Rebounding energy sector stakeholders may encounter difficulties under the new Bureau of Land Management (BLM) methane ruling, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said.
The institute is concerned with about it perceives as red tape in the regulation.
The U.S. Senate recently voted down the potential nullification of a BLM ruling regulating methane waste in spite of the House having voted in favor of repeal in February. The rule, issued in November 2016, was designed to modernize the regulation of natural gas venting, flaring and leaks, as well as curb waste.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data released in March that indicated a 28 percent drop in methane emissions nationwide since 1990 and raised questions about the relevance of existing law.
“America’s natural gas and oil industry supports commonsense regulation, but the BLM’s technically flawed rule on methane emissions is an unnecessary and costly misstep,” Erik Milito, API’s Upstream and Industry Operations Group director, said in a press release. “The rule could impede U.S. energy production while reducing local and federal government revenues.”
Milito said that technological innovation, not duplication, is the driver of success for the industry and that BLM’s rule is redundant and faulty, overlaps existing EPA standards and could decrease productivity on federal lands already adversely impacted by lowered gas production.
The BLM is a division of the Department of the Interior.
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