Happy Earth Day! And now we have a White House that cares about the environment

Happy Earth Day 2024, everyone! And at last we have a President and an Administration in DC that pays more than lip service to protecting the earth.

Just last week, the Interior Department finalized  two new rules to prioritize the environment — a new rule for a balanced management of America’s public lands and a final rule aimed at curbing methane leaks from oil and gas drilling on federal and tribal lands, its latest action to crack down on emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming.

Protecting land and water

The first new rule prioritizes the health of the lands and waters the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management oversees. Those consist of about 245 million acres, primarily in 12 western states. (1)

The new rule calls for protection of the land, restoration of the places that have been harmed in the past, and a promise to make informed decisions about future use based on “science, data, and Indigenous knowledge.” It “recognizes conservation as an essential component of public lands management, on equal footing with other multiple uses of these lands.”

Curbing methane leaks

Methane is a brutal greenhouse gas, much more efficient at containing heat than carbon dioxide. 

The Biden administration issued a final rule Wednesday aimed at curbing methane leaks from oil and gas drilling on federal and tribal lands, its latest action to crack down on emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming. (2)

The rule issued by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management will tighten limits on gas flaring on federal lands and require that energy companies improve methods to detect methane leaks that add to planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution. (3,4)

The action follows a more comprehensive methane-reduction plan announced by the Environmental Protection Agency in December. (5,6) The plan, announced at a global climate conference in the United Arab Emirates, targets emissions from existing oil and gas wells nationwide, rather than focusing only on new wells, as previous EPA regulations have done. It also regulates smaller wells that are now required to find and plug methane leaks. (7)

Links:

1. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-21-2024

2. https://apnews.com/article/methane-leaks-limits-fees-biden-climate-change-34217e0d7cda1f2ebf75a9eb032f2dc5

3. https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-finalizes-rule-reduce-oil-and-gas-waste-public-and-tribal-lands

4,. https://apnews.com/article/biden-pollution-oil-and-gas-industry-land-management-bureau-of-4eb550743d6aa06fdd1e5740158db259

5. https://apnews.com/article/methane-leaks-limits-fees-biden-climate-change-34217e0d7cda1f2ebf75a9eb032f2dc5

6. https://apnews.com/article/biden-methane-epa-climate-oil-gas-cop28-6d37e9da49944e9a8c0b08aeb3ddc73e

7. https://apnews.com/article/methane-leaks-limits-fees-biden-climate-change-34217e0d7cda1f2ebf75a9eb032f2dc5