EPA Reportedly Set To Rescind Obama-Era Methane Rules As White House Speeds Environmental Rollbacks Ahead Of Election

TOPLINE

The Wall Street Journal reports the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to finalize new rules this week rescinding Obama-era regulations of methane gas emissions for oil-and-gas producers, as the Trump administration continues its systematic rollback of environmental regulations—which is reportedly speeding up ahead of November before a Democratic administration potentially takes over.

KEY FACTS

Big Number

100: The number of environmental regulations the Trump administration has rolled back or is trying to roll back as of July 15, according to the Times, including 68 completed rollbacks and 32 still in progress.

Chief Critic

Democrats and environmental activists have decried the proposed methane rule change since it was proposed, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer describing it in 2019 as a “dagger in the heart to preserve the planet.” “The Trump EPA is eager to give the oil and gas industry a free pass to keep leaking enormous amounts of climate pollution into the air,” David Doniger, senior strategic director of climate & clean energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit environmental organization, said in 2019. “We simply cannot protect our children and grandchildren from climate catastrophe if EPA lets this industry off scot-free.”

Key Background

The Trump administration’s sustained push against environmental and climate change regulations has included high-profile moves like withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord and rollbacks of vehicle emissions standards and regulations on wildlife, clean water and pesticides. President Donald Trump has repeatedly downplayed climate change and committed to tearing down government regulations, touting in a July speech that his administration had accomplished “the most dramatic regulatory relief campaign in American history by far.” Those deregulation efforts have only ramped up amid the coronavirus pandemic: In addition to the agency’s reported push to ram through rollbacks ahead of November, the EPA also used the pandemic to further relax rules on power plants and other facilities, which allow facilities to monitor themselves—rather than being held accountable by the EPA—and remove the threat of fines for violating reporting requirements. The EPA’s actions during the pandemic have been widely criticized by environmental activists and former EPA officials, with Natural Resources Defense Council president Gina McCarthy telling the Times the relaxed rules gave companies “an open license to pollute.” “This brazen directive is nothing short of an abject abdication of the E.P.A. mission to protect our well being,” McCarthy, who led the EPA under Obama, told the Times.

Further Reading

EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas (Wall Street Journal)

Coronavirus Doesn’t Slow Trump’s Regulatory Rollbacks (New York Times)

The Trump Administration Is Reversing 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List. (New York Times)

Critics rail against Trump’s methane proposal as an ‘unconscionable assault on environment’ (CNBC)