The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving to further delay implementation of a rule that would limit the release of methane—a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to the warming of the planet.
In a notice of proposed rulemaking set to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, the agency is seeking to grant fossil fuel drilling industries a two-year reprieve from complying with the regulation.
The two-year delay would likely be followed by an action to completely eliminate the rule.
Approved in 2016 by the Obama administration, the regulations required to drillers and hydraulic fracturing operations on federal lands to retrofit their equipment to reduce methane leaks.
Methane is considered to be as much as 30-times more potent of a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Upon assuming office, President Trump ordered a review of Obama-era environmental regulations. He directed his EPA Chief, Scott Pruitt, to reexamine the methane rules with an eye on repealing them.
“The proposed stay discussed in this action,” the notice reads, “would provide the EPA sufficient time to propose, take public comment, and issue a final action” on the regulations.
Late last month, the agency granted a 90-day delay on the rule taking effect. The proposed two-year stall would begin once the 3-month stay ends.
The EPA informed interested parties that while it “intends to look broadly at the entire 2016 rule,” the agency is only seeking comment currently on the duration of the proposed stay and its impact.
This week’s maneuvering from the Trump administration follows a failed attempt on Capitol Hill to repeal the regulation.
Last month, Republicans tried to use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to kill the regulations—a tactic that would have only required a simple majority vote for passage. It was defeated, however, when three Republicans crossed party lines to vote against the repeal.
It marked the only time so far under the Trump Administration that a CRA resolution failed. Congressional Republicans had previously succeeded in passing 13 similar repeal bills.
After that failed vote, Sen. John Barasso (R-Wy.) told reporters that he would go directly to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to squash the methane regulation through the traditional rulemaking process.
