Interior secretary says companies should stop venting natural gas

A top Obama administration official on Tuesday criticized energy companies for burning and venting natural gas at oil wells, as the government readies rules to clamp down on the practice. "It's crazy to vent natural gas into the atmosphere when natural gas is a fuel that can produce electricity at a much lower carbon footprint than other sources like coal," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told reporters. "It is economical in some cases for companies to flare or vent natural gas ... because their target is oil." But, she added: "That is not OK." Jewell's comments come as the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management is drafting a plan to limit venting and flaring of natural gas on public lands managed by the agency. The bureau is expected to soon send the measure to the Office of Management and Budget for a required review, likely readying it for a formal proposal before international climate negotiations in Paris this December. "There is no reason we shouldn't be looking at capturing that valuable public resource, getting a royalty on that resource and using it in a more constructive way than just blowing it up into the atmosphere or burning it," Jewell told reporters at a roundtable organized by The Christian Science Monitor...more