“This purely political move by the Obama administration is a last ditch effort to save the president’s crumbling climate legacy,” Inhofe said. “BLM’s rule on methane and the oil and gas industry is unnecessary and duplicative. Congress has many tools with which to rescind this rule and I look forward to working with the incoming Trump Administration to ensure economic expansion prevails over misguided bureaucratic interference.”
Background:
On Oct. 27, Inhofe along with Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) sent a letter to Sally Jewell, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior requesting the Department clarify its role in the Interagency Working Group on Greenhouse Gases, which is responsible for developing social cost of methane estimates used to justify onerous regulations on the oil and gas industry, including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) methane rule.
On May 24, Inhofe sent two letters to Special Assistant to the President Dan Utech, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, and EPA Acting Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation Janet McCabe regarding the Obama Administration’s Strategy to Reduce Methane. One letter questioned the costs and benefits of EPA’s final methane rules for the oil and gas sector, specifically EPA’s use of the speculative social cost of methane metric used to provide the sole quantified benefits. The second letter questioned the EPA’s methane white papers, which the Agency cited as a basis for its climate change mandates on the oil and gas industry.
On May 20, Inhofe joined Sens. Vitter (R-La.), Bill Cassidy, MD (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and John Hoeven (R-N.D.), in a letter to EPA Administrator McCarthy regarding the Agency’s revised methane emission estimates in its 2016 Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
On May 12, Inhofe released a statement on EPA’s final methane regulations for new, modified, and reconstructed oil and gas systems.
On April 13, Inhofe joined Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and John Barrasso (R-Wy.) in sending a letter to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Howard Shelanski on the BLM’s proposed rule for waste prevention of methane emissions.
On April 13, Inhofe joined Lankford in sending a letter to the OIRA Administrator Howard Shelanski on the EPA’s social cost of methane estimates in its proposed rule for methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
On March 10, Inhofe released a statement after the Obama administration announced a pact with Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada, to reduce methane emissions from new and existing sources.
On Jan. 22, Inhofe released a statement after the BLM announcement proposing their new methane rule.
On Dec. 7, 2015, Inhofe sent a letter to Gina McCarthy, administrator of EPA, raising concerns over EPA’s application of the social cost of methane (SCM) in EPA’s proposed rule for methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
On Aug. 18, 2015, Inhofe released a statement on EPA’s proposed methane regulations to stifle the U.S. oil and gas industry.
On June 11, 2015, Inhofe led a group of Senate Republicans in a letter to President Obama opposing new federal mandates regulating methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector.
On February 12, 2015, Inhofe introduced S. 490, the Federal Land Freedom Act of 2015, which would give states the authority to establish programs to lease, permit, and regulate the development of all forms of energy resources, including renewables, on federal lands within their border.
