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Page added on November 23, 2016
Trump eyes oil, natural gas regulations for repeal
President-elect Donald Trump announced in a video posted to YouTube November 21 that he planned to roll back some Obama administration regulations on the energy sector on his first day in office.
“On energy, I will cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy — including shale energy and clean coal — creating many millions of high-paying jobs,” Trump said. He also announced a plan to undo two regulations for every new regulation issued.
While Trump offered no specifics on the “restrictions” on his chopping block, analysts believe the incoming administration will likely target Department of Interior and Environmental Protection Agency regulations on methane emissions from oil and gas operations, hydraulic fracturing and possibly a new plan for drilling in federal waters.
“I think [Trump will] be able to do a lot, hopefully, and return that kind of oversight to states where it belongs,” Congressman Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican and top Trump energy advisor, told S&P Global Platts in a recent interview. “Some of that he can do, maybe, by simply eliminating certain rules or regulations or taking them back from the courts where they’re in limbo.”
To add to the pressure, House Republicans have warned the Obama administration against rushing through controversial regulations and have threatened to use Congressional Review Act resolutions to nix major rules that are finalized at the end of Obama’s term. Given that CRA procedures count back 60 legislative days, such actions potentially imperil a host of rules completed in recent months.
One contested regulation, finalized by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management on November 15, is aimed at curbing venting, flaring and leaking from oil and natural gas operations on federal lands. While the rule will become effective before Trump takes over the White House, the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the Western Energy Alliance, both industry groups, and at least two states, Wyoming and Montana, have filed lawsuits in federal court seeking to overturn it.
Analysts said it was unlikely that the Trump administration would fight to uphold a rule in federal court it also wanted to overturn.
It’s unlikely that the incoming administration would continue to fight an appeal of a federal judge’s ruling in June which overturned BLM’s rule that would have established new requirements for fracking on federal lands. The Obama administration has appealed that ruling in the 10th Circuit Court, but opening arguments are scheduled for January 17, just three days before Trump’s inauguration.
Similarly, 15 states, including Texas and North Dakota, and industry groups sued the EPA in August arguing that the agency’s methane emissions rule was unnecessary and costly for the oil and gas industry. The rule, which was finalized in May, sets new limits on methane emissions for new oil and gas infrastructure and is part of an Obama pledge to reduce US oil and gas methane emissions by 40% to 45% below 2012 levels by the year 2025. Arguments in these lawsuits have yet to be set with the courts.
Next step on methane could be sidelined
One effort seen as highly vulnerable is EPA’s next step in methane regulation. EPA sent out a request to industry for information, which was expected to be used in developing regulations limiting methane emissions from existing oil and gas rigs and wells. But that rule is unlikely to be proposed before Obama leaves office and is expected be cast aside by EPA under Trump.
Trump could also ease EPA’s efforts to reshape the Renewable Fuel Standard. Earlier this month, EPA said it planned to deny applications from refiners and their trade groups seeking to move the RFS’ point of obligations away from refiners and importers to further downstream.
Instead of denying the applications outright, however, the agency opened their proposed denial to a public comment period which will not conclude until after Obama leaves office, leaving the final decision up to the Trump administration.
In addition, the Trump administration may attempt to scrap the 2017-22 plan for US offshore oil and natural gas lease sales, which the Obama administration finalized last week. That plan allows 10 sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one for Alaska’s Cook Inlet, but removed originally proposed sales in US Arctic waters. The Trump administration could redo the plan to include sales in Arctic and other US waters, but the legal process to do so may last as long as three years.
Another obvious target by the next administration is the Clean Power Plan, which is overwhelmingly expected by industry and Washington observers to be overturned. The only question among those observers is the mechanism by which the Trump administration will be able to achieve this.
Debate centers around whether the rule will be struck down by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, when it acts late this year or early next, or whether EPA would need to go through a long and more complex rulemaking process to reverse the policy.
An easier target is the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s guidance for how agencies should consider greenhouse gas emissions as part of National Environmental Policy Act reviews. Because it is not a regulation, the guidance is considered straightforward to undo. It is closely watched by pipeline developers because litigation over projects has often focused on the scope of climate change calculations.
Pending pipeline safety rules, while facing pushback from industry, are less likely to be reversed given that they are needed to fulfill statutory mandates, although continued pressure over their outlines is expected. The IPAA said the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s major gas transmission safety rule is among its priorities, given that it would change the definition of gathering lines so that pipelines near the wellhead would fall under federal jurisdiction.
‘Midnight’ rules become targets on the Hill
Attention in Washington has turned over the last week to the flurry of regulations, proposals and policies the Obama administration is pushing out the door before the change in administrations.
House Republicans have pressed the administration not to act on controversial regulations in its waning days and have raised the prospect of using the Congressional Review Act at the start of next administration, when Obama is no longer there to veto such efforts.
The act allows Congress to quickly vote to shelve major rules finalized within 60 legislative days of the end of the session. While it’s not yet clear if the new Congress would follow through on that threat, it could potentially take up a series of CRA resolutions to undo contested rules.
One rule that could become ensnared in such efforts is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s pending regulation on position limits, which CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad has been seeking to finalize by the end of the year. Massad last week said the regulation is now pending before his fellow commissioners.
He has already received a letter from House Agriculture Chairman Michael Conaway, Republican-Texas, warning against him moving ahead. Failing to leave controversial rulemakings to Massad’s successor could add to compliance burdens and sow confusion for end-users, Conaway said.
Also potentially making the cut in terms of timing is EPA’s final rule for new and modified sources of methane emissions in the oil and gas sector, published in the Federal Registerin early June.
No doubt there are longer lists of rules and proposals circulating in Washington given the signals sent by the new administration.
The IPAA identified dozens of regulations it believes threaten the oil and gas industry. But rolling back the rules is a fairly complex matter, said Jeff Eshelman, a spokesman for the group.
“It would be over-simplified to say that President-elect Trump could simply sign orders to stop these regulations,” Eshelman said. “[A] large portion of the current regulatory regime is in litigation and have many intervenors … so there would have to be a settlement that goes through the courts with all the parties involved.”
21 Comments on "Trump eyes oil, natural gas regulations for repeal"
Dredd on Wed, 23rd Nov 2016 3:20 pm
Normalizing the abnormal is not without consequence (The Warming Science Commentariat – 11).
Apneaman on Wed, 23rd Nov 2016 9:00 pm
“I will cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy”
So US cancer extraction had it’s best 8 year run under liberal Obama’s job killing restrictions huh? And the export ban/restriction was dropped which the cancer industry was screaming about with their full court press propaganda and they got what they wanted. So what would have happened without these so called evil job killing restrictions? A million more energy jobs? Oh and it’s the restrictions fault Shell’s rig got smashed to shit during their little Arctic experiment. We seem to forget that arctic restrictions only came after that failure – political theater to score points with the tribe. I guess these restrictions completly dictate global oil markets too. I think gay marriage has slowed production too. No evidence, but better cancel it just in case.
Apneaman on Wed, 23rd Nov 2016 9:03 pm
Obama Admin Quietly Enables Oil and Gas Drilling on Public Lands and Waters, Weakens Endangered Species Act -September 29, 2016
http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/09/29/obama-admin-oil-gas-public-lands-waters-endangered-species-act
Apneaman on Wed, 23rd Nov 2016 9:10 pm
The greatest oil boom in this nation’s history has occurred during the tenure of self-proclaimed environmentalist Barack Obama.
“Under Obama, the steady drop in U.S. oil production which had occurred virtually unchecked since 1971 has been reversed. Crude oil production has risen every year of his administration. It has jumped 72% since he took office, producing about 3.6 million additional barrels a day during that time.
Oil production has grown so much that last summer the nation caught and passed Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer. Before Obama leaves office, domestic oil production could top the U.S. record set in 1970.”
http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/28/news/economy/obama-oil-boom/
The poor poor cancer industry. The biggest hard done by victims on the planet. They deserve a subsidy and a blow job as reparations for all the oppression they have suffered. All this right wing victimization make that hyper offended liberal university PC crowd look like hard core stoics.
Apneaman on Wed, 23rd Nov 2016 9:12 pm
November 15, 2016
Awash in Gasoline, U.S. Refiners Export Fuel at Record Pace
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-15/awash-in-gasoline-u-s-refiners-export-fuel-at-record-pace
Apneaman on Wed, 23rd Nov 2016 11:25 pm
Not even sworn in and super Daddy is revealing his plans for the little guy.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Like I told y’all star struck fanboys before, lube up, Daddys gonna fuck you big time.
Donald Trump’s Big Ethics Move Is to Replace Lobbyists With Former Lobbyists
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/22/trump-transition-lobbyists-2/
Trump’s tax plan: massive cuts for the 1% will usher ‘era of dynastic wealth’
More than eight million low-income and single-parent families will face sharp tax increases under Donald Trump exacerbating income inequality, experts warn
“On the eve of the election, Trump promised to “massively cut taxes for the middle class, the forgotten people, the forgotten men and women of this country, who built our country”. But independent expert analyses of Trump’s tax plan show that America’s millionaire and billionaire class will win big at the expense of struggling low- and middle-income people, who turned out in large numbers to help the real estate billionaire win the election.”
“The richest 1% will collect 47% of all the tax cuts – an average saving of $214,000.
The 0.1% – the 117,000 households with incomes of more than $3.7m – would receive an average 2017 tax cut of $1.3m, a nearly 19% drop in tax they were due to pay in 2016. The tax savings of the super-rich will increase further in future, with the 0.1%’s estimated 2025 tax bill to fall by $1.5m.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/23/trump-tax-plan-cuts-wealthy-low-income-inequality
Shortend on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 2:31 am
Ap, it gets better all the time….it can’t possibly get worse….least we forget
Since the beginning of 2010, more than 31% of the natural gas in the Bakken region has been burned off or flared. It was worth an estimated $1.4 billion.
In the third quarter of 2014, 30.3 billion cubic feet of gas in the region was flared.
Over 150 billion cubic meters, or 5.3 trillion cubic feet, get flared annually worldwide, or around $16 billion lost.
The 1.2 trillion cubic feet flared in Africa alone equal half the continent’s gas consumption. 70% of people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity and 80% still use open fires to cook and heat their homes.
But let’s not just pick on oil. Manure management generates 9% of methane emissions in the U.S. while landfills account for another 18%.
Flaring in Texas and North Dakota emit the equivalent amount of greenhouse gases as 500,000 cars.
Federal royalties lost due to flaring in 2013 in the U.S. came to around $30 million.
Permits to vent or flare gas on federal lands have risen 2400% in the last decade. (Royalties are not collected on gas considered “unavoidably lost” in the overall extraction process.)
EPA researchers estimated there were 195 manure/organics-based digesters in the U.S. but with the opportunity to erect 8,000. 500 plus landfills, meanwhile, flare gas. Like in solar, Germany is ahead of us in farm biogas
Seems there is no shortage of so called energy…is there?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkanellos/2015/01/29/the-mind-boggling-statistics-around-wasted-natural-gas/#6a79f8497e18
Future generations…if there are any able to think and write…will ask
“What on Earth were they doing?”
It is so apparent, it is unnoticed
Theedrich on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 3:26 am
At last, escape from the Swarthy One. The handwringing and gnashing of teeth by all the would-be ecolords will finally end. Bribery by Saudi Arabia will lessen, and the self-enriching, self-important EPA regulators will be stymied. The Marxist god seeking to achieve a workers’ paradise by “creative destruction” of the working class will be thrust down into the hell he comes from.
Of course, the international Sörös squid will publish all kinds of “studies” and “findings” predicting imminent global catastrophe (while it seeks to increase the tsunami of energy-hungry ThirdWorlders swamping Whiteland), but even that submarine vampire may be blocked, at least for a little while.
joe on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 6:33 am
This is the end of the white man t.d, Trump is a foil for white America, he will buy them off, he will ensure that Europe will not effectively resist islamisation, already the disgust people feel at Trump is going to stop French, German voters from feeling the rage they should feel at how their national homelands have treated as nothing but cowsheds by the elites, putting what they want, where they want. Do the elites even know what they want? Zombies to eat drink and be merry? Is that the great dream for humanity? They can appear to turn on immigrants now, the damage is done. 1,000,000 illegal migrants entered Europe last year, Merkel ordered he government not to resist, those people will all get EU passports, they will have all the same rights as any citizen, to marry, and divorce and marry again, then their relatives can come and their children and go to America. Its over. The next move is obvious, to destroy Arab dominance of Islam by focusing emergent European Islam on the destruction of Arab tribes and peace with Israel, once Europe controls the direction that a billion people pray to, who do you think will control the world? America? Oil and Islam and Catholicism controlled by the Vatican and Brussels. Seems far fetched, except look whos resisting, Russia, Turkey, eastern European countries. The EU is bent on toppling any country which opposes open borders, and they really thought the election of Hillary would seal the deal, until Trump, but he can be bought or his focus diverted to Mexico. The elites seek to enrich themselves and maintain their own position by creating a world where individuals persue their own ambitions as long as they do not interrupt the values of the majority. Even oppressive Islam is tolerated because it ensures that the lines of liberalism (a creation of the mind) is clearly defined, eventually even that will become obselete when a body of political european Islam can be created to supplant Arabist religion as it ultimately opposes the idealism of racial mixing and harmony. Trump cant resist these forces, he is just a man, and it would take generations maybe centuries to undo the harm inflicted on the cultural make-up of western society. Trump will be a cover and a focus of liberal revulsion to create a liberal counter movement which ensures that whites will violently demand their own destruction by protesting and voting this new society into existence , it will be of such a scale and organisation that it simply wont be resisted by anyone. The elites will sit back and watch while people integrate themselves with very little prompting. The key though (and the plans fatal weakeness) is that it requires an alternative to religion and a prevention of the influence of religious populism which they managed to achieve with western chrsitianity (which took about 200 years) but with Islam and the orient in general. Many illegal immigrants to Europe nowdays must feel much like the original settlers to America, they must think ‘holy shit, we can take these guys’. The elites cant see they are not founding a new society, they are just importing the failed states around them, but they cant see it, because they cant see how they could be wrong.
rockman on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 10:50 am
And worth repeating here: “So let us all stop f*cking around and wasting time on generalities. LOL. So everyone: let’s see a list of the specific oil/NG fed regs/policies that Presidernt-elect Trump should change “to roll back some Obama administration regulations.” Oh, BTW during President Bush’s two term offshore federal oil production decreased from about 1.56 mm bopd to 1.28 mm bopd. During President Obama’s terms it increased back to 1.65 mm bopd by Aug 2016 according to the EIA. And one bit of trivia: during President Obama’s time in office the OCS produced more oil (1.75 mm bopd) then during the term of any other POTUS. And let’s not forget that President Obama has offered more offshore acreage for lease to the industry at one time then any other POTUS in history. And also approved hundreds of GOM drill permits in addition to approving at least 14 majors offshore oil production facilities AFTER the worse US oil spill at Macondo. And that includes drilling permits in the same area as the BP blowout. Oh, almost forgot about the Shell Oil Arctic drill permits President Obama approved.
Of course he was also helpful to those coal mining companies that produce 40% of all US production that comes from those federal lands that President Obama has administered the last 8 years. President Obama was particularly helpful by having his departments fast track approval of the expansion of Texas coal export terminals. That was critical after local opposition delayed President Obama’s effort to build 3 new west coast coal export terminals. Now, for the first time in history, coal from federal leases is being trained to Texas and exported to foreign buyers.
And speaking of coal exports: the most coal ever exported in a single month happened during President Obama’s second term. From the EIA:
“Coal exports from the United States in March 2013 totaled 13.6 million short tons, nearly 0.9 million short tons above the previous monthly export peak in June 2012. EIA is projecting a third straight year of more than 100 million short tons of coal exports in 2013, following annual exports in 2011 of 107.3 million short tons and record annual exports in 2012 of 125.7 million short tons.”
Similar to his efforts to expedite the completion of the southern leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. This has eliminated the choke point in Cushing, OK, that was restricting production from the Canadian tar sands to Texas refineries.
Sorry, got side tracked. OK, let’s see that list of President Obama’s regs and policies that has held back US production (which increased at the highest rate in history during his presidency) that President-elect Trump will do away with.
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving, you turkeys. LOL.
Go Speed Racer on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 12:35 pm
Yeeee Hawww, Trump will make it legal to poison groundwater
by fracking. The farmer don’t need no clean drinking
water anyway. It was an unnecessary regulation.
Funny it was all those farmers voted for
Trump.
That proves they did not want clean drinking water.
Paint thinner and benzene sludge in your kitchen tap.
Yummy! Get to find out what it’s like to be 3rd world.
Satori on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 1:10 pm
more natural gas means cheaper natural gas
means less demand for coal
sorry coal miners
if you thought Obama’s “war on coal” was bad
ya ain’t seen nothing yet
Mark on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 2:05 pm
Deregulation won’t change the geology under the US of A nor will help with low prices. A lot of oil will stay in the ground until price improves,,,then it won’t be affordable by consumers….BAZINGA!
rockman on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 3:09 pm
Mark – For over 40 years I’ve been constantly amazed by all the folks who thought the words AND actions of the POTUS would have a significant effect on the energy dynamics. Not just geology but the commodity prices, economic growth cycles, foreign political policies, etc. I’m still amazed how many folks still buy the completely false theme that there has ever been an effective ban on exporting US oil. You would think the R’s would have come out hard against President Obama when he claimed he ended the ban last January. His own govt stat showed that more 150 million bbls of oil were exported from the US in the 12 months IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING his suspension of the “ban”.
If the public is so unaware of such obvious misinformation how can they be expected to understand the more subtle realities?
Apneaman on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 4:53 pm
Is climate change as bad as we thought? It’s worse.
“For some time, there have been rumblings in the scientific community that politicians, the media and reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are understating the degree to which the Earth is in trouble from climate change.
This could be seen as “soft” denial: a desire to avoid causing alarm to the general public by downplaying evidence of accelerating global warming and climate disruption — not to mention the increasingly dim prospects for reversing these trends. This “soft” denial is reinforced by the “hard” denial of far-right politicians and news outlets.”
-The worst-case scenario is apocalyptic
“How bad could it get? Scientists aren’t talking about complete human extinction, are they?
Sorry, but they are indeed.”
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2016/11/climate-change-bad-we-thought-its-worse
Apneaman on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 4:54 pm
At least five dead after floods, landslides hit New Caledonia
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-24/deadly-floods-in-new-caledonia/8052848
Apneaman on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 4:56 pm
Peru declares state of emergency over deadly forest fires
““The ferocity and speed of the fires took us by surprise,” said Joel Córdoba, chief at the Paigabamba protected forest in Cajamarca, one of the worst-affected regions.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/24/peru-forest-fires-state-of-emergency-drought
Apneaman on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 5:15 pm
Israel fires: Tens of thousands flee as fires hit Haifa
“About 80,000 people have been told to evacuate their homes as wildfires swept into Israel’s third largest city of Haifa.
The fires follow a two-month drought and are being fanned by strong winds in the north of the city.
Wildfires are also threatening homes near Jerusalem and in the West Bank.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38088651
Apneaman on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 6:06 pm
Record Losses as Global Warming Worsens
http://floodlist.com/climate/record-losses-global-warming-worsens
joe on Thu, 24th Nov 2016 10:29 pm
22% of great barrier reef gone in 18 months! Look, to be honest we should take the Guy Mcpherson view and to paraphrase the film title we should ‘stop worrying and learn to love climate change’, because theres probobly nothing we can do now to fix it.
DerHundIsltlos on Sun, 27th Nov 2016 1:20 am
Theedrich-
Although you and your Republican confederates may hate the “ecolords”, I take solace that an accelerated destruction of the natural world will hasten the extinction of the most pernicious life form to have ever existed.
Thank you and please keep up the good work.