[Washington 29th Reuters]-Trump US administration announced a plan to relax the methane gas emission regulations of the oil and gas industry introduced under the Obama administration on the 29th. Methane is one of the major greenhouse gases and has been criticized by environmental groups and institutional investors.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has relaxed the 2016 regulations on methane leaks from oil and gas drilling wells, pipelines, and storage facilities, allowing the energy industry to reach up to 123 million by 2025. It was estimated that the dollar cost could be saved.
The mitigation plan will be finalized after a public comment period. Environmental groups are ready to suing for prevention.
Wheeler EPA Secretary explained, “Remove unnecessary and redundant regulations from the oil and gas industry.”
The EPA will maintain 2012 regulations restricting emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and methane. EPA officials told reporters that methane emissions will decrease over the next few years due to regulations in 2012 and leakage measures in the energy industry.
Some energy giants, such as BP <BP.L> and ExxonMobil <XOM.N>, support strong emission regulations by the federal government, as more reliable regulations are desirable than rules that vary from state to state.
But EPA points out that the current regulations are costly for small and medium-sized energy companies.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) welcomed deregulation.
On the other hand, ICCR, which advocates corporate social responsibility and consists of 140 institutional investors such as religious organizations, pension funds, labor unions, etc., mitigation of methane emission regulations raises the threat of climate change and increases the risk of the entire economy. Connected and appealed to the energy industry to support current rules.