{"id":71790,"date":"2017-03-06T17:34:18","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T00:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blm-finalizes-rule-to-reduce-methane-waste\/"},"modified":"2017-03-07T00:34:18","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T00:34:18","slug":"blm-finalizes-rule-to-reduce-methane-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blm-finalizes-rule-to-reduce-methane-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"BLM finalizes rule to reduce methane waste"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Bureau of Land Management on Tuesday issued a rule to reduce methane waste on federal and tribal lands.<\/span>Versevend\/iStockphoto file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The<\/p>\n

Under the new policy<\/a>, developed over several years, about 175,000 to 180,000 tons of \u201cfugitive\u201d methane will be captured annually.<\/p>\n

The San Juan Basin contains some 40,000 oil and gas wells, about 3,300 of which are within La Plata County, many on public and tribal lands.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt campaigned for the rule\u2019s passage, visiting Washington, D.C., in April to testify before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so pleased to see BLM following Colorado\u2019s lead with these final rules,\u201d said Lachelt, who in 2014 was appointed to head Gov. John Hickenlooper\u2019s task force to address the issue of local regulations on oil and gas production.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Colorado, we have been at the forefront of the push to save our domestic energy resources and protect our taxpayers, so we can address our air quality issues, but we can\u2019t do it alone. BLM\u2019s final rule is a win for taxpayers, the environment and our economy. States, tribes and federal taxpayers are losing as much as $23 million annually in royalty revenues when natural gas is wasted, but now that revenue can be turned to protecting our public infrastructure like schools, roads and bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new policy will update a 30-year-old set of rules that regulates venting, flaring and leaking on production sites that total 41 billion cubic feet per year in wasted natural gas, amounting to as much as $23 million in lost royalties, the BLM estimates.<\/p>\n

It will take effect in phases, requiring production companies to monitor leaks, cut flaring and upgrade infrastructure \u2013 tasks proponents say will create jobs. But the adjustment is not expected to be a leap in Colorado, where in 2014, the state became the first in the U.S. to pass regulations on methane emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis rule to prevent waste of our nation\u2019s natural gas supplies is good government, plain and simple,\u201d U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said in a news release. \u201cWe are proving that we can cut harmful methane emissions that contribute to climate change, while putting in place standards that make good economic sense for the nation. Not only will we save more natural gas to power our nation, but we will modernize decades-old standards to keep pace with industry and to ensure a fair return to the American taxpayers for use of a valuable resource that belongs to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s announcement came as a victory for environmentalists and health advocates across the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cSitting, as we do, under the highest concentrations of methane emissions in the nation, residents of the Four Corners are uniquely appreciative of the administration\u2019s efforts to curb excessive methane emissions,\u201d said Dan Olson, executive director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance<\/a>, in a prepared statement. \u201cThis rule will not only save money and resources, but will protect the climate and the health of local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, some energy industry groups say the rule is beyond the BLM\u2019s scope of power. On the heels of the rule\u2019s finalization, the Western Energy Alliance<\/a> and Independent Petroleum Association of America<\/a> filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Wyoming, arguing that companies already mind air quality through Environmental Protection Agency regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support the goals of capturing greater quantities of associated gas and reducing gas waste, but overreaching regulation that fails to acknowledge industry success is not the most effective way to meet those goals,\u201d Western Energy Alliance Vice President of Government and Public Affairs Kathleen Sgamma said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Josh Mantell, carbon management campaign manager for The Wilderness Society<\/a>, said in a Tuesday news conference that under the Mineral Leasing Act, the BLM is obligated to impose such regulations and doubted the industry\u2019s litigation will get far.<\/p>\n

The rule is among the last of the Obama administration\u2019s to address climate change, and on a long list of regulations and executive orders environmentalists fear the Donald Trump presidency will undo. The president-elect has vowed to deregulate the energy industry, but advocates remain optimistic, citing bipartisan support for the rule among lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s too soon to say what they may or may not do,\u201d Jon Goldstein, senior energy policy manager of the Environmental Defense Fund<\/a>, said of the president-elect\u2019s administration. \u201cAt the end of the day, this rule has tremendous support across the West. It\u2019s a rule on the bedrock of what fiscal conservatives are about: It reduces government waste and protects taxpayers. It makes sense through the lenses that are important to folks on that side of the spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n

jpace@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Lawsuit Against BLM (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Advocates question Trump\u2019s climate regulation plans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3369,21,781,13,221,4826,195],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-71790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coal-bed-methane","tag-cortez","tag-environmental-politics","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gas-and-oil","tag-gwen-lachelt","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71790"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=71790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}