Why are the Feds, not to mention Pennsylvania, so busy trying to reduce methane emissions with over-the-top regulations when markets are already doing it?

This past month, the Interior Department proposed delaying the implementation of the Methane and Waste Prevention Rule. The purpose of the rule is to limit the amount of methane that oil and natural gas producers may release or burn off as part of their production on public lands. According to some estimates, the rule would cost $279 million a year and block more than 800,000 jobs by 2020.

The decision to review this costly regulation has been met with the usual animosity in Washington: politicians have drafted a letter condemning the decision and anti-fossil fuel groups are challenging it in the courts. But why are so many people interested in saving a regulation that will have such a negligible impact on reducing carbon emissions?

Seeking to appease various interest groups, politicians have a strong incentive to adopt regulations, even when the costs of the regulation are much higher than its presumed benefits. Such is the case with the methane rule. What makes the adoption of these new methane regulations particularly onerous, however, is the fact that the market process is doing a great job of reducing methane emissions on its own.

Read more:

http://naturalgasnow.org/just-let-market-reduce-methane-emissions-crying-loud/