Another Promise Kept: President Trump Still Cleaning up the Regulatory Mess Inherited from the Obama-Biden Administration
EPA’s Improvement of New Source Performance Standards for America’s natural gas and oil industry added to the growing list of presidential accomplishments.
WASHINGTON DC (August 13, 2020) – Today, Thomas Pyle, President of the American Energy Alliance, issued the following statement in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) two finalized rules updating air regulations for the domestic natural gas and oil industry, commonly known as the methane rule:
“President Trump’s EPA has taken another important step in curbing the regulatory excesses of the previous administration. Today’s actions by the EPA are a recognition that the Obama-Biden methane rule was duplicative, costly, and unnecessary. Cleaning up the 2016 methane mess will allow our independent natural gas and oil producers to continue to provide American families with the low-cost gasoline and clean burning electricity that powers our lives.
The numbers tell the story. From 1990 through 2015, a year before Obama-Biden methane rule was finalized, natural gas production in the U.S. went up by 55 percent, while methane emissions from natural gas production went down by 23 percent. Recent data on methane reductions for the Permian and Appalachian basins is even more dramatic and further proof that the hysteria from the green left and the media surrounding this rule is completely unwarranted.
The green left will pull from the same, tired playbook and claim that this is an environmental rollback and an attack on human health. Don’t fall for it. The reality is, they are upset that President Trump has taken another important step towards ensuring we have both a vibrant economy and a healthy environment. More importantly, it is a recognition that the free market is a more powerful driver of environmental progress than top down government control.”
According to the EPA, the two actions today will yield $750 to $850 million in net benefits over the period from 2021-2030, (7 percent and 3 percent discount rates, respectively) or an annualized equivalent of about $130 million a year. The volatile organic compounds (VOC) regulations for production and processing, which are the compounds that actually are harmful to air quality, will remain in place.
For more details on the impressive record of the natural gas and oil industry in both increasing production and reducing emissions, click here.
Additional Resources
- Methane Madness: An IER blog detailing the current state of emission declines
- Read both rules, additional fact sheets, and the Regulatory Impact Analysis for both actions
- EPA’s Proposed Air Rules Removing Expensive, Regulatory Duplication A ‘Smart Move’
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