Fossil fuel companies don’t have to clean up their methane emissions anymore
The EPA finalized the rule change this week after foreshadowing it for several months. (Environmental Protection Agency/)Jeremy Deaton writes for Nexus Media, a nonprofit climate change news service. You can follow him @deaton_jeremy. This story was published in partnership with Nexus Media.This year, levels of methane, a powerful heat-trapping gas, hit an all-time high, driven in large part by pollution leaking from gas pipelines and drilling sites. Plugging these leaks is cheap, has enormous upsides for the climate, and is widely supported by major players in the industry, which is why it’s striking that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA_ has decided to weaken an Obama-era regulation requiring oil and gas companies to deal with this problem.The agency announced its revised policy Friday, which will allow firms to avoid finding and plugging methane leaks. EPA chief Andrew Wheeler said the rule change will help smaller oil and gas companies that have...