News Releases
November 15, 2016
Barrasso Statement on BLM’s Final Venting and Flaring Rule
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) released the following statement on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) final rule regarding methane emissions from oil and gas operations on federal land and Indian land.
“The midnight regulations begin. Unwilling to listen to the message that the American people sent last week, the Obama administration continues down its destructive path. Today, it finalized an unnecessary rule that will only drive oil and natural gas jobs off federal land and out of the West.
“The Republican majority in Congress will not let this rule stand. We will work with President-elect Trump to revoke this rule either administratively or through the use of the Congressional Review Act.
“We will offer better ways to reduce natural gas flaring and venting on federal land, such as speeding up the permitting process for natural gas pipelines. More pipelines means additional jobs and less flaring. It also means more revenue, as it would help American natural gas producers ship their product to market. I look forward to working with the new Trump administration to make this commonsense solution a reality in the next Congress.”
Background:
On Feb. 9, 2015, Senator Barrasso introduced S. 411, the Natural Gas Gathering Enhancement Act. This bipartisan bill would, among other things, expedite the permitting process for natural gas gathering lines on federal land and Indian land.
Natural gas gathering lines are pipelines that collect unprocessed natural gas from oil and gas wells and ship it to a natural gas processing plant which separates the gases (e.g., methane, ethane, propane) from one another. Once processed, the gases are shipped by intrastate and interstate pipelines to market.
The bill is cosponsored by Senators Heitkamp (D-ND), Enzi (R-WY), and Hoeven (R-ND). Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives on March 25, 2015.
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