While coal will almost certainly remain the favorite target of President Barack Obama, no one should be surprised by the administration’s announcement last week of a controversial plan to reduce methane emissions from the nation’s booming oil and natural gas industry.
That’s right. Obama and his politically charged Environmental Protection Agency are now going after the oil and natural gas industry. The EPA maintains that methane, which is a key component of natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas that is contributing to global warming, also more commonly known as climate change. The administration wants to reduce the emissions of heat-trapping methane from the oil and gas industry by 40 percent to 45 percent over the next decade.
Members of the region’s congressional delegation in Washington are correctly condemning this potential job-killing plan.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Obama’s proposal will raise heating costs, threaten jobs and make it difficult to move forward with the current natural gas boom we are seeing in West Virginia and other parts of the nation.
“More overreach from the EPA is the last thing we need right now,” Manchin said. “This administration has already taken an ax to our coal jobs, and now it is targeting our thriving natural gas industry, which has already made significant progress in reducing methane emissions. By overregulating natural gas production, these unnecessary EPA regulations will raise costs, threaten jobs and make it difficult for us to move forward on a very promising resource. As I always have, I will continue to fight these harmful EPA rules and promote an all-of-the-above energy policy so that we can continue to develop our natural resources, achieve energy independence and save good-paying jobs.”
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said natural gas producers have already taken steps to cut methane emissions by 38 percent since 2005 while increasing production through voluntary industry programs and innovations.
“EPA’s own data shows that methane emissions from natural gas drilling have gone down significantly over the last decade despite the rapid rise in production,” Capito said. “Yet, the administration continues its crusade against fossil fuels regardless of its own data and the threat to jobs and affordable energy for American families. Natural gas is a large and vital part of West Virginia’s economy, especially with our coal industry under attack. However, these new methane mandates threaten to impede natural gas development and job growth in the Mountain State. I will continue working with my colleagues to rein in the administration’s unrelenting overreach and strike a balance between protecting our environment and allowing states like West Virginia to seize the opportunity of our vast natural gas resources.”
Here in the coalfield counties, we’ve seen firsthand the great harm this administration has done to the Appalachian region through its war on coal. To think that Washington is now willing to launch a similar attack on the oil and natural gas industry is truly appalling.
But this administration has demonstrated a destructive job-killing pattern over the past six years when it comes to our nation’s most abundant fossil fuel. Just like coal, we can now expect an emerging war on oil and natural gas.
It would be prudent for Congress — and the Republican majority in Washington — to take immediate steps now to protect the nation’s oil and natural gas industry from this looming EPA attack.