Methane restrictions should not be weakened

Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases, trapping heat in the atmosphere at a rate 25 times greater than carbon dioxide. Thus, it made sense, as part of curbing climate change, for the Obama White House to set rules requiring the oil and gas industry to restrict methane emissions, of which the industry as a whole is responsible for roughly one-third. Now, under President Trump, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has taken the shortsighted, and even dangerous, position of proposing to roll back the rules.

The EPA would do so by easing the requirements for monitoring and repair of drilling equipment. Under the current rules, drillers must perform leak inspections every six months and make any fixes within 30 days. The Trump proposal would set the inspections at once a year, and once every two years for low-producing wells. It would require repairs within 60 days . ...

The Obama White House attempted to provide American leadership, modest though the effort was. Now President Trump has proposed not just weakening the methane restrictions. He wants to ease the two other components of the climate change strategy put forward by his predecessor, reducing emissions from coal-fired power plants and improving the fuel-efficiency of cars and trucks.

Read the full editorial from the Akron Beacon Journal at bit.ly/2QzcOgi