Trump drastically rolls back oil and gas methane rules

Emissions spew from a large stack at the coal-fired Brandon Shores Power Plant on March 9, 2018, in Baltimore, Maryland. MARK WILSON / AFP US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday, October 28, a sweeping rollback of rules that prevent oil and gas producers from emitting methane, a superpollutant greenhouse gas. Trump announced the move at a rally supporting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who faces a tough battle for a US Senate seat in November 3 midterm elections.

Republican Trump's Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, put the regulations in place. "Tonight, I'm officially terminating Biden's expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45 billion," Trump said at the rally in Lubbock, Texas. To cheers from the crowd, Trump added that the move would "unlock vast quantities of Texas natural gas." Texas is by far the country's leading fossil-fuel-producing state.

An Environmental Protection Agency statement earlier this month cited the same $45 billion in cost savings, without a detailed breakdown. "Americans must be able to afford to heat their homes in the winter and fill up their car and drive to work," said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin. "They can't do that when the people producing the energy are weighed down by unnecessary burdens." Read more Subscribers only US greenhouse gas emissions rise before Trump policies even kick in Trump is pushing ways of bringing down energy costs ahead of the midterms, amid voter anger over soaring oil costs caused by his war on Iran.

Polls show Republicans could lose control of Congress to the Democrats in next week's vote. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is the second-largest driver of global warming behind carbon dioxide, responsible for about a third, or 0.5°C, of total planetary warming since the pre-industrial era. A methane molecule traps far more heat than carbon dioxide, but it persists in the atmosphere for only seven to 12 years, whereas carbon dioxide can last for hundreds of years.

The United States is the world's leading emitter of methane from its oil and gas sector, followed by Russia, according to the International Energy Agency. Le Monde with AFP