01.25.17

Stop the Republican Pro-Waste Agenda!

Support the BLM Methane Waste Rule!

Ranking Member Grijalva urges his Democratic colleagues to join him in supporting the BLM Methane Waste Rule:

Dear Colleague:

Whether you support increased drilling or not, we should all agree that oil and gas produced from public lands should be put to productive use, not simply frittered away. And yet, between 2009 and 2015, oil and gas companies on federal and Indian lands wasted roughly 462 billion cubic feet of natural gas – enough to supply about 6.2 million households for a year – through venting, flaring, and unrepaired leaks. This doesn’t just squander a valuable resource, it also cheats the American taxpayer out of the royalties they are due from the sale of that gas, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars a year.

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Methane Waste Rule is designed to go after this natural gas waste by requiring companies to capture as much as possible and either sell it or put it to good use. Not only does this preserve a precious resource and put money in the taxpayers’ pockets–to the tune of up to $100 million over ten years–cutting down on methane waste has additional benefits, such as reducing the amount of ground-level ozone that pollutes our air, and reducing the amount of carbon pollution that makes climate change worse.

Unfortunately, Congressional Republicans are currently preparing to kowtow to the oil and gas industry and repeal the BLM Methane Waste Rule through the Congressional Review Act (CRA). Like all CRA efforts, this ignores the tremendous benefits of the rule, the huge amount of public and industry input that went into its development, and the changes that BLM included in the final rule to accommodate industry concern. Using the CRA in this way could also potentially block efforts to reduce methane waste on public lands forever.

There is no reason to allow companies to waste natural gas just because it costs a little more to replace leaky equipment or get the gas to market. If it’s worth drilling on our precious public lands, then it’s worth insuring the oil and gas we produce is put to good use.

We urge you to oppose this Republican pro-waste agenda, and support the BLM Methane Waste Rule.

Sincerely,

Raúl Grijalva
Ranking Member
House Committee on Natural Resources

Alan Lowenthal
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources

Diana DeGette
Member of Congress

Jared Polis
Member of Congress

Jared Huffman
Member of Congress