Udall, Senate Democrats Urge Protection Of BLM Methane Waste Rule

Today, 24 Senate Democrats, led by U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), urged Senate leaders to defend the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Methane and Natural Gas Waste Prevention Rule, which protects air quality and prevents the waste of taxpayer-owned natural gas on federal and Tribal lands, by opposing efforts to dismantle it through the rarely used and extremely dangerous process set out in the Congressional Review Act. In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D. Wash.), the senators argued that dismantling the rule is a shortsighted and overly aggressive approach that would waste hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-owned natural gas resources each year — particularly New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming — risk public health, enrich entrenched corporations and yet stifle new industry growth. Additionally, federal law directs the BLM to require producers to use all reasonable precautions to prevent waste of oil or gas produced on public land, and a federal judge in Wyoming ruled last month the new methane rule is within the BLM’s authority...press release