WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th September, 2018) The Trump administration is rescinding an Obama-era rule that reduces methane pollution for oil and gas facilities on public and private land, an unpublished regulation in the Federal Register revealed.
"The BLM [Bureau of Land Management] is rescinding the 2016 rule's novel requirements pertaining to waste minimization plans, gas-capture percentages, well drilling, well completion and related operations, pneumatic controllers, pneumatic diaphragm pumps, storage vessels, and leak detection and repair," the document said on Tuesday.
The Bureau of Land Management, under President Donald Trump's direction, reviewed and determined the rule had many provisions that would have added regulatory burdens that unnecessarily encumber energy production, constrain economic growth and prevent job creation, the document said.
After publishing the proposed regulation in the Federal Register, the US government will open a 60-day period for public comments before it goes into effect, according to the document.
In March 2017, Trump had ordered a sweeping review of regulations imposed under President Barack Obama, claiming that excessive costs imposed by bureaucratic rule-making helps explain a decade of sluggish US economic growth.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week its intent to roll back Obama-era limit methane emission standards in the oil and gas industry.
