Methane Pollution from the Oil & Gas Industry

I thank the Billings Gazette for the April 1 editorial opposing the proposed rollback of Bureau of Land Management’s methane and waste prevention rule, which provides critical protections against the unnecessary waste of natural gas which is owned by you, me and the entirety of the American public.

I would like to set the record straight on some of the untruths set forth by Ron Ness in his piece deriding the BLM methane waste prevention rule. First off, Ness says that the rule was a “last minute rule” passed by the Obama administration.

This is a creative play on words by Ness. Yes, the BLM rule was passed at the end of the Obama administration, but only after more than six years of study, four listening sessions, four public hearings and more than 300,000 public comments.

As a fourth generation Grand Valley native and local business owner, I believe in common sense and good business practices. As such, I see Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s proposed revision of the Bureau of Land Management’s methane waste prevention rule as a huge step backward in our advancement of drilling science and technology and a serious threat to both our environment and our national resources.