.
The agency said existing controls on a separate class of chemicals that is also present in oil and gas — called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs — make direct regulation of methane redundant and unnecessary.
The agency is also proposing an alternate rule to exempt the oil and gas storage and transmission sector from both the methane and volatile organic compound regulations.
But major companies that would see restrictions lifted on their operations if EPA finalizes the rule — including Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Equinor and Canonsburg-based Equitrans Midstream — wrote that they want national rules directly targeting methane.
Several of the companies said that easing methane regulations will erode public confidence in natural gas as a cleaner fossil fuel at a time when addressing climate change is an international priority.
Comments on the proposals were due last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Big oil joining with the EPA? big oil doesn’t want any competition..
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Correct. Gotta use the regulations to crush smaller companies.
Seems like it.
I would bet money the great majority of independent producers will be onboard with the Trump administration’s less-regulation approach, while the majors will support the increased regulations of the Obummer administration.
Man I’m not the quickest mind in the room and that’s what I immediately thought.
OK. Not immediately but after like a minute to a minute and a half
Methane burn offs at the well can generate electricity to run your Tesla.
From MIT
http://news.mit.edu/2017/new-way-harness-wasted-methane-1017
Likely they spent a lot of money complying with the Obama-era regs, and now can’t stand to walk away from the ROI.
Oh? Will this forbid them from using existing equipment already in place to keep reducing methane and VOC emissions?
Will the be required to stop recovering VOCs and methane?
Will this force them to release them into the air, just like in the good old days?
Can’t they crush the competition by simply telling the truth, that they aren’t polluting like those upstart whippersnappers are doing?
I discharge methane every day. Women don’t.
Got it in one.
The big boys are in favor of government regulations because it keeps the little guys, who may someday become big guys, out of the field.
The big guys can afford to hire lawyers, lobbyists and paper pushers to deal with regulations. The small guys, who are working on a shoestring budget, can not.
And that’s how it is in every big industry, not just oil. Well said.
In a word, yes. They expect their ROI for investing in all of that stuff should be a competitive advantage.
Just tellin’ yinz how the MBA’s look at these things.
More that one company has been driven out of business by listening to MBAs.
Ironically the only businesses left are the chains that could afford to comply.
We keep a close eye on the township board to make sure they don't get any bright ideas.
This is why Gates, Zuckerberg, Soros, et al., are all mega-leftards. Trump is another matter. Building high-end real estate and country clubs is itself a big business. There are no mom and pop skyscrapers in Manhattan. Mara Lago is unique, and just getting together enough contiguous land for a golf course takes anyone with a shoestring budget out of the running. So the only competition is other big-time developers trying to buy the choice parcels. Regulation is a hindrance, not a help, to a large development, no matter how high your budget is. It’s a license to bureaucratic a$$holes to hint subtly that they want to be paid off.
When Buffet goes and cries about how his secretary pays more in taxes then he does and that is wrong those tear are pure crocodile. He pays the taxes he does because he lobbied and loopholed and paid people to make sure it happens that way. He can put on a show because he knows that this will not change. He won't get hit with a higher bill. The people who work for him will. That will keep them from being able to go out and start up a company that might someday topple his empire.
Even the claim about the secretary is false. She pays a higher rate, because she’s earning wages, but he pays more taxes, albeit at a lower rate because they’re capital gains and not wages. The taxes she pays gives her less disposable income than she would otherwise have, but come to so little money it’s hardly worth the Treasury Department’s notice. But he’s already got accumulated wealth, so he doesn’t need any income at all for the foreseeable future. He just likes making money, and he knows he’ll always be on top because of the power that that money can buy, and his taxes come to a huge percentage of the federal take, even though he himself hardly notices it. So his secretary and he are not even comparable. Like apples and bowling balls.
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