{"id":20347,"date":"2019-08-29T13:16:32","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T21:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/epa-aims-to-roll-back-limits-on-methane-emissions-from-oil-and-gas-industry\/"},"modified":"2019-08-29T13:16:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T21:16:32","slug":"epa-aims-to-roll-back-limits-on-methane-emissions-from-oil-and-gas-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/epa-aims-to-roll-back-limits-on-methane-emissions-from-oil-and-gas-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA Aims To Roll Back Limits On Methane Emissions From Oil And Gas Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Merrit Kennedy<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n The Environmental Protection Agency has released a proposed rule that could roll back requirements on detecting and plugging methane leaks at oil and gas facilities.<\/p>\n

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Charlie Riedel\/AP<\/p>\n

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Charlie Riedel\/AP<\/p>\n

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The Trump administration is proposing to slash restrictions on the oil and gas industry for methane emissions, a greenhouse gas that is a powerful driver of climate change.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups are alarmed. “This would be a huge step backward,” said Ben Ratner, a senior director at the Environmental Defense Fund. “It would cause greatly increased pollution and a big missed opportunity to take cost effective immediate action to reduce the rate of warming right now.”<\/p>\n

The Trump administration argues it would save the oil and gas industry $17 million to $19 million annually in compliance costs. But that’s “such a small fraction of the industry total cash flow that it’s just laughable,” says Harvard University’s Steven Wofsy, a professor of atmospheric and environmental science. <\/p>\n

The Trump administration also says it does not anticipate an increase in the level of methane emissions if the proposal is implemented \u2014 but scientists disagree with that assumption. <\/p>\n

Methane powerfully traps heat, and can warm the atmosphere at 25 times the rate of carbon dioxide. According to the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>, the oil and gas industry is the largest source of methane emissions in the U.S. <\/p>\n