
EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas - julienchastang
https://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-to-rescind-methane-regulations-for-oil-and-gas-11597051802
======
makerofspoons
Dr. Peter Carter, an IPCC expert reviewer, provides one of the most concise
and sobering summaries of the trajectory of our planet as methane and carbon
emissions continue to rise:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa13KrOvE2s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa13KrOvE2s)

It's one of the first things I think about when I read articles like this that
demonstrate that not only are the powers that be not taking climate change
seriously, they are actively accelerating it for profit.

~~~
asdff
If you are one of the powers that be, and probably are of the ruling
generation with 20-40 years left to live, why wouldn't you accelerate your
gain? These people in positions of power don't care about the long term,
because they will be dead by then, but will be able to realize that short term
gain in their limited lifetime.

The only way to tackle climate change is to force politicians to sell all
private assets and ban them from anything but investing in an index fund for
the remainder of their life. Harsh, but public servants should really hold
that name literally in my opinion. The science and engineering on climate
change has been solved for decades. Whether or not we act in time is a
political question, not a technical one.

~~~
rektide
I like your desire to restrain politician's incentives, & watching folks like
Joe Biden takes these kind of steps (selling all his stocks thirty years ago)
is a good thing to do.

At the same time it seems wholly insufficient. Whether Betsy DeVos has stocks
is not really that relevant, when she still is going to act on behalf of her
ultra-rich clan & other extremely well-monied interests.

I'm all for raising standards but I think there's a huge continent of
politician who exist only to be bad guys, & some large large amount of people
seem to love them for their wretchedness.

------
Reason077
Isn’t the name “EPA” increasingly inaccurate?

Shouldn’t it now be called something like the _Oil & Gas Promotion Agency_
(OGPA)?

~~~
refurb
The EPA seemed to do a poor job even under the Obama administration.

[https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2015/08/10/431223703...](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2015/08/10/431223703/epa-says-it-released-3-million-gallons-of-
contaminated-water-into-river)

~~~
syspec
Furthering their original point

------
eisa01
This will be interesting for the LNG exports to Europe

The EU commission is looking at associated methane emissions from natural gas
imports, so there is a risk that the US may very well shut off their access to
EU markets, or be subject to taxation or similar

[https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/commission-open-views-
methane...](https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/commission-open-views-methane-
strategy-2020-jul-08_en)

------
spaetzleesser
It’s very hard to understand why the current administration has such an urge
to roll back environmental regulations. I grew up in a time when rivers were
red or green depending on what type of leather the factory upstream was
processing at the time. The only fish you could see were dead. Breathing in
cities was hard. Environmental regulation is a big success story that improved
the lives of countless people while companies could still make enormous
profits. Why try to roll that back? If anything we should get even more clean.

~~~
outworlder
> It’s very hard to understand why the current administration has such an urge
> to roll back environmental regulations.

No, it's very easy. Environmental regulations cost money. Lots of money. It's
much more profitable to keep these externalities.

~~~
Reason077
> _”Environmental regulations cost money. Lots of money.”_

That’s a narrow-minded view. Sure, environmental regulations cost _oil and gas
companies_ money.

But this fails to consider the external costs to society: increased healthcare
costs and reduced life expectancy due to air and water pollution, future costs
of global heating including property damage to coastal cities from rising sea
levels, agricultural regions becoming less productive, etc.

Secondly, reducing dependence on fossil fuels (many of which are imported,
even in America) will improve energy security and reduce energy costs in the
long term. Great economic benefits, as well as environmental ones.

~~~
Finnucane
Sure, but oil companies have the narrow view. External costs to society: they
care not. Any cost they can pass on to you, they will.

~~~
jandrese
Those long term costs will be a political disadvantage for liberals, as they
will give the GOP plenty of talking points about how they want to take away
good honest coal mining jobs. This is the long game in action. Force liberals
to make the hard decisions to save the planet, then completely own them with
propaganda about those decisions.

It's a winning strategy. Not only in the US, but across most of the Anglo
sphere. As an added bonus it provides huge payoffs to billionaires at the cost
of the poor and middle class.

~~~
Reason077
_”Not only in the US, but across most of the Anglo sphere.”_

Not in the UK. Coal use has plummeted by 84% in 5 years (84 million tonnes in
2014 to 8 million tonnes in 2019), while renewable energy has been hugely
expanded. All under “right wing” (Conservative) governments.

[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/09/is-
this-...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/09/is-this-the-end-
for-king-coal-in-britain)

~~~
jandrese
Coal use has collapsed in the US too entirely for economic reasons, but it
doesn't stop the politicians from making ads about how liberals are coming for
your jobs because they hate your way of life and airing them constantly in
rural areas.

~~~
mywittyname
The Right was smart to latch onto coal. It will never come back, so they can
complain about it forever. We all know that they love to sell nostalgia.

And their target demographic isn't too interested in facts, so they'll never
learn the reality that it was deregulation lead to a natural gas boom, which
lead to the free market dealing the death blow to coal. So they can keep
selling evil job killing regulations as the reason for the decline of
everything great in this country.

Renewables get the headlines, but those coal plants are mostly being replaced
with natural gas ones. The media reports "renewables overtake coal for the
first time," which gives the false impression that solar and wind are
displacing coal. But that's not what's really happening, which is that those
former coal plants now burn natural gas because it's cheaper.

~~~
Reason077
> _" Renewables get the headlines, but those coal plants are mostly being
> replaced with natural gas ones."_

Not true in the UK. Natural gas use has also declined, albeit only slightly,
in recent years. There has also been a net loss of capacity in the past decade
as more old NG plants have closed than new ones built.

Meanwhile, coal, which produced 42% of all UK electricity as recently as 2012,
has almost gone to zero while renewables (the bulk of which is offshore wind)
are at 37% - and growing every year.

~~~
mywittyname
Sorry, I thought it was clear that my comments were specific to the USA, where
103 out of 121 coal plants decommissioned since 2011 have been replaced with
natural gas plants.

[https://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/Natural-Gas-Has-Replaced-
Ov...](https://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/Natural-Gas-Has-Replaced-Over-100-US-
Coal-Plants-In-The-Last-Decade.html)

------
agentultra
I guess the best way to put out a fire is to add more fire.

Methane is way worse as a greenhouse gas.

------
neonate
[https://archive.is/ixNen](https://archive.is/ixNen)

------
microcolonel
Does anyone have a link to an actual writeup of _which_ of these regulations
are being rescinded? It's not clear from what's visible publicly on this WSJ
article to a non-subscriber.

------
mas3god
Reading this after a megastorm just blew through my town in iowa

~~~
zentiggr
I'm in Moline and about to have our turn.

------
yalogin
Not trying to make a political statement here but more about people and what
they care about in general. Its amazing to me that trump's support is still at
40-45% in the country.

The people living in the same country can see things unfolding in front of
their eyes and make completely different decisions on them is fascinating to
me.

When I talk to my friends who are staunch trump supporters, they give me some
fox news platitudes about him and Biden. But when I talk about individual
issues and the things he has done all of them agree that its bad or really
bad. I went down the list about 20-25 of them and did not get a single
pushback. However they still vote for him. The human mind is a fascinating and
complicated thing.

~~~
sonotathrowaway
How many of those things materially hurt them in the short term? I assume most
conservatives don’t care about an issue unless they themselves are going to
affected by it in the immediate term.

~~~
asdff
>I assume most conservatives don’t care about an issue unless they themselves
are going to affected by it in the immediate term

Unless that issue that doesn't affect these conservatives at all has something
to do with what a woman can do with her body, or having a different skin tone,
or worshiping a different god, that is. Rules for thee but not for me is
practically a tenet of conservatism.

------
metta2uall
The majority of politicians and voters didn't do enough to heed scientific
warnings & prepare for an upcoming pandemic.. Similarly, we are not doing
enough to mitigate climate change. Unfortunately the consequences will likely
be much worse if we don't learn the lesson quickly..

------
xnx
Reminder that your "regulations" are often my "protections".

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aaron695
When we/you choose lockdown this is what you choose.

And it's only just beginning.

This is going to get boring real quick, complaints should have been in April
or even January.

Environment/disability/healthcare will all be cut and stay cut for years no
mater who is in charge.

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euroderf
Terraforming: 80% complete...

------
throwaway5752
I suggest changing the headline to "outgoing administration continues to
sabotage government for next administration as popularity continues to decline
during incompetent response to viral pandemic".

Another example of something that was so important they waited until less than
3 months before the election to do it. It hardly needs saying, but this is
devastatingly bad environmental and climate policy.

~~~
xeromal
Clearly this whole situation is political but I'd make 2 points.

1\. You might be surprised at the election outcome. 2\. The headline is based
on the article, not what people think it should be.

~~~
JKCalhoun
I can only have my confidence in the U.S. voting public renewed or absolutely
shattered this November.

~~~
jfengel
Even the outcome I would prefer isn't going to come anywhere near renewing my
confidence. If it happens at all, it will only because a catastrophe made the
incumbent's incompetence affect some of his supporters directly -- many of
whom will still, in fact, remain supporters.

Even before that, enormous numbers of people were harmed, but they weren't
among his supporters. Indeed, for them, the negative outcomes were the desired
effect. Even if they lose in the fall, they will continue to prefer to insult,
harass, and even defend murder if it's of the people they don't like.

November won't even begin to fix what's wrong. It began long before 2016, and
my biggest fear will be that come 2024 they'll elect somebody who is not only
hateful, but also competent, and not saddled with a crisis immediately before
the election.

~~~
JKCalhoun
November will not fix what's wrong, it will _begin_ to fix what's wrong.

~~~
mrguyorama
It will prevent further backsliding. It would take 20 years or more of
significant effort to undo all the damage caused. Look at the ramifications of
other "bad" presidents.

This comment works for both sides of the political game, even though I only
believe it works for one

------
chrisgd
Trump is like a caricature of anarchy capitalism

------
natch
>It’s very hard to understand why

As republican former secretary of the interior James Watt put it, “Why worry
about the environment when the second coming is at hand?”

~~~
busterarm
That's not even close to the Republican mainstream now though.

The "Christian Right" is a relic that died during the first Dubya
administration.

It's nothing more than a boogeyman for progressives now.

~~~
tmpz22
Then why is DT still talking about how biden is an ungodly man who is going
to, and this is an exact quote, "hurt god".

~~~
busterarm
He's a 74 year old speaking to other 70+ year olds there.

Talk to some younger Republicans, even Christian ones, who aren't in your
social filter bubble.

The whole Falwell family has long been disgraced and ignored.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Majority#1988](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Majority#1988)
If you scroll down and do some followup reading you'll see that his plans to
revive the organization failed miserably.

~~~
AlexandrB
Have you looked at who's in power lately? There are a lot of ~70 year olds in
the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. It seems relevant what they
think.

~~~
busterarm
Have you looked at the demographics around COVID-19 deaths?

They'll all be gone soon enough.

------
vkou
Edit: I stand corrected.

~~~
matthewdgreen
Biden's website lists as his plan: "Requiring aggressive methane pollution
limits for new and existing oil and gas operations."
[https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/](https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/)

~~~
LatteLazy
I read the first half and it seems very weak to me. The only actual climate
point is unspecified executive orders and a plan to get carbon neutral by 2050
(about 40 years too late and we'll after the end of his 5th term assuming he
does that well).

After that, it's road and bridge building and protecting communities of
colour.

What will Democrats (this needs to come from Congress, the presidency is
basically powerless to make real change here) actually do?

(edit, finished reading, just more about unspecified investment, workers
rights, and unmatched American innovation).

