This Stuff Is So Easy To Miss -- Thank Goodness For Twitter -- December 8, 2017

From Argue Media today: the United States under Trump suspends federal flaring restrictions until 2019. Wow. So many story lines, but right now, the data points:

• the rule would have required oil and gas producers on federal land to limit flaring and methane leaks starting a month from now (specifically, January 17, 2018)
• the US BLM said it was delaying compliance -- stating the rule would create a particular burden to marginal wells and threaten their economic viability

This following is true. We saw this phenomenon during the Bakken boom:

US producers sometimes flare natural gas so they can maximize production of more valuable oil, particularly in booming shale areas where gathering pipelines either do not exist or at full capacity.

Producers also sometimes lose natural gas directly into the atmosphere if they lack leak detection programs or install high-emission equipment.

It seems that some states, like North Dakota, have a pretty good handle on this.

The BLM was not only concerned about the economic viability of marginal wells, but like so many Obama-era rules, it was thought by the BLM that this rule would not "stand up to judicial review."

After that, a lot of global warming nonsense, as if one can monetize CO2 emissions affect on global warming. Especially since there is no correlation.