The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally released its proposed substitute for a 2016 Obama administration rule that aimed to step up detection and elimination of methane leaks at well sites and other oil and gas facilities, it conceded the move “may … degrade air quality and adversely affect health and welfare”.
The EPA conceded that relaxing the Obama-era rule for methane leaks at oil and gas sites would put another 380,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere by 2025. The amount is roughly equivalent to more than 30m tons of carbon dioxide, another fossil-fuel emission that receives far more attention in efforts to slow climate change.
Relaxing federal oversight will save $75m in regulatory costs annually, the agency said.
“Once again, the Trump administration is putting the interests of the worst-operated oil and gas companies ahead of the health and welfare of everyday Americans,” said Matt Watson, an associate vice-president at the Environmental Defense Fund.
California governor Jerry Brown told a meeting in San Francisco ahead of a climate conference there that Donald Trump’s proposal to increase methane releases is “insane” and “borders on criminality”.
“It perhaps is the most obvious and dangerous and irresponsible action by Mr Trump and that’s saying quite a lot,” Brown said.
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