and Interior Department would allow far more methane to leak from oil and gas drilling operations, environmentalists say. It would also double the amount of time a company could wait before repairing a methane leak from 30 to 60 days. On the Alaskan North Slope, where oil and gas companies contend that harsh weather makes it difficult to conduct inspections, such equipment would only have to be monitored annually. proposal would let energy companies operating in states that have their own state-level methane standards follow those standards instead of the federal ones. estimates that the proposed changes would save the oil and gas industry $484 million by the same year.

Source: New York Times September 10, 2018 21:22 UTC