Oil and Gas Industry’s Mating Call Strikes a Sour Note Union of Concerned Scientists Laura Peterson Novembe 5, 2024 The U.S. oil and gas industry has sounded its mating call to the incoming Presidential administration with a policy wish list remarkable for its unabated pursuit of profits and defiance of climate science and economic trends. The American Petroleum Institute (API) released a “policy roadmap” addressed to President-elect Donald Trump on November 12 outlining five “actions” he can take to bolster their agenda. However, the “actions”—given euphemistic titles like “protect consumer choice”—actually aim to roll back science-based environmental protections in order to maximize already massive profits. The policy details within each action roughly correspond with recommendations in Project 2025, the infamous policy agenda penned in part bygures from the first Trump administration and supported by several anti-climate organizations. Here’s a breakdown of the roadmap’s requests along with an explanation of how they would roll back environmental progress
API’s anti-environment entreaties - Fight clean cars. API’s first policy proposal is repealing rules designed to support the shift to electrPump up gas. The second policy proposal is to reinstate permitting of liquified natural gas (LNG), also known as methane, a fossil fuel that is a potent source of global warming emissions. The Biden administration temporarily paused pending approvals for new LNG export authorizations in January 2024, citing the need to update the review process to best reflect impacts on climate, domestic energy prices, and health—especially as borne by frontline communities. The decision was spurred in part by the outcry over Calcasieu Pass 2, a proposed export terminal in Louisiana that would have entrenched even more fossil-fuel infrastructure on the Gulf Coast, an area already choked with it. API fumed (pun intended) over the announcement, even though the United States is already the world leader in LNG exports and is on track to double them by 2028. Reverse protections for public land and health.....The third policy proposal focuses on federal lands that API believes should be opened up to drilling, both onshore and offshore. It recomm ends repealing a Bureau of Land Management rule that would put conservation on equal footing with drilling and ranching as a legal use of public lands, in addition to adding more leasing opportunities from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s offshore leasing program. API markets these proposals as bolstering the country’s geopolitical strength. In reality, any effort by the world’s largest historical polluter to relentlessly expand fossil fuel production without regard for environmental and health impacts would undermine the nation’s leadership role.
But the most blatantly anti-climate demand in this area would repeal a Congressionally approved fee on every metric ton of methane that high-emitting oil and gas facilities produce above specific levels. The oil and gas industry is responsible for 30 percent of human-caused methane emissions. The Inflation Reduction Act provides $1 billion in financial and technical assistance specifically intended to help companies reduce methane emissions, which apparently wasn’t enough for an industry that has reaped record profits in the past three years. The request is just the latest tactic in API’s campaign of deflection and delay over methane regulation, which recently included filing a lawsuit to stop the fee. This is despite the claim in "API’s 2021 Climate Action Framework to “support cost-effective policies and direct regulation that achieve methane emission reductions.” Pump up gas. The second policy proposal is to reinstate permitting of liquified natural gas (LNG), also known as methane, a fossil fuel that is a potent source of global warming emissions. The Biden administration temporarily paused pending approvals for new LNG export authorizations in January 2024, citing the need to update the review process to best reflect impacts on climate, domestic energy prices, and health—especially as borne by frontline communities. The decision was spurred in part by the outcry over Calcasieu Pass 2, a proposed export terminal in Louisiana that would have entrenched even more fossil-fuel infrastructure on the Gulf Coast, an area already choked with it. API fumed (pun intended) over the announcement, even though the United States is already the world leader in LNG exports and is on track to double them by 2028.......read on https://blog.ucsusa.org/