Environmental safeguards should remain

Straight out of the “If Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It” playbook of unnecessary tinkering the U.S. Congress has produced this spring comes a resolution that would effectively roll back common-sense environmental safeguards, threaten public health and encourage

House Resolution 36, the Congressional Review Act Resolution of Disapproval of the Bureau of Land Management’s Methane and Waste Prevention Rule, won narrow approval in the House of Representatives in February . ...

HR 36 would cancel the BLM’s rule implemented last year during the administration of former President Barack Obama that aims to lessen the amount of flaring, venting and other leaking of methane gas on publicly owned lands by the oil and gas industry . ...

... Methane, the colorless, odorless greenhouse gas that is the prime component of natural gas, is 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere.

From a public health perspective, the danger of the gas looms large as well.

Methane pollution from drilling in the oil and gas industry on public and tribal lands - including the massive Wayne National Forest in Ohio’s Appalachian region brings with it other toxic air pollutants that contribute to smog and sickness.

... The BLM estimates that natural gas valued at $454 million was vented, flared or otherwise wasted in 2014 on federal and tribal lands. That represents a whopping $56 million in tax revenue never realized . ...

Collectively, HR 36 produces little more than misguided energy, environmental and economic policy.

While industry opponents argue that the more stringent anti-pollution rules will cost it jobs and growth, reality suggests otherwise . ...